May 2012 Newsletter

My Favourites is Number 1, Page 1 on Google!

The My Favourite Holiday Cottages team is very proud to announce that our website is now the Number 1 Position on Page one of Google for its key search term 'Holiday Cottages UK' and on page 1 for two others. Our increase in the rankings has massively increased the amount of traffic the website has been seeing. The number of unique visits we are getting now exceeds 12,000 a month, generating far more click-throughs and enquiries than ever before.

We're not resting on our laurels, though, as we continue to improve the amount of traffic the website receives through our investment in SEO, Social Media and our Festival Cottages section (see below), as well as many other features which we have planned coming up in 2012.

Festival Cottages

As well as updating the general design of each Festival cottage page, our Festival Cottages section continues to expand with more festivals from up and down the country signing up. Our most recent signups are from Two festivals in Norfolk:

1. Wells Pirate Festival
2. Sheringham Carnival In Derbyshire. We also welcomed Stainsby Festival. We're also in the process of finalising details with some more festivals to be announced next month. If you know of any cottages in these areas mentioned who would like to take advantage of increased bookings, then please recommend us to them. Let us know who you’ve recommended, and for everyone that signs up, we will give you a free month on our Featured Favourites section to attract even more visitors to your website.

Also, if you also know of any of the festivals in your local area, then let us know! Every extra festival that we can promote brings in more traffic to your listings and can result in more bookings whenever the festival runs. Properties in the Cheltenham area, for example, will soon have 6 festivals outside the peak season to attract visitors for a week or weekend breaks. If you know of a local festival that would like to be involved, then please email us at info@mfhc.co.uk – we’ll follow up on all suggestions on your behalf.

We’ve changed our Search Function.

One of the biggest changes to the site has been the way our search results are now displayed. Previously each time an owner updated their listing, this would automatically move their cottage to the top of the search results. This is no longer the case, and from now on, all results have been randomly ordered. This is to make it fairer to owners who may not update their listings as frequently as others which will ensure that a potential booker can find the perfect holiday cottage for them.

Get more bookings from your website.

On various searches around the internet, we often find nice-looking websites which, on closer inspection, lack the necessary tools or content to ensure they appeal to search engines and site visitors – or keep such visitors on their site sufficiently to attract an enquiry. Such sites are the equivalent of owning a very nice Mercedes without an engine under the bonnet: it looks stunning – but goes nowhere. It does not only look – the functionality of your site is vital to getting bookings.

We’ve spent years researching and designing websites exclusively for holiday property owners (using our own properties as guinea pigs!) and offer this service to subscribers. If you’re considering a new website – we’d be happy to take a look at your existing site, offer feedback and suggest ways a new design would help to improve your bookings. We’ve got plenty of examples and testimonials from past clients if required! Just e-mail Rick on info@mfhc.co.uk

Our designs include – and forgive the jargon - a comprehensive Search Engine Optimisation package. Optimising your website is crucial. For the uninitiated, this ensures a site is designed to encourage search engines to rank it more highly and be found by your target customers.

There are a variety of technical things you can do to improve your website's SEO, and we will be writing blog posts in the info@mfhc.co.uk

Top marketing tips: Blog Posts

Our recent blog posts are two excellent pieces from our resident holiday cottage expert Rick – and enhanced by some very constructive comments and advice from subscribers. The first is a good summary of what makes a cottage truly baby and toddler friendly. Our second article covers the "Little things in a Holiday Cottage, which really mean a lot". By making a holiday go from good to great, guests are even more likely to return in the future.

We are creating regular blog posts to discuss the importance of all things marketing online when it comes to holiday cottages, so if you'd like to know more about topics such as SEO, the top tips for using Facebook, or any other subject, then get in touch, and we'll create something for you. Just e-mail Rick at info@mfhc.co.uk with your suggestions. We’ll endeavour to include a link back to your listing in subsequent articles.

Finally,

As always, if you'd like to know anything else about our services or how we can help you to get more bookings from your website, or just want to chat, feel free to get in touch with us by emailing info@mfhc.co.uk phoning us on 01598 710631, or take advantage of our new online live chat facility which can be found on the My Favourite Holiday Cottages website.