The big story in search for 2010 was local. With the introduction of Google Places, Google rewrote the rules for local search. Put simply, it’s more important than ever. As we move into the first part of 2011, marketers and business owners must focus on finding smart ways to take advantage of this new approach to search.

So, what is Google Boost and how can it help my hotel?

Google Boost is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising that increases traffic to your local listing in Google Places, which in turn will “boost” traffic to your website. Google Boost works by placing ads pointing to your Google Places listing at the top and sides of local search results (see picture below).

Like all PPC campaigns, your ad will only appear on relevant searches, and you pay by the click, not the ad. Here’s what it looks like:

The two blue markers represent a Google Boost listing.

Is Google Boost hard to manage?

No. In fact, Google Boost is easier to manage than similar programs like Google AdWords, because it does most of the work for you. After setting up your account in Google Places, the only thing you have to decide is a monthly budget. The Google algorithm will decide where, how often, and on which searches to display your ad.

Google Boost offers simple tracking tools, so you can keep an eye on how your ad is performing.

Is it available in my market now?

Google Boost is not currently available in all markets. The service is available across Illinois, Texas, Washington, Virginia and Florida as well as: San Francisco, San Jose, Wichita, Atlanta, Chapel Hill, Washington D.C., Boston, Portland, Cupertino and Santa Clara. Google is expected to continue rolling out Boost to new cities and states throughout 2011.

If you have more questions about Google Boost or other ways of increasing your hotel’s online performance, Contact Us.

Mobile phones are transforming into the portable computers of today, especially for people on the go. These people on the go are also frequent travelers. They want information fast, simple and at their fingertips.

• In the U.S., the number of mobile phone lines has already surpassed the number of land lines.
• More than 90 percent of the U.S. population has a mobile device, and out of those mobile users, more than 4 billion access the Web via their mobile phone.
• According to Nielsen research, “40% of iPhone/iTouch users access the Internet more on their mobile than their desktop.”

How can we harness the enormous possibilities of the mobile market? Start engaging mobile users as soon as possible with these:

3 Ways Hotels Can Use Mobile Technology

1. Create a Mobile-Friendly Website

The mobile phone has made Internet access so easy it is imperative your company have a site that is mobile friendly. If guests are searching for lodging in your area on their phone, can your site be seen? Your Web site must be designed for users to easily access, view and use on a small screen. A mobile user is more likely to leave if they a find a site that doesn’t load properly or is not easy to navigate.

Mobile users on-the-go want to be able to book a room quickly and easily. Edge out your competitors with a mobile-friendly site.

2. Utilize Foursquare to Engage Mobile Users

There are thousands of iPhone gaming apps floating around. With mobile local search becoming the next big thing for mobile users, now is the time to jump in.

Foursquare is a location based iPhone application that aims to encourage people to explore their neighborhoods and then reward people for doing so. Foursquare does this by combining their friend-finder and social city guide elements with game mechanic. Users earn points, win mayorships and unlock badges for trying new places and revisiting old favorites.

By adding your hotel as one of the venues included in the game, players of foursquare can earn points by visiting your hotel, bar or restaurant. Points and merits can be used to unlock discounts on food, drinks or room nights.

As an added bonus, Foursquare and other mobile applications are utilizing social media which generate exposure and valuable links to your Web site.

Here are a few examples:

• Foursquare: A bar in NYC offers drink specials
• Tech Crunch Article: Foursquare Shows The Business Potential Of Location-Based Services

3. List Your Hotel in Location Based Applications for Mobile

Mobile users are making full use of convenient applications to find nearby restaurants, businesses and hotels. The video below covers the Yelp application.

Video: Yelp for iPhone 4.0
New interface and features including one with augmented reality called monocle.

Currently, there are over 20 major directories and some of the big ones offer applications for users. These applications draw information from a Website database – a database where you want your hotel to be listed.

Here are just a few of these apps: Yelp Mobile, Google Maps Mobile, Yellow Pages Mobile

What are you doing to generate exposure through mobile? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

*Special thanks to Brittany for her contribution to this article.

