Boost Your Online Presence by Utilizing Google to its Fullest Potential
December 21, 2020
Google is the world’s most popular search engine and continues to optimize and enhance the user experience with new features and products in an effort to remain the undisputed market leader in web search engines. Users go to Google with the intent to find quality results for their search so securing a ranking at the top of Google Search Results is critical for building your brand and long-term success in a very competitive market. Does your brand have the global reach it needs to attract millions of potential guests?
It’s no longer only tech-savvy travelers that plan their trips on Google. Travel behavior has seen a shift to online and the digital age is advancing at a rapid pace as a result. Millions of travelers around the world search for vacation accommodations online. The statistics show that 69% of travelers use a search engine and as of October 2020, Google remains the market leader with a market share of 88%. Are you utilizing Google to its fullest potential to reach this market?
Google is fast becoming a major player in the travel industry and a one-stop-shop for travelers to plan their vacation with valued travel combinations and a simplified booking process, on both mobile and desktop platforms. Vacation industry professionals need to be as tech-savvy as their guests and fully leverage the world’s most popular search engine.
How to Leverage the World’s Most Popular Search Engine
The full potential of Google can be leveraged with building your online presence and taking advantage of Google’s wide range of products, services, and online tools.
Stand Out Online
Expose travelers to your brand as much as possible. Know your market, be present where they are searching, and stand out online. A strong online presence begins with a direct booking website that allows you to engage with your guests directly, increase your visibility, and drive more direct bookings. Establish a streamlined yet flexible digital advertising and marketing plan (it’s 2020 anything could happen!), and a strong SEO strategy to ensure you have rich content, show up organically and stay as savvy as your guests.
Take Advantage of Google Vacation Rentals
Google began integrating vacation rentals into the hotel search function in early 2019, adding Google Vacation Rentals to their existing stand-alone travel products of Google Hotels Ads, Google Flights, Google Trips, and Google Things to Do.
Diversify your distribution and expand your global reach to millions of potential guests by connecting your property listings with Google Vacation Rentals. Most of the established OTA’s (Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Vacasa, HolidayLettings, Rentals United, Turnkey Vacation Rentals, Red Awning, Interhome) and metasearch engines (HomeToGo, Holidu) are approved channel partners and are already taking full advantage of this new vacation rental marketing channel.
Google delivers the user results and the call-to-action directs the guest to the partner site, channel manager, or OTA to complete the booking. Using a channel manager allows the property manager to utilize their own payment gateway, retain merchant record of status, implement internal policies and house rules, stay completely in control of the guest booking, and gain a new guest for repeat bookings.
Google is working with a handful of channel managers as trusted partners who are in turn integrating with the industry’s top software providers for easy integration and connection with the metasearch platform. Bluetent’s tool, Rezfusion Boost™, offers a direct connection to Google Vacation Rentals with added benefits that give you a competitive advantage.
Great Google Tools to Boost your Online Presence
Google has awesome tools available to build into your marketing plan and SEO strategy to boost your online presence, improve the performance of your website, and stay competitive in your vacation rental market. If you’re not making use of them, now is the time to start.
- Google My Business: Manage your online presence across Google with Google My Business.
- Google Analytics: Analyze your website data, check the performance of your marketing, and get insights that deliver results with Google Analytics.
- Google Data Studio: Turn your data into easy to read and sharable reports and interactive dashboards with this free Google tool.
- Google PageSpeed: Use Google’s PageSpeed tools to analyze and improve the speed of your website.
- Google Mobile-Friendly Test: Curious as to how mobile-friendly your website is? Simply enter the URL to see how your page scores.
- Google Alerts: Create an email alert for literally anything! If you want to hear what people are saying about your brand or looking for local news, set a Google alert straight to your inbox.
- Google Workspace: Remote working is on the rise. Google Workspace allows you to manage your documents, share calendars and documents, and get together as a team on video conferencing.
- Google Ads: Google Ads tailored set of campaign tools gets your brand in front of travelers and you only pay for results.
As we all continue to grow our way out of the Covid-19 crisis, securing your online presence and Google ranking boosts traveler confidence, building a solid online reputation builds trust, and boosting your bookings with a diverse online distribution grows your bottom line.
