If you find yourself stuck and unable to get the word out about your property management company, there is a solution! Search Engine Optimization can help you reach new homeowners, improve your reservation rates, and get your name in front of people around the world, just looking for the perfect company for their needs. Though time-consuming and expensive, a quality SEO campaign can improve your site traffic exponentially, all while ensuring that traffic has a high potential of converting. It is a truly powerful tool that very few utilize to the best of its potential, particularly in the property management world. If you’re interested in harnessing the power of SEO and tapping its potential, here is a small intro to the world of SEO, and the segments you must conquer to reach the top of the search engine ranking pages.
Organic SEO
The organic search engine results are the main segment of Google, Bing, etc., and are thus very familiar to most who have used a search engine before; however, what is not obvious is how one can target these results when attempting to market their property management company. This is where on-site and off-site optimization come into play. Properly managing these components can result in you getting your website onto the first page for the most highly converting keyword terms on the web; however, it is not as it might seem.
On-site optimization is, essentially, the portion of SEO that you can directly control. Made up of Keyword Research, meta data compilation, content, and plain old website design, on-site optimization refers to the web developers attempt to create an authoritative and user-friendly user-journey, so people who visit your site find what they are looking for and find it without technical difficulty. Using these segments, you can determine what keywords are the most popularly searched on the web, and then use them throughout your site (in content, meta-data, and other places). This will allow you to begin naturally ranking for these terms, which—for property managers and vacation rental owners—will most often include “vacation rentals in [target location]” or “property management in [target location]”. It is also exceedingly important to deal with things such as large number of 404 errors, site speed, and other technical issues that your site may have, so Google knows you are a good site and people can actually reach the information on your page!
Local SEO
However, though utilizing on-site SEO is integral to any online marketing campaign, the normal organic rankings can oftentimes be too difficult for smaller sites to rank well in—particularly if they are in a very competitive area. This is where local SEO can come into play. You see, though the organic rankings are indeed powerful, the local rankings are actually located above the organic entries, and can help location based businesses—even those with small budgets—get their name out in front of the millions of searchers online. Here’s what you need to do in order to get ranked in Google’s local rankings.
• Create a Google My Business Profile: The only way you can be included in the Local Rankings is if you create and optimize your Google My Business profile. You can do so here.
• Manage all NAP Citation Data: NAP (Name Address Phone Number) citation data is how Google determines exactly where you are. Unfortunately, local citation directories all over the web will often create citation data for you, even if it’s wrong. In order to remedy this, use services like Yext to take control of all listings for your company online and simultaneously correct your NAP data. This will improve your chances of showing up in the local rankings
• Reputation Management: Getting reviews and a quality online reputation can be hard, which is exactly why Google maintains this as such a large signal for local and natural rankings. With that in mind, it’s extremely important to acquire real customer reviews (and to make sure those reviews are as high as possible). To do so, reach out to your customers regularly to see how happy they are, while also giving them the opportunity to voice their opinion in online review marketplaces (like Google Plus and Yelp). You can even use pre-qualification pages—such as the ones we offer at Bizcor—which determine whether or not your consumer is happy or angry BEFORE they post an angry review online! This helps improve the likelihood that you’re getting 5 star reviews, while dissuading those who have a legitimate gripe from posting their dissatisfaction online for all the world to see.
Even though the competition will still be difficult to get into the local rankings, Local SEO oftentimes makes it much easier for those on smaller budgets to compete with large, national corporations who are often left on the outside looking in. This makes local rankings a small property management company’s best friend when trying to move up the Search Engine Results Pages!
Pay Per Click Marketing
If you have aspirations to improve your site traffic and your homeowner numbers right away, Pay Per Click marketing may be for you. Though indeed time-consuming, PPC takes the guess work out of online marketing and will get a link to your page directly on to the top of the search engine rankings; however, that doesn’t mean you should just start throwing money at it and hope something sticks; here are some tips to keep in mind:
• Utilize Keyword Research: If you’ve created a keyword list for SEO, use those keywords in your paid search campaign as well! Oftentimes, these are the most converting keywords and they will work both ways
• Don’t Begin without Proper Research: Many property managers and vacation rental companies out there will try a PPC campaign, only to crash and burn before any returns come in. This is most-often the result of a lack of preparation for your campaign. Research all the top PPC guides on the web and make sure you know EXACTLY what you’re doing before you begin, or you could very quickly find your campaign under water.
• Be Ready to Spend some Money: You have to spend money to make money, so the old adage goes; unfortunately, this rings exceptionally true for PPC. PPC is not cheap; but, if you stick with it and work hard at it, it can make you a lot of money when all is said and done!
• Do Research or Hire a PPC Manager: Many companies start their PPC campaign then let it ride for months at a time. Don’t do this. Each click costs you money, and if you’re not paying attention, you could find your wallet quite short at the end of the month. PPC requires a TON of TLC, so make sure someone is cultivating and watching over it so you can get the homeowners out of it that you so desperately crave
Remarketing
When it comes to Online Marketing, the name of the game is target the most likely converting traffic the web has to offer. Well, remarketing provides exactly that! By targeting previous clients, people who have been to your site before and left, or even just those who signed up to your newsletter, you exponentially increase your chances of gaining a new homeowner or reservation; after all, these are the ones who showed interest in your company before! Fortunately, there are a few ways you can do this:
• Google Adwords Remarketing Tool: If you’re running a AdWords campaign, the Google AdWords remarketing tool allows you to send ads to users that visited your site, looked at a product or page, or otherwise showed interest in your site without converting.
• Email Lists: Keeping email lists of all your past clients can be a huge boon for remarketing. After all, many homeowners often leave and find that the grass was not greener on the other side; targeting these homeowners almost always has a very high conversion rate!
• Newsletters: Newsletters signees that haven’t converted into a reservation or property owner yet are the highest converting traffic you have. Contact them, and see what possibilities may arise!
Learn About Online Marketing with Us
Trust us; there are many tactics for homeowner acquisition and reservation improvement, but few work and even fewer will separate you from the rest of the companies out there. SEO, PPC, reputation management, and remarketing, if done right, will get your name in front of the right customers, and will help you do precisely what you have always wanted to do; bring in new customers. If you have questions, please contact us!