Search engines see websites much differently than humans. As mentioned in my free hostel marketing ebook earch engine crawlers can't effectively see Flash content, JavaScript, or text that is embedded within images.
Magazine Article Keyword: Marketing Online
Many people have heard of search engine optimization or "SEO". SEO is a set of techniques to increase traffic to a website through search engine referrals.
Here are 10 free places to list your hostel online and get additional exposure on the Web:
Skype is a free program that many travelers use to make free or cheap phone calls over the Internet. If you want backpackers to be able to call your front desk for free from Skype at Internet cafes, you can put a Skype button on your Web site.
This is the first post in what is going to be a blog about travel industry marketing. Even though most of the content will specifically be about hostels, the tips and techniques will be applicable to marketing hotels, tours, or any segment of the travel industry.
This article describes a way that you can increase bookings to your hostel by increasing the search engine rankings of the pages about your hostel on hostel booking engines' Web sites.
NOTE: This article was written in 2007 and may be out of date. For information about AdWords, please post questions in the Hostel Forum.
Search engines are investing a lot of effort into promoting their local search results. Google has recently take their local search to new levels, and this has implications for hostels with Web sites.
Tracking your Web traffic can be highly useful in your marketing efforts. If you are using a good hosting company, they will provide server-side statistics programs like AWstats.
If you search Google, Yahoo and MSN for a query like "hostels in [your city]" does your hostel Web site come up on the first page?