Do you wonder why your vacation rental website does not appear at the top of Google search results? You may need to improve your ranking using Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO is a methodology of strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website. Good SEO will help you obtain a high-ranking placement on the results page of a search engine like Google.
Here are some basic SEO tips for your website:
Start with the SEO checklist
The SEO page in your website builder opens with a checklist called Help guests find your site. It lists the actions with the biggest impact and takes you straight to where each one is set, so it is the fastest place to start:
- Connect your own domain. This is the most important one.
- Add a logo.
- Describe your home page.
- Give each rental its own description.
- Add your business name.
- Add your address and contact details.
To open it:
- Go to your left-hand menu and select Website builder.
- Select SEO from the main menu, next to External widgets.
A badge on SEO shows when you still have checklist items pending.
💡 Note: Filling in the SEO page is optional. Your website keeps its pre-filled SEO defaults, and anything you write yourself is never overwritten by those defaults later.
Domain
Your domain name is a crucial part of your SEO strategy. If you choose the yearly or bi-yearly Lodgify subscription plan, you can register a free domain. See how to register a new domain. If you previously had a different domain and don't want to lose your Google ranking, we recommend keeping the domain live and connecting an additional domain to your website.
Register your website in Google Search Console
Once you have a custom domain connected to your website, verify the ownership of your website in Google Search Console, which allows you to monitor and maintain your website's presence and optimize its performance in Google search listings.
Submit your sitemap to Google
When you have successfully verified your website in Google Search Console, submit your sitemap to Google. A sitemap is an XML file that contains a list of all of your website’s pages to tell Google and other search engines about how your site content is organized.
Metadata and Page titles
The Metadata is a combination of Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions, and each of the pages on your website should contain them. Meta Keywords are words that define the purpose of the website, and Meta Descriptions are short text paragraphs that appear in the search results underneath your website link; they briefly explain the content of the website.
Title tags tell your visitor what each page on your site is about in a clear, concise manner. Each page of your website should contain a unique title and a Primary Keyword.
Example 1: Page Title - Primary Keyword | Brand Name ➡️ Gallery - Vacation Rentals Maui | Aloha Beach House
Example 2: Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name ➡️ Vacation Rentals Maui - Luxury Beach Apartment | Aloha Beach House
💡 Note: Don't forget to add the actual symbols (- and |) in the title to help structure it.
To add or amend the metadata and page titles:
- Go to your left-hand menu and select Website builder.
- Select SEO from the main menu, next to External widgets.
- The pages table lists every page of your site, including each rental page. Find the page you want and click Edit. To see only the pages that still need attention, use the Pages to review filter.
- Add your SEO page title, up to 60 characters, and your SEO page description, up to 160 characters. Write a relevant, natural description of the page and your business, using 2-3 keywords where you can. UberSuggest is a great free tool to help you define your keywords.
- Check the search preview to see what your new page title and description will look like in Google search results.
- Write the title and description for each language of your website, or click Translate to all languages to fill in the other languages from the one you have just written.
- Click Save all languages.
- Click Publish website to make your changes live.
💡 Notes:
- Your titles and descriptions are saved per language. Translate to all languages fills in the other languages for you, but it is still worth reviewing and tailoring each one. We also recommend resubmitting your sitemap to Google once you have all your keywords set up.
- Titles and descriptions mainly shape how your pages look in search results, which can help guests click through. Ranking depends on many other factors, and Google can also choose to show a different title or description from the one you wrote. Changes appear in Google only after you publish your website and Google next crawls the page.
Use headings in your content
Headings, also known as H tags help Google to identify and read the content of a webpage. The H1 is the most important header, so it’s a good idea to use your targeted keywords in the H1. It’s also essential to remember there should only be one H1 per page, and it should contain a Primary Keyword. H2 can be used as subheadings and should contain Secondary Keywords.
To add headings to your pages:
- Go to your left-hand menu and select Website builder.
- In the Pages tab, click on three dots and Edit.
- Select the section Heading from the drop-down list and click Add.
- Choose the size of the heading (H1, H2, H3) and type in the title.
💡 Note: You can also insert a heading and respective keyword inside a Content section by using the Formatting button and selecting a Header.
Use alt text for your pictures
Alt text is a short description of an image. Search engines use it to understand what a picture shows, screen readers read it aloud for guests who cannot see it, and it appears in the image container if the picture does not load.
The caption of a rental photo automatically provides the alt and title attributes. To set a caption for a rental photo, follow these steps:
- Go to your left-hand menu and select Rentals.
- Click on a rental, then go to the Photos section.
- Edit the caption of the images there. This caption is used as the alt text for the picture.
For images you add to the body of a page on your website, type the description straight into the Alt text field in the Website builder. There is no need to edit any HTML. Read Add alt text to your website images.
Images inside a Content block work differently. That block has no Alt text field, and it is the only place where you can set a title attribute, which is the text some browsers show when a guest hovers over a picture. For those images, add both by hand:
- Upload the image in the Content section.
- Click on the HTML code brackets <>.
- Edit the HTML code to add both the alt and title attributes to your image.
💡 Note: The alt attribute tells search engines what the image is about. The title attribute sets what shows up on the image if hovered.
Example: alt="Patio" title="Perfect outdoor wedding venue"
Your code should now look like this:
Then publish your website, so the title appears when hovering the mouse over the picture.
💡 Note: Images in your slideshow and hero sections do not take alt text. They should still have a proper file name, which is displayed if the picture does not load correctly.
Free tools
Enhance your web visibility using free and powerful tools:
- Link building. Add links from local business web pages to your vacation rental site. Ask them to return the favor and increase your web visibility.
- A blog helps you to show further information and include crucial keywords that may attract more visitors to your website. Learn how to add a blog page to your website.
- Create social media profiles, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, and give your followers the opportunity to share your website on their pages.
- Add badges and certificates (e.g., Airbnb Superhost badge, etc.) to your homepage to build credibility and trust.