There are so many tools available from Google that it is almost difficult to keep track of them all, with new tools being introduced on a regular basis. In general, these tools enhance the Web experience and make it easier than ever for people to find information online, including information that relates to your business. In many instances, these tools provide opportunities for your business to save money, replacing existing paid services with free alternatives.

Google Maps Street View

Are you familiar with the Street View component of Google Maps? This is the feature where you can zoom into a map beyond what is otherwise the most detailed level, and then drag the “pegman” icon onto a mapped roadway to view panoramic photos of a neighborhood. Introduced in 2007, Google Street View started as a complex process involving vehicles with 9 directional cameras, GPS units, and laser scanners that captured a 360° view of stitched panoramic images. By June of 2012, Street View had covered over 5,000,000 miles of roads in 39 countries.

Less accessible areas (initially places like national parks and ski resorts) are mapped using Google Trikes and snowmobiles. Now Street View Treks has introduced portable mapping where the equipment is worn like a backpack, producing everything from treks into the Grand Canyon to climbs up the Eiffel Tower to descents to the Great Barrier Reef. The current generation of cameras uses 11 lenses and is producing high-definition images and 3-D renderings.

Get Your Campground Mapped

Did you know that you can ask Google to create a street view of the roadways on your property? For a campground, this means that you can ask Google to create what is essentially a free virtual tour site map that will tightly integrate with the other features of Google Maps.

Many campgrounds have included site maps on their websites that allow visitors to view specific sites by hovering over or clicking links on the map. An expensive and time-consuming process to create, especially if a campground has a large number of sites, it is a far cry from panoramic 360° views. Like so many paid services that have been rendered obsolete by new free services from Google, if you are willing to wait your turn, it may no longer be necessary to invest hundreds or thousands of dollars into a 360° virtual tour of your campground’s road network. Google will now do the work for free. Several added bonuses include integration with Google Maps, the ability to embed the content into your website, and no hosting or recurring fees. Weather is taken into consideration, and your mapping will not be done on a rainy day.

According to my conversations with Google associates, there is no guarantee when – or, in fact, even if – Google will get around to mapping your campground; however, it is unlikely to happen unless you get the ball rolling from your end. Currently, most college and university campuses are waiting to be mapped, and I would expect that those would be considered a higher priority than the typical campground. (For example, in the entire state of Pennsylvania, I am told that only Penn State’s main campus has been mapped so far.) That said, there is nothing to lose. Google is quietly expanding this program, and I highly recommend that campground owners sign up using the following link:
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/streetviewinterestedpartner/

More Extensive Virtual Tours

Do you want to include virtual tours of your cabins, store, or rec hall?  Entirely separate from its Street View mapping project, Google now maintains an extensive network of Trusted Photographers who you may hire to produce virtual tours of facilities within your park, at competitive rates. There are over 100 Trusted Photographers based in California alone. They are all professionals with the equipment that is necessary to photograph tight spaces under difficult lighting situations. They are using conventional digital SLR cameras, shooting stitched panoramas of high-definition images that you own and that may be used on your website, brochures, or any other purposes.

Google retains usage rights to the images taken by people in its Trusted Photographers network, meaning that your photos will appear online in searches, generally a positive feature, since many people perform searches based upon images. One limitation is that Google will not deal with releases and will not allow these photographers to include people in their photos, somewhat counterproductive from a marketing perspective. If you can deal with that restriction, I would suggest that you search for photographers in your area, visit their websites to view their portfolios, then contact them to discuss (and negotiate) rates. Start at the following URL:
http://maps.google.com/help/maps/businessphotos/get-started.html

The bottom line today is to get on board with Google before you decide to commit hundreds or thousands of dollars on a virtual tour of your campground. Weigh your options. One step at a time, Google is changing the way that we view the world, the way that the world views your business, and the way we run our businesses. Take advantage of these tools in order to maximize your competitive edge!

You may have noticed that the search results on Google have continued to evolve over time. While many people labor endlessly over their position in organic search results, they miss other opportunities to maximize their overall exposure. One of the most important tools, often overlooked, is Google Places for Business.

When you perform a Google Search, results appear in a variety of manners. As an example, I just performed a search for “campgrounds near Gatlinburg, TN”. The organic search results (which are localized for my search location and which may appear differently in your search) start with the campground page at the Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau website, followed by the Great Smoky Mountain Jellystone Camp-Resort, Smoky Bear Campground, Good Sam Club listings for the area, and the Pigeon Forge / Gatlinburg KOA. Above these organic search results (which are SEO-based) appear three Sponsored Search results (paid search engine placement) for the Adventure Bound property in Gatlinburg, Riveredge RV Park, and Bear Cove RV Village.

To the right of the organic and sponsored search results is a small Google Map, with markers showing all of the campgrounds that match the search terms that I have entered. Above all of this, there is a black strip that contains 20 search results listings that include a thumbnail photo, review ranking, page title, and street address. These listings correspond to the markers on the small Google Map. If you zoom into the map, showing a more localized area, the number of thumbnails will adjust to match the markers that remain in view.

By default, the thumbnails start with Twin Creek RV Resort, Elkmont Campground, Camping In the Smokies, Greenbrier Island Campground, Camp LeConte Luxury Outdoor Resort, and Riveredge RV Park – from left to right. Users can also filter the search results by user rating, limiting the results to parks with 2-star, 3-star, or 4-star and higher user ratings. You may be wondering where these listings originate. If you click on a listing, the bottom of the detailed listing will ask, “Are you the business owner?” If you click on that link, it will take you to the Google Places portal, where you may then “claim” your business where these listing reside.

