Regional Tourist Board "ignores" Google

[_monet208]

Hi
Its a simple fact that my regional Tourist organisation website does not appear on the first page of Goggle (or any other) Search, when one types in a major town or city in our region , in the gogggle search box.
For years now we have made on-line booking available for our accommodation on the regional website but thought we were doing something wrong,despite having 5* and a Gold Award,as bookings from the site were disasterous.
Then we joined a major on-line booking agency,who do appear on the first page of goggle and bookings poured in !!
I have raised this at every level including VisitBritain but especially with my local Councils Tourist office and with my regional organisation-even a email to our Director -unanswered ! BUT NO ONE wants to know and yet today my regional organisation isgoing to announce groundbreaking initiatives to get people into our regional - IF its
targeted at the internet then I humbly apologies for the topic !

Do other members find their regional organisation so out of date ???

[_Sharpe]

Hi
Its a simple fact that my regional Tourist organisation website does not appear on the first page of Goggle (or any other) Search, when one types in a major town or city in our region , in the gogggle search box.
For years now we have made on-line booking available for our accommodation on the regional website but thought we were doing something wrong,despite having 5* and a Gold Award,as bookings from the site were disasterous.
Then we joined a major on-line booking agency,who do appear on the first page of goggle and bookings poured in !!
I have raised this at every level including VisitBritain but especially with my local Councils Tourist office and with my regional organisation-even a email to our Director -unanswered ! BUT NO ONE wants to know and yet today my regional organisation isgoing to announce groundbreaking initiatives to get people into our regional - IF its
targeted at the internet then I humbly apologies for the topic !

Do other members find their regional organisation so out of date ???
I've experienced this as well. In fact, when I saw website hits fall by 35% from 2008 to 2009, I alerted my regional tourist board and I was told it was because I wasn't updating the accommodation website enough. That was simply not true. My own personal website comes up on Google before the regional tourism website does on searches. Our Google page rank is the same!

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

I joined Visit Wiltshire last year and am really pleased with the way they market us and the efforts they are making to publicise our relatively unknown county. I have a competition for a free weekend on BBC Countryfile's website and newsletters at the mo which is far cheaper than placing an advert. Visit Wiltshire suggested and arranged it.
Having said that, a quick Google of several local towns returns varying results - their Salisbury entry is No.1 on page 1 but my own nearest town, Devizes, doesn't appear in the first 10 pages I've checked (my site is on page 8 but I target walkers rather than B&B. More detailed searches return better results.

[greenbarncottages]

Sue - I reckon you're lucky with Visit Wiltshire, but then as you say it's not top of the list for tourism, lovely though it is (I used to live just over the border near Stockbridge), so maybe they try harder. However, much as I liked Salisbury, if I was heading back to Wiltshire I'd definitely pay a return visit to Devizes, so it's a shame it doesn't get a higher ranking.

We're in Cumbria, but closer to the Yorkshire Dales than the Lakes. Cumbria Tourism make a big song and dance about visitor numbers, but let's be honest - the Lake District sells itself. Their commitment to those of us offering something special away from the hustle of the Lake District is best illustrated by the fact that Cumbria Tourism's website is called Go Lakes. Enough said! As with some of the larger listing sites, success seems to breed complacency.

[Sue: White Horse Walking Holidays]

Visit Wiltshire is in its infancy in its present form and they're trying really hard. In fact I'm off to another sessin this morning where attraction providers will be exhibiting their info and we accommodation providers can see what's going on in the county. There was a lovely article about the area in the current Countryfile mag which is why they thought of the promotion.

I agree that places like the Lake District do sell themselves although the vast majority of the people I know who walk there look for cheap bunkhouses and camping. And agreed, people aren't really made aware of the other attractions.

[Der Alte Fritz]

Down here in sunny Sussex we have noticed that self same thing. We have done several tests on the local sites and found that the various levels of sites such as VB, Visitt South East England, etc, do not bring up all the local inspected establishments, often do not bring up local towns in the searches and generally are pretty useless.

This has been reported to our local 'data monitor', the Tourist Board, Regional Tourist Board, VB web developers, and we are making some progress but it is still far from perfect.

[The_Sanctuary]

If you are using Google Analytics (or similar) on your website to track how people get to your site, it's quite easy to see how effective your local tourist board site is in attracting traffic. I just happen to be in Wiltshire as well, and agree that VisitWiltshire as an organisation is trying harder. So full marks to them for that. But as a source of web referrals, it's woefully poor. I'm looking at the Trafic Source page in Google Analytics right now, and here are our top ten sources:
1 google / organic = 286
2 (direct) / (none) = 90
3 nationaltrail.co.uk / referral = 46
4 bedandbreakfast-directory.co.uk / referral =39
5 en.wikipedia.org / referral = 13
6 marlboroughwilts.co.uk / referral =12
7 ogbournestgeorge.org.uk / referral =12
8 visitwiltshire.co.uk / referral =9
9 bedandbreakfastsearcher.co.uk / referral =6
10 druidnetwork.org / referral = 5

So VisitWiltshire is at number 9. Do I blame them? Actually, no, because like most Local Tourist Boards, they are still struggling to come to terms with the way the world has changed, and that people are using the internet to do their own searches for accomodation.

[kendalcottages]

...Cumbria Tourism's website is called Go Lakes. Enough said!

Indeed. I can understand why CT push the Lakes - it's what everyone's heard of (as opposed to Cumbria) and it's the 'easy bit' to promote, but it does appear to send a very clear message to anyone such as ourselves operating outside the National Park. I am in two minds whether to join.