Did you know that the vacation rental industry is growing nearly seven percent each year?
As the demand for short-term rentals increases, so does the supply. Now, more than ever, your company must stand out from your competitors to consistently secure bookings.
One of the most effective ways to draw attention to your vacation rentals is to promote your website. Fortunately, the following eight marketing strategies are proven to help keep your website visible, and your rentals booked year-round!
- Invest in Great Photos
High-quality photos are essential for your vacation rental company’s success. Travelers are drawn to the beautiful finishes and unique amenities that they can envision themselves using on vacation. Great images also highlight your property’s features that differ from other rentals in the area.
Hire a professional photographer to capture photos of your rental that are well-lit and highlight the best features of your property. You can use these photos to improve your website’s homepage and property pages, and you can also feature them on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
- Perform Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization (SEO), the practice of improving the relevance and amount of organic traffic to your website.
After completing keyword research using a tool like SEMrush, incorporate relevant, local keywords on your property pages and homepage, as well as in your meta descriptions, titles, and images. These keywords will make it easy for your ideal clients to find your vacation rental website (plus, organic traffic is free!).
- Utilize Social Media Channels
Social media is a helpful tool to promote your vacation rental website. If you haven’t already, create business pages on Instagram and Facebook for your properties, and upload professional images of your rentals, reviews from past clients, and guest photos.
You can use social media to invest in paid advertising that targets people who recently booked vacations or are from a specific geographic area. You can also organically expand your reach using hashtags.
However, it’s key to ensure that each of your platforms includes a link to your website, and your posts, promotions, and ads are directing people to your property pages where they can make a reservation.
- Create an Email List
While social media helps engage prospective guests, creating an email list is the best method to re-activate former guests.
If you aren’t already, allow your guests the option to opt-in to an email list when they book a stay at one of your properties. After their visit, you can send promotional emails that give them a discount on their second or third stay or give them a percentage off a future booking for referring a friend.
You can also use emails to draw attention to new properties, amenities, or renovations that may attract your past guests to visit your website and book another stay.
- Invest in Local SEO
Local SEO, the practice of optimizing your website around a local region, is essential for vacation rentals. Your vacation rental website should rank for keywords local to your area. In fact, 95-99% of the keywords you will use will have some form of local search intent.
Using local terms can help you rank in organic search results, and if you have Google My Business set-up (and you should!), you can show up in Google Vacation Rentals and Google Maps.
- Cultivate Great Reviews
Just like photos, the reviews on your website will influence the purchasing decisions of your future customers.
If you aren’t already, ask your guests to leave a rating or review after their stay on Google My Business. Your highly-rated rental will get more website traffic than one with poor reviews (or no reviews!).
You can also collect reviews that highlight your company’s excellent amenities, fabulous customer service, or convenient location to showcase on your website.
- Create Helpful Content
Another great way to promote your vacation rental website is to create and share helpful content that offers value to prospective clients, including local area guides, blog posts, and long-form content.
For example, if your vacation rental company is based in Denver, Colorado, you may write blog posts with keywords your potential guests are searching for, like “best breweries in Denver” or “best day trips from Denver.” At the end of the post, include a call to action that encourages people to book one of your vacation rentals for their trip.
You can promote these blog posts on Pinterest or Facebook and incorporate SEO keywords to help these posts rank organically on search engines.
- Exchange High-Quality Backlinks
Link building is the process of getting other reliable, relevant websites to link to your vacation rental website. These can include tourism boards, short-term rental associations, or even credible travel bloggers.
These links will direct people visiting these industry-specific websites to your website, and they also boost your SEO, which will help your vacation rental website rank better in search results.
Need to Give Your SEO a Boost?
It’s no secret a solid SEO strategy is crucial to promote your vacation rental effectively.
If you’re confused about where to start, use this SEO Guide by Magnetic Strategy to learn how to optimize your website and secure revenue for your business.