No matter how many times Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! change up their search algorithms, one thing always remains the same: their appetites are insatiable. Search spiders love content, they crave content, and in their digital bellies there is always room for more.

Logic follows, then, that your best SEO bet is to give it to them. The trick is knowing where and how to boost your Web site’s content for maximum effect. Just slapping a few extra paragraphs on each page is the equivalent of fast food, but what the spiders really want is a gourmet meal.

In this post, we’ll look at some basic techniques to keep those spiders coming back for seconds. Here are 5 easy ways to expand your Web site content:

Add Landing Pages

What’s a nice juicy steak without a baked potato to go with? Landing pages are the side dishes of the Web – they round out the meal and your SEO strategy. The latest SEO wisdom tells us that over-optimizing is just as dangerous as not optimizing at all. Landing pages provide an opportunity to target niche keywords, leaving your main pages free to optimize your major keywords without becoming cluttered.

For hotel Web sites, local attraction landing pages are ideal, especially if you can arrange a link-trade with the target attraction. (Side note: when requesting the reciprocal link, try to negotiate a home page position on the attraction Web site. The better the placement, the better the link).

Other easy landing page topics include:

• Area Events
• Local Services
• Hotel Partnerships
• Pet-friendly (if applicable)
• Business Travel
• GLBT Travel
• Green Programs (if applicable)

Be careful. The only thing worse than too little relevant content, is too much irrelevant content. Don’t force landing pages onto your site. If the topic has no value, or the keywords are not strong, don’t bother!

Break Out Large Pages

Ah, the inevitable crux of online content: how much? Too little is bad, and too much is bad, but what does that even mean? It probably won’t surprise you that there are no steadfast rules for proper page length. However, there are some common sense rules that are easy to follow and please the spiders well enough.

If the written portion of a page is longer than a “screen” in length, look into breaking that page out into smaller pages. You can go a little longer, but if the content ever stretches so far that all signs of navigation are lost, it’s time to make the break. Separating your large pages into smaller, relevant pages increases your site’s cohesion and offers an opportunity to optimize more niche keywords.

Common “break out” opportunities include:

• Accommodations, good suites deserve their own page
• Dining, consider a page for each venue
• Meetings, overview your material then break up the specifics
• Local Area, break out attractions, events, area dining, etc.

This is crucial: your break out pages must themselves be worthwhile. Any benefit you stand to gain by breaking them out will be lost if you skimp on the content and SEO.

Incorporate a Blog

Our first two suggestions offer abundant content, but also static content. What search spiders really have a taste for is fresh content. If they know there’s always something new to eat at your Web site, they’ll keep you in mind when displaying search results.

You can keep content fresh by performing site audits and updating keywords, but a well-written blog is really what you need. Blogs have a number of benefits: they’re fast, they’re easily optimized, they encourage in-bound links and they’re deep without bogging down the user experience. If you update your blog regularly, say 2-3 times a week, you can double your site content in the first 6 months.

If there is a secret to hotel blog writing, it’s not over-thinking it. Not every post has to be the digital equivalent of Finnegan’s Wake. Here are some easy blog topics:

• Promote a new package
• Announce an employee promotion
• Suggest a local restaurant (trade links?)
• Review an attended event
• Run a contest
• Encourage following/fanning (Twitter/Facebook)
• List travel tips
• Call out a nice Tripadvisor review (thank the writer)

And the number one most important thing about blogging: be yourself!

Publish your Press

This one is so easy, it’s practically a freebie. If your hotel Web site doesn’t have a press room, stop reading right now, call up your developer, and get one in the pipeline. Don’t leave your press releases solely to the mercy of lazy journalists when they could also be earning your site valuable content-wealth.

A simple press page will most often include a list of your press releases, perhaps with short descriptions or content previews, that link off to each individual release in a PDF. This is fine, and if you pay for development by page, this is an affordable option.

However, you can gain even more value for your (hopefully optimized) PR by creating a new content page for each release. This is because new content pages are more search-friendly and certainly more optimizable than PDFs.

