| Q. Before we add our self catering accommodation |
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I have taken a look over your directory and it looks good and navigates
easily.
Before we agree to add our listing, I would like to know if your site
will be easily picked up by the search engines.
We have listed with a few sites in the past and been very disappointed
with the lack of response.
If we do decide to list, can we do it easily through your site?
.....................
It is very early days for the directory, and it will take time more than
anything, we would estimate around a year for it to get really running,
which will be around December 2006.
However, we are confident it will. We create websites for a living, full
time, this is the third for ourselves as a pose to a client, the first being
The Bed and Breakfast
Directory, and then target='_blank'>The E Camping Directory. We do sell ourselves on where
our clients rank in the search engines.
If you look for the tyre pressure for your car, or look for a transformer
manufacturer you will be looking at one of our clients sites.
The E Self Catering website is as search engine friendly as we can make it,
there are a couple of pages that could be tweaked a little better if it were
all done manually, but for ease of maintenance we have let this go.
We admit, you are unlikely to get many or maybe even any enquiries over the
early days, it will take that long for many search engines to index most of
the pages, and there is Google's new site filter to overcome; which is
predominantly a case of time.
But will it in the end? Yes, I think so. I think it is better than most,
it's easier to navigate, you don't have to search, though you can if you
wish, and every page will be found by the likes of Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.
Though you are unlikely to get enquiries early on, there is an advantage in
going on early, as your full page will have more relevance, more length of
time in the index than newer pages, more likely to come up in the results
straight in the search engines as a pose to the directory.
It is easy to add to the site, as easy as I can make it, and it is free ....
it is our interest to have as much accommodation as possible listed, and
then aim for a small percentage of them to find paying for the optional
extras, such as extra pictures, listing higher, having feedback / guest
comments, and recording enquiries is worth while.
We looked at more than fifty accommodation directories before starting work
on the site, and more since I've really finished the engine behind, and I
haven't found one that I think works better or is any more Search Engine
friendly.
There are improvements i have pencilled in, such as a wishlist for visitors,
larger pictures for the premium entries, etc. but these are better added
over time, this will have greater impact in the likes of Google. I would
also like to break say for example, New Zealand down into regions, but until
the numbers are higher it is to be avoided, there's no point having
thousands of pages with no content, better to have a few hundred with good
content.
I hate going to directories, clicking on say Africa > Sub Sahara > South
Africa > Pretoria and when I've finally got there it says "we have no
entries in this location" ... I've tried to avoid that, you will only ever
have links to places where at least one cottage, villa or apartment is
listed.
Will the E Self Catering Directory work? Yes, I believe so and I am quite
good at this, but I can only shorten the time it takes a little.
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