Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc is proud to unveil a newly designed and developed website for Corolla Classic Vacations of the Northern Outer Banks.

Corolla Classic Vacations’ business mantra and goal is to be “Deliberately and Selectively Smaller,” only managing Northern Outer Banks vacation homes that meet their high standard of luxury and quality.

The company selected Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc. to redesign their website based on Blizzard Internet’s longstanding reputation of successfully designing and marketing websites that rank well in search engines, attract quality traffic in competitive markets, and drive more traffic through the booking process.

The new website is designed using WordPress; a design platform that is naturally search engine friendly, easy to update, and compliments Corolla Classic Vacations’ brand. Corolla Classic Vacations’ vision for the new website design is to reflect that of their business: for guests to experience a personal level of service, laid back simplicity, and to enjoy the uniqueness and quality that each of their Northern Outer Banks vacation homes offer. (more…)

Join us for How to Successfully Manage Your Property’s Online Marketing Campaign workshop with Trent Blizzard sponsored and hosted by Red Sky Travel Insurance.

Come for a free ½ day workshop in:
Indian Beach, North Carolina on Tuesday, March 9th
or
Supply, North Carolina on Wednesday, March 10th.

Find all workshop details and sign up today.

A favorite place to learn more about the factors that affect your Google rankings is SEOmoz’s 2009 Search Engine Ranking Factors.  This report breaks down the top 100  factors based upon the opinions of over 70 experts.

The Search Engine Rankings Factors is truly an awesome guide for anyone wishing to get insights into the many factors of Google’s Search algorithm.

One theme that really stood out was linking.

• 4 out of 5 of the top ranking factors were related to links.
• 66% of the predicted Google Overall Ranking Algorithm was attributed to linking factors

Getting good listings not only drives you qualified traffic, it really helps you in Google.  Go get em!

Google photo by manfrys

TripAdvisor, the leading source for travel reviews and advice, is offering enhanced business listings for hotels, bed and breakfasts, and innkeepers.

Sorry vacation rentals, maybe next time, but you can still use FlipKey.

The TripAdvisor Business Listing allows properties to add key info to a listing including a phone number, email address and website URL making it easier for potential guests to make direct contact.

The pricing structure of the listing is much like other directories in that it is an annual subscription and the cost is tied to the number of rooms in the property. The price starts at $600, but TripAdvisor is offering a 50% discount for new listings through February 2010 (next week is the last week of February!)

Here is a screen shot of their pricing:

Will this listing generate more emails, calls and ultimately conversions? We can’t say for sure if it’s an effective listing, but we recommend trying it for a year and tracking the listing to see if it pays off.

I wanted to share this awesome resource with our readers because it really sheds light on the analytical process we follow when determining how hard it will be to rank for a particular term.

In some cases just putting the keywords on a page and building a few links is all you need to hit the top 10.  More cases than not – the keywords that will bring the most traffic are MUCH harder to rank for – hence the concept of Keyword Difficulty.

If you’re looking for insight – check out The Ultimate Guide to Keyword Competition: Tips from 35 Experts on Analyzing Competitive Keywords.

This comprehensive article gives a snapshot of the ideas surrounding Keyword Difficulty from 35 SEM industry leaders.  There’s some great insight here to put your quest for that number one ranking into perspective.  There are so many factors to consider, beyond the metatag and the link.

Some of my favorite points are highlighted below:

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Let’s face it, small businesses rarely get calls from media outlets looking for interesting topics to cover or who want to randomly give you press coverage; so sometimes you just have to put on your big boy pants and do it yourself.

Do you have a sweet lodging special that is worth promoting? Do a press release. Is your company holding a fund raiser? Do a release. Are you opening up after a remodel? Release the hounds!

Let the people know why you are unique and why they should give your business a try!

Writing a press release isn’t easy and it’s not cheap. Even if you find someone to write about your company it takes time and effort to craft the message that you want to get out. And if someone writes for you there is good chance that that you will make more than a few revisions.

To be a press release hero you are going to need a little bit of help to get moving. After all, you spend so much time and money writing that you want to get the most exposure for your buck, right?

You will need:

• Access to a wide range of media outlets and organization to maximize your efforts
• A platform that will target and distribute to local resources (more…)

Join the Vail Valley Chapter of HSMAI at the Arrabelle on Vail Square this month for a presentation by Trent Blizzard of Blizzard Internet Marketing who will present the latest strategies for marketing online including proven tips and social media tools for the hospitality industry:

The Truth on Social Networking: Where to start with a  Web 2.0 strategy?

What strategy works and what does not? Learn how to distinguish the pitfalls from the opportunities in the realm of Web 2.0. Important segments like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Linkedin will be analyzed. Learn about easier Web 2.0 entry points like Google Local, TripAdvisor and Yelp. This session is designed to create a social networking strategy with prioritized segments.

Event Details: (more…)