Other things to consider adding to your press page:

• Fact sheets and brochures
• Media kits
• List of awards won
• Relevant links from ownership/brand

Share your Testimonials

Tripadvisor, comment cards, Yelp, even formal reviews – these people are writing your content for you! Create a “Testimonials” or “Guest Reviews” page and feature recent reviews and comments you’ve received. Obviously, you’ll want to focus on the good news, but even a negative comment can be a positive thing if you follow it up with a reasonable response.

Like blogs and press pages, Testimonials pages generate the most benefit when updated often. If you’re just getting yours started, don’t overdo it right up front. Identify the comments you want to feature on the page and then parse them out over time. And unlike regular site pages, it’s okay to let this page get long. The more testimonials the better, but be conscious of the dates. Would you be impressed by a four year old testimonial?

Ready to Get Started?

Don’t think you have to do it all at once. In fact, spreading your updates out over time is more effective, because it gives the search spiders more days of fresh content to chew on. That’s what expanding your site content is all about.

For a personalized look at what can be done with your content, as well as content writing services for all of the above, contact WRS at info@wrsol.com or visit our Web site for more information.

If you’re like most business owners planning for 2010, then you’re starting to look closer at the growth in digital marketing. With a slump in traditional media and the economic downturn, it’s only natural that business leaders start to take more notice of Internet marketing and the success metrics it can provide.

It has been a challenging year, and as you look over your budget for 2010 you need to make sure you are setting enough aside to keep your online business growing.

According to the 2009 Advertising Effectiveness Survey conducted by Forbes of 112 senior level advertising, marketing and media executives, the top 3 most effective digital marketing tools are SEO, E-mail/Newsletters and Pay-Per-Click.

Today we give you our best insider tips that will help you increase your Web site sales in 2010.

6 Insider Tips to Increase Website Sales in 2010

1. Use press releases to increase keyword rankings

Press releases have great potential for attracting traffic and links. If you have newsworthy topics, put it into a press release so it can be spread across the news networks. Not only does this bring attention and traffic to your business, but it also builds links back to your domain from a host of valuable sources. The in-house content team at WRS utilizes the best PR networks and specializes in writing for hotels.

2. Produce thematic content on your site and host a Blog

Having content on your site helps Google understand what your site is about. The more relevant content you have on your site, the better off you are. Having thematic content allows you to produce more content around long tail keywords. This is done by expanding parts of your Web site, in other words, by adding more pages. A good example is adding a page for each room type or expanding your weddings section by separating catering, space and planning information into unique pages. Importantly, the additional pages need to be keyword-rich and well-written. Extra pages just for the sake of it will get you nowhere.

Hosting a blog will allow you to post information regularly about new specials, events, or happenings at the hotel. Search engines are integrating real time results so use your blog posts to target the latest search trends.

3. Set up a well organized Pay-Per-Click campaign
Pay-per-click is an easy medium to get into. It allows you to rank for keywords with an hour’s work. A lot of people are bidding for your terms. It is very important to use advanced tactics and fully utilize the features available. This can make profound differences in your ROI especially since your money is vested in every click. Does your campaign utilize bid updates, negative terms, ad testing and more?
4. Utilize video and images hosted in popular networks such as Flickr and Youtube
Google universal search is getting more extensive with the onset of Google Chrome and new features. Many people are searching in these verticals to find information. A good example is someone looking for a ballroom space in his or her city. Google will also present video and image in natural search results. Utilizing these channels will allow you to be found within them, and if optimized properly it can increase your odds of a first page ranking.

5. Measure Success Metrics
Actions leading to sales are the most important metric whether it be conversions, subscriptions, click-thrus, boost in search rank or page views. Our team at WRS employs advanced analytics tools and can also provide custom reports. Our analysts are watching your site’s performance and will make changes to keep your site ahead of the curve.

6. Utilize E-mail and Newsletters
Take advantage of cutting edge E-mail and Newsletter services by WRS with our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool: Hotel Sales Kit. Learn more here.