Get Listed

If you cannot locate your business in that type of search for campgrounds in your local area, you can also get started by going to the Google Places entry page: http://www.google.com/local/add/. If you do not have a Google Account, you will be prompted to create one (a quick and easy, free process). Google gathers data about businesses from a variety of sources, but the most accurate source will be the information that you – as the business owner – will provide. Check the accuracy of your address, phone number, website URL, and the location of your marker on Google Maps. By default, your listing may include photos that your guests may have taken or that reviewers may have submitted. (If there are no photos available, Google will substitute a view of your marker on Google Maps, and that doesn’t do you much good.) The photos that appear will not always be the most flattering or best quality, but you will be able to upload up to 10 photos and 5 videos to enhance your listing. Choose those wisely, ensuring that they enhance rather than detract from the quality of your listing. You may also include payment types, showing which credit cards or other forms of payment are accepted by your business.

Having an incomplete listing will not impact whether or not your business appears in the local search results; however, a more complete listing will make it more likely that a viewer will click through to learn more. When everything has been updated to your satisfaction, click the submit link, choose to validate your listing by phone, enter the PIN number that will immediately arrive by phone, then click “finish”. The changes may take up to a week to take effect. If major changes are requested, your updates will be pending editorial review, a process that may take up to 4 weeks.

Once your listing information has been updated, you can then check your listing, as it appears on both Google Search and Google Maps. You might search for your business name, or you might perform a more generic search, such as my “campgrounds near Gatlinburg, TN”. In the latter instance, you may wonder about your ranking position in the search results. According to Google, rankings are based upon three factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. For that reason, your business will not necessarily appear first in the list. The important thing is that your business appears in the list.

There are a number of ways that people may search for – and find – your business online. This article covers only one of the ways to help your business to stand out on Google. Take advantage of every tool available in order to maximize your competitive edge!

It always seems to be the “award season”. You may have watched the Primetime Emmy Awards recently on CBS. We all know that there are some very legitimate awards and competitions. Probably the first to come into mind are the Nobel Prizes. Since 1901, the Nobel Foundation, presents awards for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. The Nobel Foundation has a nominating committee, and recipients receive a significant cash award (that many recipients, in turn, donate to charitable causes). The Nobel Prizes are very real. If you are a journalist, the Pulitzer Prize is the ultimate recognition. If you work in the film industry, it is an honor for your film to be presented in a major film festival from Cannes to Venice to Tribeca to Sundance, and one of the ultimate honors is to be presented an Academy Award.

Yes, there are many very legitimate awards; however, for every legitimate award, there are probably 100 scams, and scams breed on the Internet. The scams have been proliferating recently. About two weeks ago, I received an “award” notice from the Small Business Institute for Excellence in Commerce (SBIEC). I had never before heard of the organization, and as far as I am able to determine, the company’s only “business” is sending out these awards. The award announcement that I received read, “Each year, the Small Business Institute for Excellence in Commerce (SBIEC) panel identifies firms that have demonstrated excellence in their respective fields and achieved commercial recognition. Your firm has been one of those selected this year and this award exemplifies that distinguished accomplishment.” That vague announcement reads like your horoscope. But wait, there’s more! For only $358.00, you can get a framed certificate, a crystal award, and your own press release campaign (which, of course, cross promotes the SBIEC). In our instance, they would even correct our business name. Basically, they win, you lose.

How do you know if an award is a scam?

If you are told that you or your business is being nominated for an award – or is being presented with an award – it is probably best to think twice before you run out to buy a new tuxedo or evening dress. Follow a few guidelines, and ask a few questions.

Who is presenting the award? Do a Google search for the award. As you type in the name of the alleged award, is Google suggesting that it be followed by the word “scam”? I remember being called a few years ago (not coincidentally, during an election cycle) and being told that I was a small business leader who had been selected to be part of a recognition ceremony to be held in Washington, DC. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, not exactly. It turns out that the “award” had been concocted by a PAC (political action committee) that was designed to generate financial contributions for the National Republican Party. I know people who fell for the “award” and took the trip to have their pockets carefully picked in the nation’s capital.

Is there an entry fee? We have received direct mailings on a regular basis in recent years, inviting us to enter our work for the Davey Awards. The direct mail pieces typically look like they were designed by an untalented 9 year old, but that is just the first tell-tale sign that something is fishy. To enter the competition, you need to pay a $99.00 single entry fee, a $185.00 campaign entry fee, or $270.00 to enter a so-called integrated campaign, or go all out and pay $305.00 to enter a marketing effectiveness category. Adding insult to injury, if you win one of the dubious awards, you will be billed a $175.00 “acceptance fee” for your statuette and certificate.

We have also received similar direct mail pieces from the Telly Awards. According to their website, the organization receives 10,000 to 15,000 entries from small advertising agencies that are hoping to promote their businesses, each paying a minimum entry fee of $85.00. Do the math. That means that this questionable award generates about $1,000,000.00 for its promoters … just from the entry fees. Want to, once again, add insult to injury? If you “win” one of these dubious awards, you will be automatically charged an additional $170.00 for your award statuette (probably plastic) and your certificate. This seems to be a bargain compared to the Davey Awards, since the minimum entry fee is slightly less, and you will pay $5.00 less for your statuette if you “win”. It is no surprise that, if you search for “Telly Awards scam” on Google, there are currently 113,000 results. The Telly Awards and Davey Awards are not alone in preying upon companies that are eager to broaden their exposure. They are joined by the Webby Awards and many, many other questionable enterprises that appear to be in the business of generating entry fees and selling statuettes. Do you think that anyone who wins an Emmy, Oscar, Tony, or Grammy pays for their award?

