Tech Updates

Top 10 Tips On How To Effectively Use SEO For Your Lodgify Site

Once you’ve created and built your easy to use Lodgify website you’re ready to start moving on to the next port of call and get your site seen by those who want to see your rental accommodations.

The easy to use templates of Lodgify are a great place to start but there are still some actions you can take to make sure that the holiday rental site being seen by potential customers is yours.

Make your way through our top 10 list of SEO tricks to help get your Lodgify site to where it needs to be.

Get a custom domain name

Find a name for your business that is memorable and easy to spell, then use it. This brand name should be the anchor for your Lodgify site so when customers are searching for your properties they will search for your name.

Having your brand name as your domain name is crucial to boosting the SEO of your site to make this one of the first things you do to start personalising your site.

If you subscribe to Lodgify you can get a domain name included. To obtain your own domain through Lodgify, log into your account and go to:

  • Menu
  • My Websites
  • Settings
  • Domain tab
  • Click on “Register free domain” then follow the steps on screen.

Register with Google Search Console

Register your site on Google Search Console with and without the www. in the name of your website.

This online program helps you to maintain the presence of your site online and make changes to boost your performance in the search results of Google.

Registering your site is easy and straightforward, verifying your site is the next stage which is also relatively fast.

Submit your sitemap

Google is just a computer so you need to tell it what it’s looking at. This is what a sitemap does.

The file of a sitemap tells computers how your site is linked and organised so the computers can make sense of your application.

Lodgify creates the sitemap on your behalf so all you need to do is submit the XML file. Your SEO will thank you for it.

Adjust the page titles

Much like the domain name, the page names on your site need to make sense and draw attention.

Using keywords that customers look for, plus your brand name will help customers find the content they’re looking for and help boost your rankings in Google searches.

These titles are visible everywhere so they need to be clear and concise about what they have to display to viewers.

A good template for page names is – primary keyword / secondary keyword/brand name.

To alter your page names on Lodgify use this process:

  • Go to Menu
  • My Websites
  • Choose the website to amend, click Edit and then Pages
  • On the left navigation bar, click Settings which appears when you hover over the Pages list.
  • On the next screen, add your Title and Link Text for each of the pages of your website, click Save.

Use Headings

Headings help to identify what a page is about. Using H1 when typing headings on your page create an easy skimmable look at what your content is telling viewers.

Only 1 H1 heading should be used on each page but H2 headings ( or subheadings ) can help to add structure to the page of content. Using keywords in the H2 headings can help your SEO for your Lodgify site as those words will be commonly used by customers searching for your rental website.

To apply some H tags on to your Lodgify site, head to your website Pages and then on the Home page press “Add New Widget” and choose “Heading”.

Having these headings will aid computers to not only understand what the pages are about but also pick out those headings to show to possible customers.

Label your photos

Photos speak thousands of words and are absolutely crucial in helping you to get new customers for your holiday rental business. Just uploading the images onto your site is not enough to give your images their full potential.

Each photo will have its own file name which usually consists of a string of numbers. This means absolutely nothing to Google or your potential customers. Or to you for that matter.

To give your images the best chance you need to add meta tags which describe what the image is. Adding keywords here is useful as the images can also pop up when a customer makes a relevant search.

Adding meta information

Meta descriptions help viewers to tell whether or not the content being shown to them is relevant to what they are looking for. Adding a short sentence or two describing the page, with keywords, helps to direct customers in the right direction.

One argument today is that by encouraging people to click through to your website can help your rankings on search engines such as Google, which in turn helps to increase the visibility of your business.

A useful element to include in your meta descriptions is a call to action. To add meta keywords and descriptions on your Lodgify website, head to My Website, then Pages and click the Settings icon.

Include custom content

Having a blog on your website is a great way to integrate keywords onto your holiday rental website.

Creating custom content that matches your brand and product is key to boosting your SEO performance and reach even more potential customers online.

Although Lodgify don’t currently have a blog function for websites there are many options around which are free and can be linked up to your Lodgify website.

Internal linking is the way forward

Bounce rates are never good for a website. If a visitor arrives at your site and then leaves this is a bounce. Once you have attracted a visitor onto your website you need to hold their attention.

This is done by adding internal links. Make life really easy for the viewer and give them everything they need to know at the touch of a button. Linking to other relevant information will encourage viewers to stay on your site for longer and make them more likely to return or ultimately make a booking with you.

Adding internal links to your Lodgify site is easy. While editing a content widget click on the Link symbol and then choose Insert Link.

Contact through the footer

Make contact easy for your new customers. The footer will appear on every page of your website so having your contact details here will mean your customers won’t need to search through your website to find a way to contact you. This, in particular, is a good indicator to Google for local traffic.

Head over to ClickSlice to get started!