The Internet market is changing. Google is updating its algorithm, 3^rd-party sites are ranking better and your competitors are getting smarter. Our role at WRS is to stay ahead of the curve with forward-thinking Internet marketing strategy, products and services. We develop custom Internet marketing strategies, with SEO and E-mail/Newsletter service, tailored to the individual needs of our clients. Learn how you can partner with industry leaders and take your Web site sales to the next level. Contact us today.

Heard the buzz about Foursquare? Some experts are calling it the next big thing in social media. This innovative app blends the accessibility of Twitter with an engaging game-like mechanic. What’s more, it’s essentially business-driven, with ample marketing opportunities up for grabs.

So what is it?

Foursquare is a geocentric social network and game played primarily with mobile devices. Players, that is people who have downloaded the Foursquare app, visit venues around their cities and neighborhoods and tweet tips and tricks for future visitors. The tweet can be as simple as “@FillmorePub! Try the Fish & Chips!”. To encourage participation, players are rewarded points and badges for their accomplishments, whether for visiting a new venue, visiting several venues in a short period of time, or bringing along a friend.

There are currently more than 100 participating cities and thousands of venues that players can “check-in” to for points, badges and social networking opportunities. Venues include almost anywhere people like to congregate – cafes, restaurants, bars, parks, bowling alleys, clubs, concert halls – as well as any place a person might want peer advice, such as hotels, airports and offices.

Here’s where you come in

Your hotel can and should be one of those venues. Unbelievable as it may seem, the ability to earn points for visiting your hotel is all the reason some players need to choose you over the competition. If you and the hotel across the street are running similar rates and similar offerings, but only you participate in Foursquare, that can be differentiation enough for some guests.

Technically, players don’t have to stay at your hotel to earn the points, and you can’t force them to. They need only visit. However, you can still encourage business by joining the hundreds of venues throughout the world to offer Foursquare Specials. Create a discount just for Foursquare users, and the next time they’re in your area or browsing your area, they’ll be alerted of your deal. That’s called free advertising.

Keep it small. After all, there are over 160,000 players out there, so you’ll want your deal to be something you can afford. Offer a free drink with paid dinner, or free dessert. Offer a free gift. Or you can even provide a free room upgrade for the Mayor, which is the person who has the most points for a particular venue on a particular day.

To see how hundreds of businesses are already taking advantage of Foursquare Specials, read more.

A little tech talk

The full-featured Foursquare application is currently available for iPhones and Androids, with a Blackberry app promised for the near future. Even without the application, any mobile device with Web access can utilize Foursquare’s mobile site. At the very least, if you are unable to access the mobile Web on your device,           you can utilize an SMS shortcode and check-in by texting your update to 50500 (ex: @CrownPlazaTimesSquare! Super clean rooms!).

Here’s what the mobile Web site application looks like:

The Foursquare application is connected to Facebook and Twitter (because what isn’t?). Players can easily find their friends and either encourage them to join Foursquare or simply recommend an impromptu meet-up to check out a cool Foursquare Special. If that special is yours, say a free drink with paid dinner, then one person paying for dinner can easily become four. The extra revenue is yours, and you didn’t pay a dime in advertising.

Ready to join a growing social community and take advantage of the free marketing opportunities offered within? Adding your venue and detailing your special is just a quick form. Fill it out here or read more about Foursquare on the official Web site here.

1^st quarter tends to be a slow time of the year for most hotels. However, that’s no excuse to slacken your drive for better market share. With many of your competitors falling into a post-holiday haze, you have an excellent opportunity to boost your market presence through differentiation. Simply, there’s no easier time to stand out from the crowd.