Are winners asked to make purchases? In addition to obvious scams, there are many so-called “awards” where the winners are presented with the opportunity to spend money with the award presenters. Among the longest-running are the various Who’s Who directories. Do not be thrown off by what appears to be a recognizable and once-respected name. Who’s Who directories are about as commonplace as Yellow Pages directories these days. For years, I have been asked to validate my nomination to “Who’s Who among Executives and Professionals”. The congratulatory letters read, “The Publishing Committee selected you as a potential candidate based not only upon your current standing, but focusing as well on criteria from executive and professional directories, associations, and trade journals. Given your background, the Director believes your profile makes a fitting addition to our publication. There is no fee nor obligation to be listed. As we are working off of secondary sources, we must receive verification from you that your profile is accurate. After receiving verification, we will validate your registry listing within seven business days. Once finalized, your listing will share prominent registry space with thousands of fellow accomplished individuals across the globe, each representing accomplishment within their own geographical area.”

I do not know a single successful businessperson who needs to be included in a directory of this nature. Despite what the promoters say, there will be a fee to be listed and, of course, you will be presented with the opportunity to purchase one or more of the (very expensive) printed directories. These directories are useless in these days of online reference sources, and even most public library reference departments no longer purchase the worthless volumes. About the only buyers are the same people who think that they were honored by being included. Go to Wikipedia to learn more about various Who’s Who scams. There are currently 47,500,000 search results for the term “Who’s Who scam” on Google.

Does the award require a reciprocal link to the award website? If you remember the early days of the World Wide Web, there were an abundance of website awards that fed the egos of early webmasters. Today, if you search for “website awards” on Google, there are 1,780,000,000 search results. Most of these awards are totally worthless, randomly selecting “winners” who are encouraged to “proudly display” the award badge on their website, linking it back to the award website. Basically, these award sites are link farms that are trying to enhance their own SEO through a network of links. As time goes on, Google and the other search engine robots have gotten much better at ignoring these sites – and even penalizing the sites that are linked to or from them.

Is the award organizer the primary recipient of value from the award? Many regional newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations present annual “Best Of” awards, covering a wide range of categories. The categories all happen to consist of potential advertisers, and the awards are almost universally run by the advertising departments of the publications or broadcast organizations. The awards that are compiled based upon the votes of readers or viewers at least carry a bit of credibility. Even in those instances, the voting process may require a visit to the sponsor’s website (and all of its accompanying self-promotional messages). In almost every instance, the business that is presenting the awards will supply certificates that winners are encouraged to display at their places of business, badges that may be displayed on their websites, and award icons that may be added to their print advertising. All of that awareness does more to promote the businesses that are presenting the awards than the award recipients themselves. Is it any surprise that these awards have been concocted by advertising departments, and that winners are encouraged to buy advertising to help to promote their awards? This type of award is not an outright scam, but I would caution recipients against being overly manipulated in the process of engaging in their own part of the self-promotion.

Is the award presenter and the award recipient the same organization? There are also many thinly-veiled attempts to cross-promote one’s business ventures by having one organization present an “award” to what is essentially another arm of the same organization. This is somewhat along the lines of having General Motors present an award to its Buick division as the “Automobile Manufacturer of the Year”. Nobody would fall for that. Or would they?

Let the Winner Beware

The bottom line is that we all like to be recognized for our efforts, but beware of being exploited by people who prey upon that fact. Even recognition under legitimate competitions within an industry or a member association can be somewhat dubious because winners are only selected from among those who enter. Run your business properly, and your efforts will be acknowledged on a daily basis by your success and the satisfaction level of your clientele. This is the best recognition possible … and all that you really need.

In the very early days of the Internet, people would visit websites simply for the novelty of viewing their content. It didn’t take much to engage an audience for your product or service at a time when few of your competitors even had a presence online. You were there, and that was cool enough.

Today, with nearly 4 billion pages of content, your website is a very small fish in an enormous ocean that is filled with sea creatures of monstrous proportions. If and when visitors find you online, they want to find answers to their questions, presented in an organized manner that makes the information easy to find.

In the interest of streamlining the user experience, it may be time to reevaluate your site – adding, updating, and cross-referencing content as needed. As is often the case, a good place to start is a review of your statistics on Google Analytics. I would suggest taking a careful look at the new Behavior Flow data found under the Content reports.

Your website’s Behavior Flow report will graphically present the “flow” of visitor traffic from page to page within your site, allowing you to identify the content that keeps visitors engaged, as well as the content that seems to be showing your visitors the door. Are there popular paths of content, and do specific pages frequently lead visitors to another secondary page? How much time do visitors spend on specific pages, do they appear to be searching for content, and are they spending time viewing a photo gallery or embedded videos? These questions – and more – should all be answered. If there is measurably popular content on your website, provide more of the same by either adding to the page or adding one or more pages of related content.

Photo galleries and videos consistently prove to be popular content that engages visitors. Because each photo is said to convey a thousand words, people can often see the answers to their questions right there in your photos. (“Yes, I see a dog on a leash, so pets are allowed.”) Videos can be even better than photos because they allow you to tell your story. Just be sure that your story anticipates and answers questions, rather than creating a new set of questions that will remain to be answered. For example, a video may show a security gate, but does it leave people wondering about access cards? Or you may mention the tranquility of quiet nights, but does it say when your quiet hours begin and end? Think ahead, anticipate questions, and provide answers.

