SEO for Timeshare Resorts

The top search engine result pages (SERPs) for “timeshare resort” or even just “resort” are frequently for resale or exit companies. Although it’s true that these businesses can purchase advertisements and pay-per-clicks (PPC), your resort can start its own search engine optimization (SEO) campaign with a little creativity, focus, and hard work.

In the past, Resort Trades recruited Sheryl Cattell as a consultant to get us moving in the right way. Sheryl is a digital marketing expert, master certified life coach, LinkedIn trainer, speaker, and book. She showed us how to spot problems like “404” errors and broken links, as well as how to raise our Google rating.
For us, this experience demonstrated the potential of SEO to help resorts seeking to improve rental and sales or resale revenue. However, if your resort’s budget won’t budge, there are still some basic steps you can take to better position your website’s online status.

Related: 5 Easy SEO Steps for Timeshare Resorts (actually, maybe not so easy)

SEO or driving organic search traffic from Google can grow your resort’s revenue by attracting prospective buyers and renters. Getting the fundamentals down takes a little study and attention. You might want to start by reviewing informative posts. For example, a powerful checklist such as the one posted on the site, SEOalive.com, could be a great kick-off to your campaign.

The key[word] to content

The first step to getting your content to show up online is to use keywords. Identifying the right keywords is critical, as well as using them properly. “Timeshare SEO Strategy: Finding the Best Keywords,” by Seychelle Media suggests a ‘2=2=2 SEO Keyword Strategy.’ Check out their post on SeychelleMedia.com.

If you have the budget and manpower available, using software such as Ahrefs or Semrush can be invaluable. Semrush, for example, while not cheap (plans start at $99.94 a month and can reach as high as $449.95), can give you plenty of information to help in preparing and positioning content.

Learn how to add internal links, titles, ALT tags, and photos to make a difference. Analytics can help you clean up areas that can be destructive, such as 404 errors, broken links, and a myriad of other threats.

Posts, social media, and video play into how search engines rate your site. Perhaps you can get your owners, members, and stakeholders to contribute. We can all learn from the American Resort Development Association (ARDA)’s “LoveMyTimeshare” campaign. If you’ve not done so already, go to ARDA.org and download the ARDA Partner Activation Kit. Remember to use the hashtags #LoveMyTimeshare and #ARDA360 in your social media posts.

While our SEO steps may suggest a beginning for your resort’s efforts to improve your rankings, it obviously only scratches the surface. But, stay tuned…Resort Trades provides articles about digital marketing and using social media throughout the year. We encourage you to go to https://resorttrades.com/emagazine to sign up for our weekly eNewsletter so you don’t miss out!