You’ve spent countless hours preparing your homes for guests, getting your logo and brand in place and securing the vacation rental software you need to be an incredible host. In the midst of the madness, don’t forget about one of the most important elements of your business success: your website!
Think of your website as a digital representation of your brand. In many cases, it’s the first interaction guests will have with your company.
After you get the building blocks of your website in place during implementation (think logo and colors, property photos and descriptions), the next thing you should tackle is website content.
There are three main goals to keep in mind as you start writing.
1. Why should guests stay with you?
While there are likely other vacation rental companies in your market, there are no companies quite like yours. Your website is an opportunity to explain to guests why they should stay with you over your competitors.
When a potential guest lands on your homepage, what do they see? You likely have some great photos that you’ve put in place during implementation (nice work!). But that’s not enough to sell a potential guest. You need powerful written content, too.
Your LiveRez website will come equipped with some stock content, but don’t even think about leaving that there when you go live! You are no off-the-shelf brand. Use that space to tell guests who you are, why you love your market and what they can expect when they stay with you.
2. Become a market expert.
There’s no one who knows your market better than you. And your website is a great place to start establishing yourself as a true local expert.
Within LiveRez, you have the ability to create additional content pages where you can highlight what makes your market special – all through the lens of your brand. Maybe you highlight your team’s favorite local restaurants, annual festivals or hiking trails.
Use your website to not only allow guests to book with you, but to gain valuable local information and recommendations that they can only get through a local expert like you.
3. Explain to Google who you are.
In order for your website to show up in search results, search engines have to understand what your website is about. And, content is the best way to help them figure that out.
You may have heard of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies, which are powerful ways to help you rank as high as possible in the search results. But, don’t worry about that too much right now.
It’s easy to get caught up in SEO hacks and tactics. However, at this stage, the best way to tackle basic SEO is to think about your website through the lens of a potential guest. What content can you add to your website that will be most beneficial for a guest as they research, book and stay.
How do I start?
Tackling website content can feel overwhelming. Simply break the process down into smaller, bite-size tasks that you can manage throughout your Implementation journey, so you’ll be ready for your big website go-live!