Make Your Phone Time Count

If you find that you or your staff are repeatedly answering the same phone questions, is it because the answers are either not available or too difficult to find on your website? If that is the case, you only have yourself to blame. Make your time answering the phone more productive, answering campsite-related questions that are prerequisite to finalizing a reservation. Each of the following questions should be answered on your website, in a logical location that is easy to find.

• Will I have wi-fi at my site?
• Are pets allowed in your cabin rentals?
• Will your swimming pool be open during our stay?
• Is there a fee to use your miniature golf course?
• Is there a charge to run the air conditioning unit in my RV?

It is essential that fee-related information, in particular, be referenced on your website. In some instances, the information should probably be provided in more locations than one. For example, your pet policy should probably appear in your rules, on your cabin rentals page, and directly on your reservation request form. The duplication of content is far preferable than dealing with a disgruntled guest who shows up at your registration desk without the rabies vaccination certificate that you require or with two Pit Bulls that you do not allow.

According to Emily Yellin, author of “Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us,” the average customer service phone call handled by a small business like yours costs $7.50 to process. This takes into account compensation for the staff member who fields the call and any subsequent follow-up or fulfillment action that might be required. The smaller your business and the more limited your staff, the more likely it is that you will be the one taking the calls yourself. While you are providing those answers that should already appear on your website, you are taking the time that could be applied toward a more productive task. It could also come at the expense of a customer who is ready to make an immediate reservation decision who is instead met with a busy signal or a request to be put on hold.

As is usually the best practice, try to put yourself in the role of your potential customer. If necessary, ask a trusted third party for assistance in evaluating your site. Ensure that your website is a properly maintained component of a well-oiled machine that generates the new business that is the key to your overall business growth and survival.

Have you ever seen a website that was built under the “Kitchen Sink Theory” of website design? These were much more common in the early days of the World Wide Web, fifteen or twenty years ago, when common practices in design and layout were still evolving. Today, they are most often the result of do-it-yourself efforts, where a business owner mistakenly believes that he can build his own website, has the time to devote to the ongoing project, and doesn’t need to pay somebody to do what he can do himself. He is correct on at least one count, because it is true that anybody can build their own website.

The people who build their own websites are usually “Type A” personalities who find it difficult to delegate responsibility and who undervalue the labor of anybody other than themselves. In other instances, the creation of the website that can literally make or break a business is entrusted to Uncle Fred or Young Danny, the kid who lives up the street and who is “really good with computers”. Sometimes I wonder if these folks also provide their own medical and dental examinations and treatments!

Of course, there are companies out there that have encouraged this line of thinking by providing step-by-step do-it-yourself templates and inexpensive (or even free – with a few caveats) website hosting services. Those companies include Intuit, Homestead, Vistaprint, Wix, Tripod and many others. Choose a template, pick colors, upload photos, edit text, drag and drop, watch the money roll in, and become the next Internet millionaire. It’s as simple as that.

What the do-it-yourself website companies – as well as Uncle Fred and Young Danny – do not provide is marketing experience, an understanding of your particular business and industry, professional graphic design skills, proofreading and copy editing capabilities, and any interest in preventing your website from going down in flames. Yes, you can build yourself a website with every annoying bell and whistle imaginable. Yes, even bells and whistles themselves, if that’s what you want, including – you guessed it – the kitchen sink.

One of the most common do-it-yourself webmaster mistakes is to believe that lots of content will make a page more important in the eyes of the search engines. The more the merrier. Lots of text and lots of photos. Even better, lots of font variations, lots of colors, lots of animation, and lots of random clipart.

I recently came across exactly this type of website, built by the owner of one of the highest rated and most well-known campgrounds in the United States. The home page alone had 2,777 words of text, 30 photos, 3 large graphic files, and 9 pieces of clipart (4 of which were animated.) The page also included a hit counter, navigation way down near the bottom of the page, and 117 HTML warnings. The page clearly was not going to be a contender to win any awards for aesthetic design, but how did it fare with the search engines? Funny you should ask. When I did a search on Google for what I thought should be the single most intuitive search phrase for this park, it did not appear anywhere on the first 20 pages of search results! In addition, not that websites are intended to be printed, if somebody should try to print out a copy of just the Home page of the site, it would take 27 sheets of paper.

The only way that anybody is going to find this campground’s website is if they are already familiar with the campground, search for camping in the town where it is located, or click on a link from another website. If the owners are looking for new business, they better plan on word of mouth referrals.

If nothing else, the lesson to be learned here is that marketing sense and design skills are important elements in the construction of a successful website. Many people refer to the importance of content that appears “above the fold”, a reference to the location of the most important content – in terms of newsstand appeal – on the front page of a daily newspaper. Although some folks argue that it is the top 600 pixels of content, the “fold” is nearly impossible to define on a website, particularly with the explosive growth in the use of mobile devices, where users expect to scroll for content. The important consideration is not so much the location of the content as the design of the content. Without organization, a cluttered page on a website could easily become as impossible to navigate as War and Peace had Leo Tolstoy written his novel in a single rambling chapter.

Am I suggesting that your campground’s website must be built by a professional website design company? Absolutely! Lest anybody conclude that my intent is to promote my own company’s website development services, let me provide a list of some of our competitors within the campground industry. Those include AGS/Texas Advertising, Strait Web Solutions, Big Rig Media, and other more regional service providers. Many of these companies will have booth space at the fall campground association conferences, from National ARVC to the various state associations. My own company will also be found once again at the enormous IAAPA Attractions Expo, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Whoever you turn to, your next website should embrace the latest technology and have a design that holds its own against the websites of major resorts, theme parks, and airlines – not simply your competitor down the road. Look for a responsive site that works as well on an iPhone, Android device or a Blackberry as it does on a desktop or laptop computer. Most importantly, trim the fat, and present users with a site with the kind of eye appeal and design flow that consistently leads them to your intended call to action. The right website is designed to generate reservations, not frustrations!

