Enter the World of Web 2.0 with an Online Hotel Blog

Lodging Blog

A Blog (also known as a weblog) is essentially a software or online service that allows you to quickly post your thoughts, interact with people, and promote your business or concept online. Blogs are like interactive online journals that update your website with fresh, new content which in turn elevates your value and ranking with the search engines. Some of the key benefits of having a blog include the following:

• Higher Ranking – Posting a Blog pings the search engines every time new content is posted. This results in frequent search engine spider visits and much higher optimization and ranking.
• Socializing Blogs - Blogs help in securing quality links from other relevant Blogs by track backs, comments, etc. Blogs helps gain link popularity and drive relevant traffic.
• Blogs Establish Credibility and Trust – Blogs establish a credible platform for online customer interaction.

By creating a blog for your hotel, you will be able to attract visitors looking for things to do surrounding your destination. Milestone blogs are “destination centric,” meaning that they are pages discussing dining, local attractions, transportation, local events, etc. We use your hotel as the Featured Property situated within the destination. With pages of the blog discussing all of the local draws to your surrounding area, you will be positioned to capture demand which you’ve never drawn in before.

Milestone will create pages relevant to your business, post articles on different destination-related subjects, and offer a platform for others to write their comments or opinions on that post. We will customize the look and feel of the blog to work with your concept and destination.

As the administrator of the blog, you will have the ability to monitor posts to maintain the integrity of the forum. The value of blogs is twofold: Search Engines and People. Search engines love blogs because they are a channel for fresh, user generated content. People love blogs, because they trust user generated comments as they tend to be frank and candid in nature. These are among the reasons that sites such as Trip Advisor rank high organically—go ahead, be your own Trip Advisor! Once the blog is developed, Milestone will promote the blog in different search engines and track ROI from the blog.

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Milestone Blog Products

Milestone has developed some of lodging industry’s leading blogs and is working with several lodging clients to create Blogs and RSS strategies. Blogs are helping hotels gain higher ranking and secure relevant traffic to their websites. Call Milestone to find out moreabout creating custom Blogs, RSS promotion strategy, and view samples of lodging industry blogs and RSS Feeds. For examples of two different types of Milestone Blogs, check out:

• http://blog.reunionresort.com
• http://blog.rivernorthhotel.com

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RSS Feeds

RSS (Real Simple Syndication) Feeds are a simple way to syndicate the content of your website, and are a faster way of communication to your target audience. Your RSS subscribers can always stay current with the latest news about your products and offerings.

The key benefits of RSS Feeds are:

• You can syndicate your website or blog content on other relevant sites or syndicate other site content on your website. For example you can put feeds relevant to the lodging industry on your blog from other blogs.
• Relevant and time sensitive content such as Press Releases, Articles, and Announcements on your site can be distributed through RSS search engines and aggregators just by the click on the button.

Click here to read an article on Blogs and RSS on Milestone Internet Marketing Blog.

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