Anatomy of a Killer Facebook Ad Campaign (Infographic)

December 5, 2011 By Carrie Hill Leave a Comment

We are trucking along getting our clients set up with Facebook Advertising. There are some really awesome targeting features that border on “creepy” when you think about it.

We can target a 34 year old mother of 2 with a full time job and a college degree that “likes” vacation rentals, beach vacations and Kill Devil Hills, NC and has a household income of $175k+ and lives in a town within a 2-hour drive of my client’s lodging property.

Like I said, CREEPY!

This infographic is floating around and has a great roadmap for getting started on a successful campaign. Keep in mind, we find that your Facebook Ads need more frequent maintenance than even your AdWords ads to be effective, so don’t expect to set these ads and forget about them….If you need help getting started, give us a call!

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Facebook, Infographic

The Chemistry of SEO : Periodic Table of SEO

November 18, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

The very building blocks of the Universe are represented by the Periodic Table: atoms that combine to form molecules which in turn combine to create real things we can see.

In the realm of Search Engine Optimization, the real thing we can see is a website ranking for a keyword or even an actual visitor to a website. However, the small building blocks that cause those results are invisible to the untrained. Check out the Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors for an visualization of how the Universe of SEO is organized:

Filed Under: Infographic, SEO

See How Easily You Can Learn About Google Analytics and The Power of Your Brand in Search

November 17, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

Blizzard has a few Webinars coming up. Hope to see you there:

Google Analytics Multi-Channel Conversion Tool
Monday, November 28th, 2011 10AM MST

Learn about the most exciting new Google Analytics feature to come along in years! This may be the single most exciting online marketing development during 2011.
Learn how to setup and interpret this valuable new data which is guaranteed to shed new light on where your online bookings really come from and will most likely change your budgeting process in 2012. This is a 30 minute webinar.

The Power of Your Brand in Google’s Search Algorithm
Thursday, December 8th, 2011 1PM MST

Learn how your Brand is becoming an increasingly important component in Google’s organic search algorithm. Google monitors your brand signals and will rank you higher and drive more search engine traffic to your website if your brand appears stronger than your competitors.

Learn about the brand signals Google tracks in its algorithm and what you can do to increase the strength and frequency of those signals.

Google Plus for Hotels and Vacation Rentals: Strategies, Tactics and Tips
Wednesday December 14th, 2011 10AM MST

Get a head start in the new Google+ social networking platform. Learn how to get your account going and how to get the most out of it. Includes tips for newbies but focuses on strategies and tactics that will work in the world of guest marketing.

Filed Under: Analytics, Blizzard News, SEO

Insight Finder from Google makes Google Research Easier

November 16, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

Google has a website called thinkinsights with Google that is a great source to get insight, facts, stats, research, planning tools and… data!

There is a lot of great travel related data that is worth checking out. They also have a “Real Time Insights Finder” which can help you discover all kinds of free real-time data from a plethora of Google Tools:

Filed Under: Analytics, Industry Stats, Out and About

Timeline of TripAdvisor in the News for last 12 months

October 31, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

Read a summary timeline of TripAdvisor in the news during the last 12 months with links to articles with more details:

10/28/11 Hoteliers and restaurateurs anxious to sue TripAdvisor in the U.S. over travelers’ disparaging reviews may have to rethink their strategy following a legal decision involving Yelp. Read More

10/20/11 TripAdvisor gets sued for 10 million after naming hotel the “dirtiest hotel” in the country. The Grand Hotel, in Pigeon Forge, was ranked the dirtiest hotel in America and now its owner is going after TripAdvisor. Read More. Also read: Does TripAdvisor Play Dirty with Hotel Reviews? in USA Today.

