128.8 million Americans will research travel on the internet in 2015, according to eMarketer’s most recent forecast. That is approximately 63% of all US internet users. If you aren’t getting enough traffic to your vacation rental company’s website, you aren’t tapping into your most important resource. As the climate has drastically changed in the travel industry in terms of technology over the past few years, vacation rental companies must adjust their online marketing techniques to attract the droves of travelers now researching, booking and sharing online more than through any other outlet. Here are 3 reasons why your company’s website might not be getting the traffic you need.
You’re Not Mobile-Friendly
By now you’ve probably heard how important it is to have a mobile-friendly website, but many vacation rental companies still haven’t updated their sites to a mobile-responsive design yet, possibly because they don’t realize the direct correlation between mobile-friendliness and better search engine results. As of April 21, 2015, Google now uses mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal, significantly affecting a website’s search results. Whether or not your vacation rental website is mobile friendly can directly affect the organic traffic your website is receiving.
Meanwhile, mobile travel research and booking numbers are steadily increasing. Of the 106.3 million people expected to book their travel online this year, eMarketer predicts 31.6% will actually book directly from their mobile devices. If your website isn’t mobile friendly, it will show up lower in search results and you will miss out on the millions of people who are booking their vacations from their mobile devices.
You’re Not Sharing Blog Posts in Social Media
More than 74% of online adults use social networking sites. To attract this market, you must maintain a strong social media presence to guide users to your website. One great way to get your vacation rental company the social media exposure you need to drive more traffic to your website is by posting your company’s blog posts in your social media networks, such as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, and even Instagram.
After you’ve created killer blog posts containing alluring calls-to-action (CTA’s), posting them on your company’s social media platforms will create direct links to pages on your website. With helpful, informative content to grab the attention of your social media audience, you can re-route social media pursuers to your website, thus increasing your website traffic. And with intriguing CTA’s that offer valuable content on your blog posts, you can increase your traffic even more, driving visitors to landing pages and to more content offers. Catch your social media audience’s attention where they spend much of their time and lead them to your website through your blog posts.
You Don’t Use Email Marketing for Return Traffic
Website traffic doesn’t only consist of new visitors to your site, but returning traffic as well. If your online marketing strategy doesn’t include a way to reach out to visitors who have been to your vacation rental’s website before, you are not using valuable information to your advantage and your website traffic is probably suffering as a result. Use email marketing to reach out to previous website visitors after obtaining their information, such as email address or interest, via form on a landing page on your website. By sending them relevant content you will invite them back to your website and hopefully nurture them from a prospect into a lead and eventually into a valuable customer.
For more information, news and tips on improving the internet marketing for your vacation rental company, visit Paveya’s Vacation Rental Marketing Blog.