Differentiation is targeted marketing. You’ll need three things: an audience, an offer and a voice. Here are some suggestions for each:

Determine your target audience (who are you going after):

• Leisure guests (local feeder/drive markets)
• Reunions
• Religious retreats
• Conventions

Possible Promotion/Special Offer Ideas:

• Local Residents offer (Staycations, “Be a visitor in your own state”; offers to include hotel & attraction combo)
• Valentine’s Day (Valentine’s day is on a Sunday-could get great weekend business-offer a romance package)
• Spring Break
• Last Minute Offers (72-hour sale to fill holes, last minute freebees)
• Special discounts for length of stay (20% OFF, 3+ nights, etc.)
• Group Packages (for SMERF Groups, i.e, reunions, youth sports, military, religious retreats)

Determine the voice for the promotion:

• Create a landing page and a call-to-action on your current site – No additional cost
• eMail Marketing
• Local Partner Ads
• PPC Campaign
• Blogging – No additional cost
• Promote through Social Media pages – No additional cost
  • Twitter and Facebook are excellent for last-minute deals. Throughout the season, you can Tweet a “Deal of the Week” (or month).

These are simple steps on your end, but they mean a lot to the end user, i.e. your future guests. It’s a fresh year; many travelers have a renewed interest in conservative spending. By providing a well-targeted promotion this quarter, you’ll encourage these travelers to find your hotel in the crowd. That means more revenue at this difficult time. More revenue, as we all know, is what it’s all about.

Contact your relationship manager at WRS to get your 1^st quarter promotions up and running as soon as possible!

People love to look at pictures – family photos, travels afar, wedding portraits, beautiful landscapes and everything in between. Pictures enable us to share life experiences and enjoy the beauty of people, places and things time and again. Good hoteliers understand that pictures are more than casual eye-candy. On hospitality Web sites, images sell.

Images are the starting point of your guests’ entire experience. They may choose to stay or not stay because of images on your site. People want to know what they are getting when they book with you, so put your best foot forward with powerful imagery.

Of course, professional photography is preferred, and it’s a reasonable investment for mid-to-large size hotels and boutique properties. However, you may be surprised to find that professional photography is not required to put together a smart looking Web site. Creative development experts at WRS skillfully boost the power of your images by optimizing color tone, contrast and composition.

However, we can’t take the shots for you. We recommend keeping a good quality digital camera at the property, but that doesn’t mean it has to be expensive. If you’re willing to do an average amount of price-shopping, you can find a camera with all the features you need for under $300, maybe even $200 with rebates and special offers. You’ll need an 8-megapixel or more camera with an adequate zoom function.

Once you have selected a camera, the next step is easy. Take lots of pictures! You can’t take too many. No matter what your staff says about their hair or outfit, keep taking pictures. A few of them are bound to turn out.

Is there an upcoming wedding at your property? Ask the bride’s permission to take and use photos before their wedding on your site. Take pictures of the cake in your facility, the table setups, favor table and close ups of the floral arrangements.

Is there a nice floral arrangement sitting in your lobby right now? Snap a few pictures and see what you get.

Put your best bed forward. You can take pictures of the rooms with interesting angles, close ups of pillows on the bed, or room service arrangements in the rooms. Have a special promotion going on? Take a picture of your goody bags or prizes.

Meeting room set ups and buffet table displays also usually make great pictures, and help to sell your guests on the entire hotel experience.

Having a company outing? Take pictures of your staff having fun together, and promote the friendliness a guest can expect from your property by posting them to your Facebook page.

Allow guests to get to know your hotel and visually connect with the people and the property. You will be amazed what you can do yourself with a basic digital camera. If you have any questions, WRS is here to help!

Prepare your offense and put plans in place to take advantage of all 4^th quarter events and trends in your market.  Let’s close the year out strong!

Top 10 Revenue Generating Opportunities:

1. Do you have an early booking incentive in place to book holiday parties and rooms?
2. Have you determined an eBlast schedule to raise awareness about your property?
3. Have you created new packages based on the season and upcoming holidays? (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s)
4. Do you have a Last Minute Deal/Package together? Produce this now to prepare for the holiday push and to generate a sense of urgency in order to pick up last minute bookings.
5. Have you identified a target audience or package that you can use for a customized Pay-Per-Click campaign?
6. Do you have an offer through Google coupons? Rotate your offers and entice guests with seasonal coupons.
7. Are you tapping into the Social Media channels?  If so, what is your strategy? It’s not enough to be on social media, you need to have a plan in place to capture more customers.
8. Are you responding to reviews? You should be doing this year-round, especially as families look for that cozy vacation spot in which to spend the holidays.
9. Are there events happening in your market that we can blog about? Gain Web exposure as the lodging choice for holiday events.
10. Have you updated the advertisements on your local marketing Web sites? Send them seasonal information to keep the content and advertisements fresh and effective.

