Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a series of strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website and good SEO will help you to appear higher in Google search results. SEO is not a straightforward business and even though you might follow all instructions, it will not mean that you appear on page one of Google's search results. We have put together a list of the 3 most important basic steps to follow when setting up your own website, so you improve your SEO.
- Register your website with Google Search Console: Once you have a custom domain connected to your Lodgify account, you should verify your website ownership with Google Search Console to let Google know your website exists. It only takes a minute to do this!
- Research which keywords to use when creating your website content: Keywords are the words and phrases that potential guests enter into search engines, and Google Keyword Planner and UberSuggest are great tools to help you find the right ones for your vacation rental website. As the word "research" already indicates, the keywords might take some contemplating but are super important.
- Submit your sitemap to Google: The sitemap contains a list of all of your website’s pages to tell Google about how your site content is organized. This will speed up the crawling process and link your configured keywords to the pages. Again, this takes only a second, so give it a go!
💡 Note: If you currently don't have the time to do a deeper research on Keywords, keep this one for later and do the other two steps. Just make sure that once you have worked on your keywords, you should resubmit your sitemap.
As mentioned, sticking to these 3 steps will definitely help you to move your website up the list of Google's search results. So start with these, and if you want to learn more about on-site SEO tips, take a look at our article on general Search Engine Optimization.