In a recent post, I pointed out that it was necessary to take a proactive stance with regard to your business’ ranking on various consumer review sites. If you are lacking reviews on any particular online resource – or, worse yet, you have one or more unfounded negative reviews that are skewing readers’ opinions – you should make an effort to encourage positive input. The question is how to handle this task both properly and effectively.

Once again, a successful campground will be operated in a customer-friendly manner, and reviews of that campground are likely to be overwhelmingly positive. My advice is to proactively promote those reviews and the sites that contain the reviews, rather than simply reacting in a state of panic when a negative review appears, typically written by someone with an axe to grind.

Rather than hiding from reviews, campground owners should provide links to the major review sites – and to individual reviews – on their own websites and within the social media. Encourage your happy campers to post their own reviews, particularly if a review site has a less than stellar recent review of your park. The most recent reviews and the most intelligently written reviews (and responses) carry the greatest credibility. Older reviews or those written by somebody who is obviously on a rant are generally dismissed by readers.

What Is Different?

When taking this proactive stance at encouraging positive reviews, be careful not to cross any lines that might violate the policies of the review sites.

I recently made what I thought was a reasonable attempt at promoting one of our non-campground clients on Yelp. The client’s business was listed on Yelp, but had no reviews and, subsequently, no ranking. I added missing information to the client’s listing and uploaded photos. I then posted the following on their Facebook page:

“If you love our (products) and have visited our retail store, please take a moment to share your thoughts by writing a review on Yelp. It will only take a minute or two. When we have 5 reviews, we will choose one at random and that person will receive a $25.00 gift certificate. Thanks!” I then included a direct link to the listings page on Yelp.

One customer immediately posted a very flattering and positive review, with a 5-star rating. On the basis of this first review, our client then showed an overall 5-star rating … very briefly. Later that day, Yelp “filtered” the review, suggesting that it was of questionable origin. Apparently, our offer of the gift certificate – or possibly simply including a link to the listing page – crossed an imaginary line with Yelp, giving them the impression that we were bribing customers for their comments … which, of course, was far from the truth. A day or two later, the review was reinstated, with another review submitted soon afterward, and our client once again has a 5-star rating with two reviews, both highly positive.

To avoid this problem yourself, refer to Yelp’s review policy:

“The best word of mouth is organic and unsolicited. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, Yelp discourages business owners from asking people to write reviews about their businesses. It’s tough for an algorithm to tell the difference between a business owner aggressively putting a laptop in front of a client and saying, “Give me 5 stars!” and that same business owner flipping the laptop around and manufacturing a fake 5-star review about themselves.”

They continue, “As a general rule, Yelp has advised business owners not to offer incentives for reviews. It’s a slippery slope between the customer who is so delighted by her experience that she takes it upon herself to write a glowing review and the customer who is “encouraged” to write a favorable review in exchange for a special discount. In an effort to minimize spam and maximize trustworthiness of the site’s content, Yelp actively weeds out suspicious reviews through a combination of community self-policing and automated filtering; aggressively solicited reviews can ring hollow at times and end up flagged by users or the website for removal. The system is designed to ensure the reviews consumers rely on are as authentic and useful as possible.”

In other words, Yelp uses analytics to flag online review solicitations, and the worst case scenario could be the removal of your listing, not simply the filtering of the resulting review(s). Learn more about Yelp’s policy by following this link:
https://biz.yelp.com/support/common_questions.

How Do You Handle This?

Yelp encourages businesses to link to both their listing page and to individual reviews. When you have one or more positive reviews, provide links to them on your website and on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Let the power of subtle persuasion influence new reviewers. You may also hand out printed cards with the URL to guests as they check out and rave about their stay, but avoid directly asking for reviews in your online newsletter, on your website, or on your social media pages.

There is a similar policy in place at TripAdvisor, outlined in an extensive network of forum posts. One somewhat extreme example outlines a hotel in England that offered guests 10% discounts and free room upgrades in exchange for positive reviews on TripAdvisor, the Good Food Guide, or the Michelin Guide. Read more, following this link, shortened using Google URL Shortener:
http://goo.gl/cPmHxW

This scheme backfired and the property was red flagged, meaning that TripAdvisor posted that “individuals associated with this property may have interfered with traveler reviews” and showing users a record of the property’s alleged wrong-doing. How do you think that makes your listing look?

There are also companies that specialize in online reputation management, offering to repair damaged reputations for a fee, usually quite ineffectively. If you are considering a reputation management service, the damage has already been done, and you are no doubt at least indirectly responsible for the creation of that damage. There are even companies that will generate fake reviews for a fee, even though this practice is illegal in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, and Italy. Quite naturally, those so-called “services” should never be considered. The best way to get positive reviews is to provide exemplary service that, in and of itself, will encourage people to share their enthusiasm!

I often advise people that their Web address should be treated like their second business name. I also tell them that their URL should be short, memorable, and easy to spell. Ideally, it is the shortest possible variation of your actual business name. This advice is based upon the fact that there are many ways to drive traffic to your website.

