In our previous article, we touched upon the surface with some basic tips on how to optimize your website for increased search engine traffic on the internet.  This advice is valuable for any Bed & Breakfast or Hotel website to maximize your search engine potential.

Let’s consider another important attribute of your website, the TITLE tag.  This is the title of your homepage or other web pages.  The TITLE tag should always contain the primary keyword for your page.  Write each page around one primary keyword that relates directly to your property, or the subject or niche of the particular page.

For example, if your bed and breakfast is in California, your niche is “California bed and breakfast”.  Your title tag should include the name of your property and the term “California bed and breakfast.”  Need more specifics, consider a title tag that reads “ABC B&B, a California Bed and Breakfast.”

Each page must have one primary keyword, and it should be included in the Title tag for that page.  The Title tag does not appear in the body of the article, but in the HTML between the two HEAD tags in your html.

For each of your web pages, make sure to use Header tags (<H1>, <H2>, etc.), and use them wisely.  These are heading tags, with <H1> being the most important.  The heading for each main section in your page should be contained within <H1> tags, and often times, each page will only have one set of these tags.  Subheadings, containing secondary keywords, should be contained within <H2> tags, and so on.  So, for example, if you have a page describing Fall Foliage Packages, include a header tag as follows:  <H1>Fall Foliage Packages at ABC B&B</H1>.  After an introduction to your Fall Foliage packages, you may then have subheaders such as <H2>Fall Foliage Weekends</H2>, etc.

Another important feature for your hotel or B&B website is the ALT attribute. Use ‘Alt = ‘ within the Img tags of your images and graphics. This lets the search engines know what the graphic or photo is about.  Search engines do not read graphics, and the Alt attribute presents you with the opportunity to use your graphics meaningfully to enhance your SEO web design.  Remember to use your primary keywords throughout the Header tags and ALT attributes on your page.

That’s not all you have to worry about regarding HTML tags, but if you get these few tags and attributes right, you’ll be 80%-90% on track for your SEO web design.  Beyond this, consider text formatting.  Your text formatting can be used to emphasize to search engines what the important text on your page is. So, if you use bold text, underscoring or italics, these can indicate the important words and phrases on your page.  Use <STRONG> and <U> html tags in your headings and elsewhere where you wish to emphasize certain keywords.

Finally, remember to write naturally.  Don’t worry too much about your keyword density (KD), other than having too much.  Keyword density is the frequency on your page of your important keywords.  Too high a KD could harm you if Google thinks you are making unnecessary use of them.  This is often referred to as search engine spamming.  So, the basic rule is to write naturally, as you would for human readers, and not robots.  If your text reads well and includes a clear message on what your subject is about, then your page should automatically gravitate towards optimum keyword density.  Another way to approach natural writing is to ignore keyword density altogether, and simply include your important keywords in title and header tags, as described above.

Contact BedBreakfastTraveler.com or Instant World Booking for more on how to market your bed and breakfast, inn, or small hotel on the internet.

As owner or manager of a small hotel or B&B, your website is an important part of your marketing strategy.  But if you’re like most small business owners, web design is not your expertise.  Here are a few tips on how you can increase the productivity and traffic of your website, with some minimal effort.  And, you don’t need to turn yourself into a web tech expert.  Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is a skill that can be learned.  There are many ways for most novice website managers to get improved search engine rankings, and secure a high search engine listing.

Linking is an important part of your SEO strategy.  You want to get as many independent, 3^rd party websites to link to your site as possible.  Sites of any type linking to you are beneficial, but the more authoritative and respected sites are preferred.  While linking is important, good on-site SEO is also necessary.

Obtaining a good listing on Google or any of the other search engines is not as difficult as some consulting firms may tell you. There are rules and standards to follow, and if you play the game properly then the end outcome should be in your favor.  The tips we’ll offer are not really secrets.  Some consultants who offer their services for a price offer to divulge incredible secrets to you.  But, this information is available freely on the internet, and for free.  You might want to spend a little time reading some Web SEO or SEM (Search Engine Marketing) Blogs.  Just type “Web SEO techniques” into your search engine search bar.

So here are some so-called “secret” tips on getting an excellent position for your website in Google, and improving your search engine ranking.  You may know about meta tags, and have been informed that most meta tags aren’t used by search engines.  The most important search engines, Google, Yahoo, and MSN Live do not divulge all there search listing methods.  They withhold a lot of their ranking methods as secret.  After all, they don’t want to let each other know how they do their magic.  Nevertheless, don’t let anyone tell you that many top search engines do not use meta tags like the Description tag, because they do.  It is very important for your B&B, inn, or hotel website to have a well written and complete description meta tag.  This tag may not be used in its entirety, however, what you write here will definitely have an impact.

The keyword meta tag is another feature that has been in use since the humble beginnings of the internet 15 or more years ago.  The most authoritative search engines like Google won’t be so impressed by what you tell them your keywords are.  After all, anyone can post a list of their most important keywords.  However, they decide for themselves the relevance of the page from the real content text and “Alt” tags on the page.  Google no longer seeks keyword repetition to understand what you are writing about.  They have an algorithm called LSI, which will determine the meaning of your page from various unique character strings it contains.

To maximize the potential for your hotel or bed & breakfast website to reach top rankings in search engine listings, the Description meta tag is important.  But, there are some other HTML tags you should use.  Although little used, the Keywords meta tag should not be ignored.  It is a trivial matter to enter it, and cannot do any harm. There is evidence that some search engines still use it. The rest of the meta tags are of no consequence.

We’ve only touched upon the surface with some basic tips, including on-site SEO using Meta tags.  Stay tuned for our next article, which will include other important HTML tags you should be focusing on in your B&B Hotel website to maximize your search engine potential.

Contact BedBreakfastTraveler.com or Instant World Booking for more on how to market your bed and breakfast, inn, or small hotel on the internet.