Do Keywords Matter to Your Holiday Rental Site?

If you’ve looked into how you should write any content promoting your holiday rental, you’ve no doubt come across the idea of using keywords.

The idea that if you optimise your website with relevant keywords, it will rank higher in search engine results, and therefore make your website easier to find for those who are interested in it, i.e. prospective guests.

The big question, however, is this: Do keywords still matter?

Google has brought about various changes to their search algorithms in recent times. And if you have a website to help promote your holiday let, you should know what these are.

The main one being, if you’re generating thin content that is packed with keywords relevant to your property, you may find your ranking takes a nosedive.

That’s assuming it hasn’t already done so.

Why?

Because it’s not all about keywords these days. It’s about creating and broadcasting relevant, interesting, detailed content that your readers will benefit from.

So how important are keywords these days?

Well they do still have relevance. So don’t be mistaken that there’s no need to carry out keyword research and place relevant ones naturally throughout your content. It’s still a fundamental part of creating and marketing any website.

But it’s not the only factor you should consider.

Something that you should focus on – is how much authority your content has.

If your first thought when writing content is ‘I’ve got to cram in as many keywords as possible‘, your site probably isn’t going to get many people sticking around to find out more, or be ranked well by Google … Google’s bots are pretty savvy and know when a website is trying to ‘play the system’.

However, if your first thought is for your readers – providing interesting and relevant information for them – you’ll be in a much better position with those potential guests and with Google.

Is content really king?

Yes, content is definitely still king and it probably always will be.

Without words we can’t describe anything, whether it’s a holiday let or a bottle of wine. Words will always remain.

However, casually-written articles that put the onus on keywords and nothing but keywords, will be unlikely to get the same results they did months or even years ago.

What does this mean for your holiday rental site?

It means you have to put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer.

That could mean imagining yourself in walking boots or flip-flops, depending on where your property is located! But you have to do it, because that’s how you find out the type of content your prospective customers will be looking for.

If you’re stuck, think about what you would want to know if you were considering booking your holiday rental.

You’d want to know where it was located and what was nearby. You’d also want to know about facilities and services. Think about timely events that will be going on in the local area over the coming months too. This can help provide news items for your blog that might also attract more attention.

There are all kinds of ways to provide really good content for your website.

The rules don’t just apply to blog posts – they apply to all the content you place on your website.

The more you know about your audience, the easier it will be to tailor and craft that content towards them.

Google will then be able to see how well you’re doing in this department, and you might just get better results in the search engines as well.

So yes, keywords do still matter – they just can’t be used in the same way they once were.