Ask yourself these questions to assure that you have tapped into all channels to maximize your revenue potential.

If you are not tapping into any of the items above, contact WRS today! We can prepare your plan of action and help you maximize your revenue as you head into the 4^th quarter. Game on!

The US Mobile web browsing is experiencing phenomenal growth with an increase of almost 62% during 2008.

By 2010 the projected number of mobile phone users is 4 billion, compared to only 850 million PC users worldwide. It can’t wait any longer – tap into the largest market on the planet with an optimized mobile Web page by WRS.

Cell phones are no longer just for making calls. They are sophisticated multimedia devices used by people to obtain information, interact with the Social Web, even plan their lives and travel arrangements.

Your current Web site is optimized to attract users with stylish graphics, animated buttons and catchy content. However, nothing could be worse for the mobile user! On a small screen device, those images, animations and content blocks load slowly and are confusing and difficult to navigate for the mobile user, an instant turn-off.

Worldwide Revenue Solutions will optimize your current site for the mobile Web. After incorporating our technology, your site will redirect traffic from a mobile source to an optimized, user-friendly mobile Web page.

Tips for Mobile Page design:

> Use simple and effective design specifically optimized for mobile Web search
> Focus your message with clean, organized content presenting only the relevant information that mobile users want and need to know.

>Establish a simple but clear call-to-action with click-reservations functionality.  Basically, give them only what they need to know  and allow them to book as quick and easy as possible from the screen of their mobile phone.

WRS customizes your website for the mobile web, preserving your hotel’s individuality on the convenience of a handheld device. Contact us today and prepare your hotel for the next frontier.

“Each unhappy guest tells three others!” We have all heard it, and we have all believed. However, in the present day, each unhappy guest now tells 3 million potential customers! This creates a demand for even higher attention and personalized responses to every comment left in your virtual inbox.

The days of the suggestion box and comment cards have left us and we find ourselves surrounded by very electronic, very public, very influential customer comments. Searching for a restaurant, we turn to Yelp to see the venues in highest demand and leading in value. We seek out customer reviews before we do anything, from purchasing that cute top online to which grocery store we should frequent in our area (how else will you know which ones have the freshest produce?). The travel industry certainly has not escaped the Internet phenomenon that is “user generated content,” and many hoteliers have learned firsthand the power and influence a single unhappy guest can have.

The reality of guest involvement in online travel reviews has drastically altered the way customer loyalty and satisfaction is treated. The Internet has revealed the truth, and many potential customers feel the truth has set them free! Free from the fear of booking a “great value property” only to find themselves thrown in a room with a box spring and community shower. Free from the fear they may have only two pillows to share instead of the ideal four. Whatever the fear, the reassurance from other like-minded travelers allows a potential guest to go ahead and book a room without fearing an unhappy stay.

As a hotelier, do you know what your online reputation is? You should. And you should reclaim control of your virtual suggestion box and safeguard your hotel’s image by participating in the conversation, a conversation that is taking place about YOU about YOUR property and about YOUR staff.

At WRS we offer an easy solution for you to manage your hotel’s reputation through Hotelposts.com. This tool allows you to monitor hotel reviews on top travel sites such as Trip Advisor, Expedia, My Travel Guide, Travelocity, Travel Post, Yahoo Travel, Hotels.com and more. It also tracks your Trip Advisor rating and popularity ranking for you and your top 3 competitors. Hotelposts.com performs an analysis of your reviews and even displays top reoccurring keywords in order to identify trends in guest comments all of which can be done from one easy dashboard. Eliminate the time and hassle of surfing the Internet and logging in/out of multiple travel review sites.

Get Started with Hotelposts.com today, and take back control of your Hotel’s reputation.