Internet Marketing for Tourism

Here is my short and sweet summary of advice for the New Year, based on  http://blogs.mediapost.com/search_insider/?p=691

Title development: Develop unique keyword-relevant titles for all relevant site pages -- whether it's 10 or 10,000.  These are the <title> tag elements that appear above the address bar, not the on page Headlines.

Content strategy: How are you going to deliver relevant content to your ideal guest? Consider rounding up all your audio, video, text (pdf's, press releases), image digital assets and identify your resources for securing more of them.

Copywriting and content refresh: Adding one word or phrase in the right place can increase visibility for a particular keyword.   Review one page a week and tweek for a desired keyword phrase.

Find Lost pages: Set up permanent redirects to make it easier for the engines to find the "real" URL in cases where pages have been moved or removed from your site. 

Assess your current search performance: Review and record your current search status for your desired keyword combinations so you can benchmark future performance.

Optimize PDFs: Make your PDF documents search-friendly.

Optimize press releases: Optimize everything!

Link development and directory submission: Understand who links to you with a site like linkpopularity.com, tweak existing links, seek new links, and make sure your site is in important directories, such as DMOZ, Yahoo. Brainstorm how to get people to want to link to your site -- without even asking them. 

Feed submission: Research your existing feeds everywhere you post content online. Develop a strategy for encouraging Feed Subscription as an important call to action and link to search engines.

Analytics: Try out and upload a site map.  See the links in this blog for sitemaps to learn more.

Meta tag development: Spend some time and tweak your site's meta keyword and description tags to be unique and relevant. Remember, Description tags are like your business card.

Make sure your images tell your keyword story: Check those alt tags and make sure you have html content.  Keep flash in perspective.

Conduct research to better understand your target customer: Take time to complete the Keyword Lesson.

Assess your company's strategy for Web page content: Consider revising your site map to have a structure based on what your ideal guest is searching for vs. what you want to say!