All About Google

Three Important Things to Know About Google:

1. Google wants the best webpage to come up #1
2. Google is building a profile of you business
3. Google has different algorithms for different searches.

10 Different Google Algorithms

1. The original algorithm.
2. Local Search kicks in for searches with local qualifiers.
3. Google BlogSearch searches websites with RSS feeds.
4. Google Base searches a user-created database.
5. Google Calendar searches for local events.
6. Google Image searches images.
7. Google Video searches Videos at Google Video and Youtube
8. Google Mobile is for people with handhelds and cell phones
9. Google Adwords integrates pay-per-click and newer pay-per-action ads.
10. Google News searches news feeds... you must have real news to apply.

5 Strategies for coming up #1:

"Supplemental Index" Strategy: the Google Supplemental Index is like the "minor leagues" in Google. Be aware of how many pages you have in it and your percentage of overall pages in it.

• Example. Search One shows a site with 68 pages and Search Two shows that 30 pages are in the supplemental index.
• Develop a strategy to get pages moved from the supplemental to the main index, and reduce your "supplemental hell." Don't expect 100%!

IP Address Strategy: According to recent research, 3% of websites have dedicated IP addresses, yet, 90% of the top placing websites have dedicated IP addresses.

Unique Content Strategy: Every page on your website should have "unique content" with a matching (and unique) Title and Meta Description.

Google Sitemap Strategy: The XML sitemap feature is available at Google Webmaster's Central

404 Redirect Strategy: Setup 404 Redirects to capture more traffic.

Definition of the Social Internet for Tourism Industry

The Social Internet is called many things:

• Web 2.0
• Travel 2.0
• UGC (User Generated Content)
• Social Internet
• Online Word-of-Mouth
• CMG (Community Generated Media)

In its essence, it is the consumers of your products (Travelers) shaping your brand with their own authentic content (like reviews, photos and videos). They are sharing their experience which builds on, supplants, and even transcends your own attempts at corporate branding.

New Social Internet Offers 4 core advantages:

• Free Advertising
• Helps in organic Search Engine Placement
• Important community that shapes public opinion
• Available to both consumers AND business owners

The New Social Internet has 4 core disadvantages:

• It can permanently damage your reputation
• Is impossible to control
• Its sheer size makes it difficult to manipulate
• Most tourism operators don't understand it
  

Reputation Management: Online Travel Reviews

“Ehotelier“Only 38% of American travelers read professionally written reviews, for example, while one in three reads traveler reviews of destinations, and two in three read travelers’ hotel reviews.”

• Tripadvisor gets 20 Million Unique Visitors a month
• Review Site Strategy is SEO strategy!

Examples:

• Reviews as SEO Strategy: Grand America Salt Lake City Note: 8 of the top 10 have reviews.
• Tripadvisor Grand America Page
• Destination Example: Glenwood Springs in Yahoo Travel

Tip:

• Use Google Alerts to monitor your reputation
• Embed RSS feeds into your website (or homepage to monitor)

brought to you by

Reviews of Grand America Hotel

Reviews in other languages:

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Blogs, Blogging and the Blogosphere

Corporate Blogging: Blogs are Content Management Systems with enormous benefits

• Empower people in your organization to create and maintain content on your website
• Increase Traffic and improve Search Engine Results.
• Adds Interactivity to your website and creates community with your guests.
• Should look, feel and act "professional"

Examples:

• Mountain Property Management: An entire website that is a blog. Can you tell?
• Home Ranch: A blog integrated into a website. Can you tell?
• Rusty Parrot: A blog used to supplement a website to provide local information and media room.
  

Blog Content can be syndicated... it can be pulled into your website, or, others can pull your content into theirs.

Blogosphere: There are over 70 Million Blogs. People are out there talking about you and your destination. What is your strategy?

Check out sites like travelpod.com (an example of a travel blog portal), Park City Mountain Resort Blog (a blog sponsored by a ski area), Retire to St. George (in a senior-focused blog)

Tips:

• Learn how to recognize, search and monitor RSS feeds. Technorati or Google Blogsearch
  

Video Sharing

Video Sharing Sites are a fast growing segment of the Social Internet.

YouTube shows over 100 Million videos a day and was recently purchased by Google for over $1.5 Billion

YouTube and Google Video are the Leaders

Other Video Sites





Tips:

• Make Compelling authentic videos.
• Post to multiple sites and optimize listings
• Put other people's videos on your website.

Wikis

Wiki started as "democratic content management systems" that let consumers create and collaborate on content.

Opportunity: there are many Wikis out there that will permit you to create content about your hotel, community, or area.

• Wikitravel
• Wikipedia
• World66
• Tripadvisor "Insider Pages"

Photo Sharing

Photo Sharing Websites are becoming more community oriented. With new "tags", descriptions, linking, and searchability, these sites can also sway public opinion.

Opportunity: Does your business or CVB have a lot of good photography? Sharing it will add value.

Flickr and Buzznet are two sites worth checking out, there are many more.

Check out the Utah PhotoSharing Groups. Shared photos can easily be imported into your website.

Here is one I like:

A Tin Can With A View, originally uploaded by cuibel.

Google Mapping

Use Google Maps to create fun, easy and interactive maps for your website.

Consider using Community Walk, an application to build better Google maps. Search Engine Results Benefit!

Example Embedded into a website

Google Earth is the dynamic 3D version of Google Maps. Community Walk creates Google Earth maps. Here is an Uploaded Version (You have to have Google Earth installed)
CommunityWalk Map - Glenwood Springs Dining and Restaurants

Greetings From Utah!

Greetings From Utah!, originally uploaded by theorem.

Welcome to Vernal. It is easy to blog your photos from Flickr to your blog.

Wildfire Sunset

Wildfire Sunset, originally uploaded by heyitsme_23.