The most cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website is organically.
By focusing on long tail keywords you’ll be able to drive more „quality traffic“ (potential guests who are likely to book an accomodation in your area) to your vacation rental website.
Many accomodation providers try to rank for „head terms“ (commonly searched keywords like „hotels“) because they are searched more frequently. Head keywords tend to be informational in nature. Travelers you receive from them aren’t likely to book right away (research stage of the travel shopping journey). Head terms are highly competitive and often dominated by big players (e.g. Booking.com, HomeAway, TripAdvisor).
Long tail keywords consist of 3 or more words (e.g. „kid-friendly Miami hotel near the zoo“) and are more targeted. Potential guests already know the location and type of accomodation they want to stay in (ready to book – qualified traffic). Long tail keywords are less competitive search terms and will help you to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs).
Various online tools (e.g. Google AdWords Keyword Planner) can help to find relevant long tail keywords, that resonate with your target market and which have low or medium competition.
After you’ve identified your long tail keywords, you’ll need to create and publish content (e.g. on the blog of your vacation rental website) that is relevant to these terms and useful to your potential guests.
(Source: via @VFMLeonardo – Get full details at http://blog.leonardo.com/long-tail-keywords/ )
