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Market research

by marks2424
7 replies
How to do market research if you don't know where to go. I have had a travel site up for about 3 and a half years I have many pages on page 1 on google, yahoo and bing, some keyword phrases are in position one.

One phrase I am on google no 1 is choosing an italian hotel. Out of the between 30 and 70 hits I get on my site a day an average of 10 end up using this keyword phrase and land on my hotel page.

My problem is in the time I have had this site up I have never had anyone book a hotel through my site. I have had people book flights, rental cars, guided tours and other things but never a hotel.

The page tells people how to find what they are looking for in a hotel in Italy and even how to use the hotel booking service but no one comes back after reading the article to use the booking service on my site.

I know they are reading the article on the hotel page because click tale says most people stay on the page for over 5 minutes then leaves where google analytics doesn't tell me anything about how long they are on the page unless they go to another page.

So I guess my question is since there aren't any forums about finding an italian hotel and the travel forums don't ever seem to have that subject listed how can I find out what these people are looking for and want.

We are always told to put into our sites what the customer is looking for and when I put this page together I put in the information I was looking for when I first started traveling to Italy because I didn't know what to look for or how to do anything.

However I don't know if that is what people want and don't know how to find out what they want. How can I find out. Also there is nothing on page 1, 2 or 3 of google, yahoo or bing that gives any kind of information like my site all there seems to be are booking companies and all they do is give you lists of hotels to look over.
#market #research
  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Wellington
    I'm not sure if this fully answers your questions or helps you a great deal, but I think it would be a better idea to target buyer keywords. People searching for 'Choosing an Italian Hotel' are looking for information, whereas someone who is searching 'Where to book an Italian Hotel' or even 'Best Hotels in Sorrento' are already set on going on holiday and are looking to book their hotel or holiday package. This is the main distinction between attracting buyers and general people. You need to catch them towards the end of their research.

    However, it isn't a good sign when you have absolutely no sales. Maybe you can share a link to the article? Not sure it's allowed on this forum, as it could be considered promotion, but it would give us an idea whether it is good quality or what can be changed to the webpage.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      There are a number of variables that you need to test. As Matthew above suggests, maybe having "buyer" keywords will help.

      Another variable is the selling power of the sites you're linking to in your articles. You are not directly selling on your site. Like an affiliate, you are only referring traffic to the sellers with a soft "pre-sell" that your articles are doing in order to send traffic to a link.

      No matter how good your articles may be, you of course realize that the selling of the prospect is not happening on your site.

      Steve
      Signature

      Steve Browne, online business strategies, tips, guidance, and resources
      SteveBrowneDirect

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    • Profile picture of the author DennyAfstand
      Originally Posted by Matthew Wellington View Post

      I'm not sure if this fully answers your questions or helps you a great deal, but I think it would be a better idea to target buyer keywords. People searching for 'Choosing an Italian Hotel' are looking for information, whereas someone who is searching 'Where to book an Italian Hotel' or even 'Best Hotels in Sorrento' are already set on going on holiday and are looking to book their hotel or holiday package.
      However, it isn't a good sign when you have absolutely no sales. Maybe you can share a link to the article? Not sure it's allowed on this forum, as it could be considered promotion, but it would give us an idea whether it is good quality or what can be changed to the webpage.
      You are absolutely right. Analysis and reports in the field of tourism is so drawn because it visible human figure.
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  • Profile picture of the author marks2424
    Steve B I am an affiliate but sending people to the booking companies page is the only way they do it even with travelocity which I also used you don't really have a booking page you have to send the people to them.
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  • Profile picture of the author marks2424
    I also use buying keywords like where to book an italian hotel like you mentioned but I can't beat out the giant hotel booking companies, when I check where I am with those keywords I am way back on page 3 and who is going to go way back to page 3 just to end up on one of the booking companies sites you passed on page one.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlinesolutions1985
    May be the fair is cheap than you have?
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  • Profile picture of the author marks2424
    Onlinesolutions1985 they can't have lower prices then me because I am using them, example I am an affiliate of Travelocity so if someone goes trough my site to get to Travelocity they will get the exact same price because they are ending up on the exact same Travelocity page mine just has my commission coding in it so I get commission, there is no extra cost involved.
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