RezStream Myth Busters: Internet Blogs and Wikis
This section of our monthly newsletter will focus on exposing ideas about Internet marketing and technology that are thought to be true, but quite often, are not. It is our hope at RezStream that our clients and newsletter subscribers will be able to better monitor the effectiveness of their Internet marketing service provider with the educational information found in RezNews.
This month’s myth buster focus is on blogs, wikis, and how they relate to your lodging property’s website. Blogs and wikis have become popular buzzwords lately, but most people know little about what they are or if they have any value to their business practices. We have clients at RezStream that have been told that if they create a blog or wiki about their property, along with information about local area attractions, that their website will receive more web traffic and subsequently, more revenue.
Myth: Blogs and wikis generate additional traffic for a lodging property’s website and thus additional revenue for a property.
Blogs and wikis contain sought after content that constantly changes and continues to grow larger. Google and some other search sites “reward” changing and growing online content by frequently re-indexing the website which can result in higher ranking.
Although this can be true, it does not necessarily relate to more traffic and/or revenue for a lodging website. The reason is this. People looking for general information about a property or location are most often just conducting some research. On the other hand, people ready to actually book a room will start their search in a similar manner for property specific information but then prefer websites with specific content and the ability to book a room. The argument should follow then that if you have a blog or wiki that gets general traffic, people will click on a link, visit your website, and book a room. There is no firm evidence to support this. There is concrete evidence, however, to support the concept that fewer clicks are better to the online guest if someone is already interested in making a reservation.
TIP: If your online visitor is hoping to make a reservation through a booking engine, let that process happen quickly. Creating a “landing” page or blog for the purposes of funneling visitors to your website becomes superfluous. Instead, it makes more sense to constantly add content to your website that has both property details and access to your booking engine within its normal design. Many people use blogs simply because it is easier to add content to a blog than it is to add content to your website. For that, you typically need someone experienced at writing HTML or using an HTML editor. On the positive side of this effort--the time and cost of updating your website--will secure higher search engine rankings and more relevant additional traffic. This additional traffic will go directly to your website that is designed to give your guests the path of least resistance in making an online reservation. This will translate into more qualified traffic from your lodging website and more revenue to your property.
To summarize, using wikis and blogs are an easy way to add online content and generate traffic and interest to the wiki and blog. They lend themselves well to certain niche markets like gaming, software discussions, and families who like to keep abreast of each other’s activities. They do not, however, work well for generating meaningful traffic for lodging websites and, more importantly, additional revenue from your lodging website.
This month’s myth: that wikis and blogs will generate increased targeted traffic to and increased revenue from your lodging website is…………BUSTED!
About the author
Joe Pawlak is the Vice President of sales and business development for RezStream. Joe also heads the Internet marketing division. Joe has over seven years extensive experience in the website design, hosting, and marketing arena.
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