| Q. Before we add our Camp Site |
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I have taken a look over your directory and it
looks good and navigates easily.
Before we agree to add our listing, I would
like to know if your site will be easily picked up
by the search engines.
We have listed with a few sites in the past and
been very disappointed with the lack of response.
If we do decide to list, can we do it easily
through your site?
.....................
It is very early days for the directory, and it
will take time more than anything, we would
estimate around a year for it to get really
running, which will be around December 2006.
However, we are confident it will. We create
websites for a living, full time, this is the
second for ourselves as a pose to a client, the
first being target='_blank'>The Bed and Breakfast
Directory. We do sell ourselves on where our
clients rank in the search engines.
If you look for the tyre pressure for your car, or
look for a transformer manufacturer you will be
looking at one of our clients sites.
The E Camping directory is as search engine
friendly as we can make it, there are a couple of
pages that could be tweaked a little better if it
were all done manually, but for ease of
maintenance we have let this go.
We admit, you are unlikely to get many or maybe
even any enquiries over the early days, it will
take that long for many search engines to index
most of the pages, and there is Google's new site
filter to overcome; which is predominantly a case
of time.
But will it in the end? Yes, I think so. I think
it is better than most, it's easier to navigate,
you don't have to search, though you can if you
wish, and every page will be found by the likes of
Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.
Though you are unlikely to get enquiries early on,
there is an advantage in going on early, as your
full page will have more relevance, more length of
time in the index than newer pages, more likely to
come up in the results straight in the search
engines as a pose to the directory.
It is easy to add to the site, as easy as I can
make it, and it is free .... it is our interest to
have as many Campsites as possible listed, and
then aim for a small percentage of them to find
paying for the optional extras, such as extra
pictures, listing higher, having feedback / guest
comments, and recording enquiries is worth while.
We looked at more than fifty accommodation
directories before starting work on the site, and
more since I've really finished the engine behind,
and I haven't found one that I think works better
or is any more Search Engine friendly.
There are improvements i have pencilled in, such
as a wishlist for visitors, larger pictures for
the premium entries, etc. but these are better
added over time, this will have greater impact in
the likes of Google. I would also like to break
say for example, New Zealand down into regions,
but until the numbers are higher it is to be
avoided, there's no point having thousands of
pages with no content, better to have a few
hundred with good content.
I hate going to directories, clicking on say
Africa > Sub Sahara > South Africa > Pretoria and
when I've finally got there it says "we have no
Campsites in this location" ... I've tried to
avoid that, you will only ever have links to
places where at least one Campsite is listed.
Will the E Camping Directory work? Yes, I believe
so and I am quite good at this, but I can only
shorten the time it takes a little.
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