10/20/11 TripAdvisor is seeking verification from a consumer after discovering a potentially false review. The Howarth House (a hotel in the UK) brought brought the review to TripAdvisors attention. Read More

10/4/11 Trip Advisor punishes hotel for writing its own reviews, and for writing a negative review of a competitors. The hotel now has the “red badge” on its listing at TripAdvisor and denies wirting fraudulent reviews. Read More

9/27/11 TripAdvisor now emphasizing Traveler photos (along with reviews). With over 8 million traveler’s photos on TripAdvisor, your guests can now shape public opinion of you not just by writing about your, but by also sharing photos. This is a natura; extension of TripAdvisor’s user-generated content. Read More

9/12/11 TripAdvisor waters down its trustworthiness when it removes “Reviews You Can Trust” and changes to “Reviews from our Community” Read More [Read more...]

Filed Under: Breaking News, Heard Here and There, Industry Spotlight, Industry Vendors, Web 2.0

How Does Your Website Rank in Google’s Quality Rating

October 21, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

Jennifer Ledbetter, the author of PotPieGirl.com shared a great blog post last week abut how Google makes its algorithm changes using human raters to rate search engine results.

In a nutshell, Google has an army of humans that guide their algorithm changes by examining the “quality” of websites. Those quality signals eventually become encapsulated into the mathematical algorithm and then roll out into the entire Google index. Your website goes up-or-down based upon your “quality footprint.” The possibility even exists that your site could go up or down as a result of a manual review, outside of an actual algorithm change.

Here is a short video from Google explaining:

Is this scary? We don’t think so. In fact, this really confirms what we have been teaching our clients for years: Focus on making your site the BEST site and your search results will follow.

The most fascinating element of her post is that she shared a “proprietary and confidential” 125 page document from Google that gives step-by-step instructions on how to do a “quality rating.” Unfortunately, Google asked her to remove that link. (you can find it probably by searching for it) Fortunately, we downloaded the document last week and will summarize the important bits for you. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Heard Here and There, SEO

Now You Can Watch A Full-Day Marketing Seminar from Your Desk

October 20, 2011 By Trent Blizzard

On Sunday October 9th, Trent Blizzard presented a full day online marketing seminar. It was chock-full of timely and important marketing tips for travel marketers.

We are making the full video available on Monday October 31st. You can order it for the small investment of $50. It will be available “on-demand” so you can watch it at your desk and at your leisure.

Event Registration Online for Online Marketing Workshop – Video On Demand powered by Eventbrite

Topics Included:

Google +1 is a promising new feature from Google that is still being developed. Learn what it can do for you now and what strategies to implement in 2012 to achieve maximum benefit.

Custom Facebook Apps and Tabs: A review of the nifty, convenient and seductive world of Facebook custom tabs. The real pros are using these to turn their Facebook page into a second website that can turn lookers into bookers. Bonus: Blizzard will give each attendee a free Facebook App. ($250 value)*

Facebook Pay-Per-Click Marketing: Learn how to take advantage of Facebook’s PPC program to increase your ‘Likes’ and steal mind-share from your competitors.

Top Facebook Tips: The top 10 tips for getting new fans and engaging with your current ones.

Link Building is still going strong. Learn about recent changes and how Google uses links in its algorithm. Bonus: Blizzard will give you 10 great links that will drive qualified traffic ($250 value)*

Website Load Time: Learn how your website’s speed… or slowness… is being factored into Google’s algorithm. Find out how to measure your speed, track it in Google Analytics, and what simple steps can improve it.

Schema: Learn about the new coding directives that Google, Bing and Yahoo! rolled out in June, 2011 and how you can take advantage to help Google index your website.

The Changing World of Online Reviews: Google has changed how they index your reviews and your strategies should change accordingly. Learn the best way to get more out of your current reviews and where to drive new reviews.

Google Analytics: Learn about all of the changes and new features that have happened to Google Analytics in the last year that will help you to measure your growth and success.

Email Marketing: Learn some easy tricks and discover a few powerful tools to capture more email addresses, and get more out of your existing email marketing efforts.