Many people think that they build a website, then just sit back and wait for a flood of new business to be magically generated by Google. Well, it doesn’t quite work that way. If you look at the Google Analytics for the average website, you will quickly learn that there are three basic sources of incoming traffic. One is search engines (where Google and Bing are, for all practical purposes, the only games in town), another is referring sites (like Go Camping America, your state campground association, and your local tourism office or chamber of commerce), and the last is what is referred to as “direct traffic”. In many instances, those three broad sources of traffic break down into equal thirds. In this installment, I would like to concentrate on that last segment: Direct traffic.

You can have one of the world’s best websites but, without traffic, it is nothing more than a business with its lights out. People need to find your business, and whatever it might be, every single potential customer counts. If direct traffic represents a third of your potential with respect to new business, you cannot afford to turn a blind eye to that traffic. To start, it helps to know direct traffic’s sources of origin.

Some direct traffic is what is referred to as “type-in” traffic. These are people who, although they already know your business, are probably not familiar with your website. They simply presume that entering your business name, followed by .com will take them to your website. (Hopefully for you, that is the case!) This is the argument in favor of choosing a short, memorable, and intuitive domain name.

Other sources of direct traffic include advertising and listings in printed directories and publications that reach your clientele. If you are a campground owner, you simply cannot afford NOT to be found in your state association directory. These are professionally designed publications that are printed in large quantities, are organized in a manner that makes it easy for people to zero in on specific regions, and are distributed in markets that reach out to both active and potential campers.

In most instances today, the primary purpose of any print advertising is to send prospects to your website, where they can find more information and immediately respond to your “call to action” … which is almost always going to be either a reservation inquiry or a real-time reservation. For this reason, your Web address should be one of the three primary elements of your message, along with your business name and telephone number. With a little imagination, there are so many ways of reaching out to people with your URL. Do you have signage on your vehicles? If so, does it include your Web address? Vinyl signage is very inexpensive these days, and a message on the rear window, tailgate, or rear bumpers on your vehicles will be absorbed by far more people than a message that is seen fleetingly on a side door.

Everything else aside, the single most important way to promote your website is through the use of printed literature. Like your directory advertising, your brochures, rack cards, or other printed literature need to get to the point of sending people to your website. As somebody who started in the advertising industry producing four-color brochures for the outdoor industry, I can tell you that people are printing smaller brochures (or more often rack cards) in lower quantities and with less frequency. The key is to insure that the quality of your literature stands out from the crowd and that it gets distributed. Just like a terrific website that is relatively unseen, the best brochures that sit in a box are failing to generate a penny in new revenues for your business.

Many state campground associations have very inexpensive distribution programs that allow your brochure to “piggyback” with directories that are mailed in fulfillment of consumer requests. Saving the postage will easily cut your costs of reaching those new customers in half. Your state association can also help you to reach campers at major RV shows. You cannot possibly afford the time or the expense to exhibit at every major camping show, typically held during the winter months, when Northern campers are itching for the snow to melt and when Sunbirds are anxious to migrate back to the Northern woods; however, “piggybacking” once again with your state association can be the next best thing.

Although you should certainly consider exhibiting directly at the major shows within your key markets, because there is no substitute for the one-on-one ability of being able to speak directly with your key prospects, rely on the experts to cost-effectively get your literature into the hands of the people who you cannot afford to meet yourself. In addition to the state campground associations, there are at least two companies that provide a similar service that is tailored to the family camping and RV markets. Those two companies are:

• Anderson’s Brochure Distribution Service
• United Brochure Distributors

I apologize if there are others that I may have unintentionally omitted. If they exist, they are probably not doing an efficient job of promoting their own businesses. Other companies maintain literature racks that display campground brochures at RV dealerships from state to state. One of these, serving the state of California, is RV Travlin.

Incorporate these ideas and services, then watch the direct traffic to your website increase substantially by people who are campers, are interested in your state or region, and who would otherwise not know that your business exists.

Maybe you are familiar with the concept of urban legends, plausible but untrue stories that are perpetuated by people who blindly accept and share this misinformation when they read it online. In the old (pre-Internet) days, these were often referred to as “Old Wives’ Tales”, and included nonsense such as how it takes swallowed chewing gum seven years to pass through a person’s digestive system or how you will drown if you go swimming less than an hour after eating. Some of these tales still persist, although most of us have smartened up to the newer wave of wealthy Nigerian widows wanting to share their fortunes and the alleged family members stuck in an airport with an urgent need for a loan.

When it comes to websites and what it takes to attain top search engine rankings, the myths seem to be never-ending, and new scams surface (and older scams resurface) on a regular basis. The fact is that quality content, well-written text, and incoming links are all important factors when the Google or Bing search engine robots are evaluating your website, but the following bits of frequently espoused advice are purely fiction.

1)    Companies can provide top search engine placement. Those telemarketing calls that we all receive, with a pre-recorded message about your website’s poor search engine placement and how the caller’s company can remedy the situation, are sheer rip-offs. First of all, you are only being called because you have a business telephone number that is on a telemarketing list. The caller has not looked at your website and does not even know if you even have a website. They DO know that you probably have money in your bank account. Most of these callers imply that they are affiliated with Google, but they have no connection whatsoever.

2)    Hyphenated domain names are better for SEO. In reality, long domain names and hyphenated domain names should be your last choice, and they have no impact upon SEO. Which example makes more sense – SpaceCenterCamping.com or The-best-campground-near-the-Johnson-Space-Center.com?

3)    The .com extension is ranked higher by search engines. Not true; however, the .com version of a domain name should always be your first choice because many people subconsciously think of .com when they think of domain names. If your domain name is WonderlandCamping.biz, it will be ranked just as highly as WonderlandCamping.com would be by search engines, but many users might inadvertently type in the domain name with the .com extension, usually bringing them to the website of another business (which beat you to the .com), making the .biz extension less desirable.

