If someone wants to rent out your holiday let, there are two things they will want to see. The first is relevant information about the property and the surrounding area. The second is photos – good, clear enticing photos.
However there is another angle to consider here. While your website and its associated images will be useful for potential holiday makers to look at, they can also assist you in being found more easily online.
As you may be aware, search engines are not just there to present web links to people. Google also has other options you can choose from, including images and videos appropriate to the search term. So it is wise to pay just as much attention to adding your photos as it is to developing good strong content for your site.
Make sure you use an acceptable image type
Let’s assume you have taken a series of photos and you have now uploaded them to your computer. Before uploading them to your site you should ensure they are acceptable to be indexed by Google and other major search engines. Stick to a commonly acceptable format such as GIF, BMP or JPEG and you should be fine.
Don’t forget to add the image alt text to each image you upload
Some people leave this blank but if you want to maximise the chances of your holiday let being found in an image search online, the alt text is vital. Think of it as a description of the image. The search engines cannot see an image alone but they will be able to understand the image if they can see the words attached to it via the alt text. If you own a holiday rental in Scotland your alt text could be something like this: alt=”holiday rental property in Scotland”.
Change your file names
When you take a photo and then upload it to your computer, it will automatically be saved with a weird and wonderful file name. The extension will reveal the format of the image so you can check this very easily here too. You’ll see something like this – 235467592.bmp.
This should be changed to reflect the content of the photo. For example if your photo shows your holiday rental from the outside, you could change the file name to Bodmin-holiday-rental.bmp if your rental property happens to be in Bodmin, Cornwall. Not only does it make it easier for you to locate a photo quickly, it also means the picture can be easily identified on the search engine image search facility.
Remember the captions
It is also useful to use good strong keywords when captioning your photos. If you have a photo showing a view from the patio area of your holiday let, don’t just call it ‘view from the patio’. Be more descriptive, as in ‘view over Bodmin Moor from Honeygables holiday rental’. You can see how much better this is.
It is vital to appeal to your visitors when you are looking to secure more bookings. But as you can see it pays dividends to appeal to the search engines as well.
Leave a Reply