There’s an unlimited potential to connect with more campers when you grow your online presence. More travelers now research and book online, which either puts you ahead of the game or behind it.
When campers search online for a campground along their route, will your campground show at the top of the search results?
Over 25% of people click on the first option of their search results. In our case, that means the first website that pops up when someone searches “campgrounds near me” is most likely to get the attention. So there’s a huge growth opportunity if your campground appears in the first few positions of search results, and that’s an incentive to improve your SEO ranking.
And if you think that the top spot is reserved only for the largest campground in your region, think again. It’s about SEO strategy. And we’re here to provide tips and strategies to help your campground increase its exposure.
SEO Basics
Improving your SEO increases the number of visitors to your site, which means more business and revenue. And, unlike typical advertising, SEO ranking isn’t something you can pay for–it’s earned.
By knowing and influencing the key factors that determine your ranking, you can make changes to your website that put you ahead of your competitors.
Often, campgrounds will hire a third-party provider to create content and develop SEO strategy to improve their ranking. But many campgrounds shoulder this responsibility themselves. Let’s take a look at some of the key factors of SEO.
Traffic
When we say “traffic,” we’re talking about the number of people who visit your website. And when it comes to booking each season, the more traffic the better. Organic traffic is a good measure to know if your SEO strategy is working.
You can measure your traffic through Google Analytics and other online SEO platforms. Once you track your traffic, you’ll see increases during peak season, when campers are searching for locations. You can also annotate the changes made to your website and then see the SEO effects, to see what works.
Keywords
Keywords are the link between the information users seek on a search engine and the information your website provides. They are the search terms used when campers are searching for a campground. You can rank for different keywords, meaning your website will populate first when you rank high for a keyword like “WIFI campground,” for example.
You can easily develop a list of targeted keywords for your campground. In fact, your website likely already ranks for many keywords campers use to discover where to camp. The goal is to identify which keywords you can easily rank for and then create content around them.
Content
Content on your website tells visitors about your campground. And it’s also how Google evaluates your website. What keywords you target, the length of your posts, what you rank for, title tags, meta descriptions, videos– the SEO game is about creating content Google recognizes and values. But that doesn’t mean you should create content for a robot.
Keep in mind Google’s algorithms are shaped to human user experience: Google is attempting to promote content that’s helpful to humans. So, yes, content is about creating content Google recognizes–but that should mean creating content that’s useful to your audience.
So what does it look like to approach these concepts with your campground’s SEO strategy?
Find Your Niche
To earn the attention of potential campers, it’s important you find your niche. You’ve already identified what this looks like for your campground: amenities, location, price, customer service. You know what separates you from your competitors. Now, what stands out for you with SEO?
Other campgrounds will target similar keywords and will have similar offerings. So it’s important to distinguish yourself in SEO. You can find your niche by targeting keywords and topics that others aren’t covering or that are unique to your campground. Here are three easy steps to find your niche.
1. Read competitors’ websites.
Identify how competitor websites are positioning themselves. What features or amenities do they promote on the homepage? Do you recognize any repeat keywords? More importantly, what’s missing? If your competitors aren’t focusing on a key amenity or feature on their website, it could be a gap you fill.
2. Identify your campground’s strengths.
Discover what makes your campground unique in order to improve your SEO strategy. Create a concept map of your campground’s key features and offerings and use these to develop a keyword list. Evaluate your campground’s website in the same way you evaluate competitors–what’s missing?
3. Find the gaps.
Equipped with an SEO keyword list, it’s a matter of finding which keywords have a high search volume and low SEO difficulty (how competitive it is). Compare this to keywords your competitors use to identify gaps. Imagine, you could have a higher reach simply by targeting “RV park” instead of “campground”.
Developing Content
It’s hard to have an SEO strategy without content. This is the legwork portion of growing your online presence. Often, businesses develop a blog on their website to post strategically-minded content. Not only can this information be helpful to visitors, but it can be the sowing fields for keyword strategy.
Let’s take a look at some tips and tricks to develop blogs that can improve your SEO. These are some of the qualities of an effective blog.
1. Write like a human.
It’s easy to get caught up in SEO, algorithms, and keywords and forget you are a human writing to another human. As you learn more about SEO strategy, let all lessons be marked with asterisks: *Always write like a human. Think about your audience and what is useful and accessible to them.
2. Length and frequency?
Google’s algorithm pays attention to the length of content on a website, and that can influence your ranking. The same goes for the frequency and consistency–how often you post new content. Build your content base with diligence.
In general, posts should live in the 350-900 word-count zone. Increase your word count based on the information that’s practical and important to share, but consider an additional blog post if you begin to run long. Always cut the fluff.
In terms of frequency, a post every week or two is a good rhythm, but the real key is to make sure you’re consistent: If it’s one post a week, it needs to always be one post a week. Your audience (and Google) should know when to expect new content.
3. Choose practical topics.
When determining the subject matter of your blog post, write what you know. Consider what your audience will value, and remember the content should be serving them in some way–teaching them something new, saving them money, or providing valuable perspective.
Common Mistakes
We’ve had a fair amount of experience when it comes to developing SEO strategy. The good news is you can always improve upon your practices, and no bad habits have to stick around. But to save you the time and energy of the trial-and-error approach, let’s look at common SEO mistakes.
1. Bad writing.
Spelling mistakes, typos, and confusing sentences are red flags for readers and Google alike. You won’t get penalized for a hanging preposition, but frequent and blatant mistakes are the manifestations of bad writing. It’s nothing an extra read-through can’t fix.
2. Impatience.
The SEO game is a marathon, not a sprint. Changes you make to your web pages likely won’t have an overnight influence, and your value will come from consistent, quality content over an extended period of time.
3. Chasing fads.
As you research other websites and see content coming from competitor pages, restrict the impulse the mimic what might be working for others. Once you settle into a content strategy of your own, don’t make the classic mistake of chasing fads.
Your campground’s online presence will continue to grow in importance. SEO can be a tool to grow your business and not an extra, overwhelming to-do item on your list. It helps to start with the basics–starting small, and then steadily improving. But don’t hesitate to consider third-party help if, for your campground, it’s better left to the experts.
If you’d like to learn more, check out the Campground U podcast and the SEO Best Practices episode with Wayne Lin, SEO Manager at Camping World.