4)    An older domain name is more valuable than a newer domain name. An older domain name with a high existing search engine ranking is better than a new domain (which spends time in what is referred to as the “Google sandbox” before it gains traction), but there are also older domains that – due to their former content – have actually been delisted by search engines. Typically, the people making this argument are ones who have a domain name that they are trying to sell. The point is that the age of the domain name, in itself, has nothing to do with search engine ranking.

5)    If you register your domain name for the maximum 10 years, it shows the search engines that you have a serious business, so they will rank your website more highly. I actually sat on a roundtable a few years ago where one of my competitors made this outrageously incorrect statement. The fact is that this myth was intentionally started by GoDaddy, in an attempt to get people locked into their service for a longer period of time. It has zero effect on search engine ranking.

6)    Buying sponsored search advertising will influence and improve your organic search engine ranking. This is patently untrue. One has nothing to do with the other, although significant increases in the amount of traffic to, from, and within your site could be a contributing factor in a search engine’s ranking algorithms.

7)    Link exchanges and reciprocal links will improve your search engine ranking. This is also usually untrue, unless the other businesses have something in common with your business, such as serving the same niche of customers. If you own a shoe store, and your website has a page of links to the websites of the major airlines, this is going to do nothing to enhance your search engine ranking.

8)    Load time is no longer important because most people have high-speed Internet access. Actually, load time is still important. Faster loading pages have lower bounce rates (representing the numbers of people who reach a site but leave almost immediately) and their rankings will be higher. This does not suggest that a page should be all text and no graphics, since that type of content is unlikely to persuade visitors to follow the intended call to action.

All in all, it helps to exercise a bit of common sense before concluding that anything and everything that you read online is reliable and true. Even if something sounds plausible, get a second opinion. Either ask somebody whose knowledge you trust, or do a Google search for the claim to see if there are either differences of opinion or a downright disproval.

Years ago, as a business owner you were pretty much in control of how people perceived your business. You advertised to influence opinions, you went out of your way to please your customers, and you provided a quality product or service. Everybody was happy. In the rare instances where a customer was displeased, he told his friends and never returned. Things could have been worse.

Today, things are worse. Conventional advertising has lost much of its credibility and clout, and most people turn to their network of friends (including virtual friends online) for trusted opinions and recommendations. That dissatisfied customer from years past now has the means to amplify his displeasure before an audience of thousands. On the other hand, the same tools are available for your happiest of customers to share their experience and influence equally vast numbers of potential guests.

Most campground owners seem to fear review sites more than an attack of locusts. Those fears are unfounded. P.T. Barnum is often credited with coining the statement, “There is no such thing as bad publicity,” and that concept is truer today, in the age of the Internet, than ever before in history.

First of all, a successful campground will be operated in a customer-friendly manner, and reviews of that campground are likely to be overwhelmingly positive. My advice is to proactively promote those reviews and the sites that contain the reviews, rather than simply reacting in a state of panic when a negative review appears, typically written by someone with an axe to grind.

Rather than hiding from reviews, I encourage campground owners to provide links to the major review sites – and to individual reviews – on their own websites and within the social media. Quote great reviews on your Facebook page and in Tweets, and encourage your guests to post their own reviews, particularly if a review site has a less than stellar recent review of your park. Some review sites allow you to respond to reviews, while others do not. Either way, the most recent reviews and the most intelligently written reviews (and responses) carry the greatest credibility. Older reviews or those written by somebody who is obviously on a rant are generally dismissed by readers.

If you are going to encourage your happy campers to submit reviews, you need to know the review sites that count. You also need to know whenever a review of your park appears online. Use Google Alerts to stay on top of what is being posted about your business online. When guests are checking out, commenting how much they enjoyed their stays, ask them if they would like to submit a review that puts that satisfaction into words. If they agree, send them a follow-up e-mail with a direct link to the review page for your park on the review site of your choice. (Don’t ask them to submit a review on more than one site, since that would be a bit of an imposition.) The following is a list of some of the review sites that need to be on your radar.

RV Park Reviews – This site has been online since 2000 and includes nearly 200,000 reviews of every campground in North America, including yours. If you are not aware of this site and have not read its reviews of your park, you have only yourself to blame. Use this site to your advantage. If you have the highest rated park in your city or town (based upon the average of your 10 most recent reviews, rated on a 1-10 scale), promote that fact by providing a link to the reviews for your park and its competitors. Use transparency to your advantage!

Yelp – This site was started in 2004, gets over 100 million unique visitors per month, and hosts over 39 million reviews. Originally designed to rate local business service providers (like mechanics, electricians, and plumbers), it now includes reviews to lodging services, including campgrounds. As a business, you can setup a free business account that allows you to post photos and additional information that will enhance your listing on the site, as well as generating free widgets that you can use to promote your Yelp reviews on your website. Follow this link to get started: https://biz.yelp.com

TripAdvisor – This is the world’s largest travel-related website. It gets more than 200 million unique visitors per month and contains over 100 million trusted reviews covering more than 2.5 million businesses around the world. Although the site originally concentrated on hotels and similar lodging, it now includes campgrounds under the Specialty Lodging category. If your campground is not yet listed on TripAdvisor, you can submit a listing by following this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/GetListedNew

Because of the volume of traffic, reviews on TripAdvisor carry plenty of clout. As a business owner, you can (and should!) create a free business account, allowing you to update your business details, add photos, receive e-mail notifications of new reviews, and – most importantly – respond to reviews. You can also generate free widgets that can link your website to your reviews. Follow this link to get started: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Owners

GuestRated – Campground owners are probably also familiar with the GuestRated program that was founded by industry consultant Bob MacKinnon in 2008 as the first ongoing guest satisfaction rating program relating to the private campground industry in the United States. Run in conjunction with National ARVC, this online survey program provides very useful consumer information and statistical analytics to campground owners, as well as providing an opportunity to respond to guest reviews. There are also widgets that allow campgrounds to feature reviews and ratings on their websites and that encourage visitors to initiate their own review process. Learn more about the program at: http://www.guestreviews.com

This is far from a conclusive list of review sites. There are many other campground review sites that generate less traffic and less impact upon public opinion. I would recommend not fretting over any of the more obscure review sites, particularly if any investment of your time would come at the expense of the attention that you should be devoting to these review sites that count.

If you have been paying attention long enough, over the years you will have heard all kinds of Web design concepts touted as the newest answer to vanilla ice cream. One by one, they have either fallen by the wayside or are ready to follow the lemmings into that ditch. Progressive JPEG images, animated GIF images, and frames were early concepts that failed to stand the test of time. More recently, Flash animation was once considered the rage; however, as soon as support was dropped by Apple’s iOS (running iPhones and iPads), Flash became about as popular as a case of head lice.

Understandably, many people have grown a bit suspicious when they hear about anything that is marketed as the latest and greatest, so what is the story with responsive Web design? The best way to start answering that question is an explanation of what it is and how it works. Let me begin by saying that, in general, change is a good thing. As the Internet evolves, improvements tend to enhance and improve the user experience.

You may have seen the responsive Web design concept promoted by your local TV stations and similar businesses, usually along the lines of “One Address for Every Device”. Unlike a separate mobile website, responsive technology allows a single website to respond to each user device and display the site in the most appropriate form. Responsive sites are flexible and able to adjust, rearrange, and optimize content on a wide range of displays and input devices. The concept can be summarized in the word fluidity. Responsive sites are based upon the use of a fluid grid, fluid graphics and photos, fluid text, and a fluid background. The grid features a series of stops or fluid breakpoints, where the content switches from one representation to the next.

Unlike a mobile app, which needs to be downloaded and installed (and then may be rarely used), a responsive site is not limited to any one platform, avoiding duplication of expense for Android and Apple devices (with Blackberry, Windows Phone, Firefox OS, Kindle, Nook, and other upcoming mobile devices out of luck). Unlike a separate mobile-friendly website, which incurs a separate set of costs and often trims down the range of content that is presented to the users of mobile devices, a responsive website presents a consistent range of content that is optimized for every user’s device. This is a new way of building websites, and it is being quickly embraced both by top developers and savvy clients as a more future-proof, economical and elegant approach to delivering content across the expanding ocean of Web capable devices.

When visiting a responsive website using a desktop computer or laptop, you are presented with one version of the site. Using a tablet or smartphone, you are presented with alternate versions that are automatically optimized for the display size and touch-based input. When viewing a responsive website on a conventional desktop or laptop computer, you can actually resize your browsing window to see the content transform in real time as you reach the grid stops or breakpoints. Cool? Yes!

My own company’s first venture into responsive website design was the new website built for the Vermont Campground Association, the first responsive campground association website in the United States. The accompanying graphic shows the content as displayed on a variety of common devices.

Other than keeping up with technology and presenting your business in a savvy technological light, what are the other advantages of turning to responsive design for your next website? First of all, as I have already alluded, the total cost will probably be less than the cost of developing separate conventional and mobile sites. It is also no longer necessary to register a separate “mobile” domain name or even create a separate subdomain for your mobile content. In all likelihood, this will reduce your recurring hosting costs.

One big advantage presented by responsive technology is the consistency of branding that it allows. No longer do you have to wonder whether somebody is viewing your “full” website on a desktop computer or the abbreviated content on a mobile device. You also can eliminate those “Click here to view our mobile site” or “Click here to download our mobile app” links. A responsive site sends those links to the buggy whip museum!

Check the Google Analytics on your website. (If your website is not running Google Analytics, stop what you are doing, and get it installed!) I just checked the Google Analytics for one well-known campground website that we maintain, and the statistics are compelling. The site generates enough traffic for these statistics to be both meaningful and valid. Over the last 12 months, 28.1% of the visitors to their website were using a mobile device. Within the last month, that percentage shot up to 39.9%, and within the last week is up to 41.7%. Within the last 24 hours? It’s up to 42.3%. Do you see a trend?

Just as important, without either a responsive or a mobile website, visitors to this campground’s website who are using mobile devices are spending roughly two-thirds of the time that is spent by visitors using conventional computers, and the bounce rate is an astounding 85% higher. (The bounce rate represents visitors who reach a website and leave quickly.) Yes, people using mobile devices are prone to make quicker decisions, but these numbers simply represent lost traffic … and lost traffic means lost business.

Perhaps most importantly, responsive technology is good for your website’s SEO (search engine optimization). In fact, both Google and Bing have endorsed responsive Web design. Only one address needs to be indexed, and only one address needs to be checked when viewing your analytic reports. No longer will multiple versions of content be diluting the search engine ranking of your pages. Whatever form it takes, search engines have always hated (and penalized) duplicate content. It’s as simple as that!

Now that I have explained what it is, how it works, and its many advantages, are you ready to decide? Will your next website be built using yesterday’s technology or for tomorrow’s users?

Content for this article was also contributed by Joshua Pelland and Charles Davis, Pelland Advertising staff members.