Congratulations to Kashka and Marva Haynes of Adulo Apartments.

Adulo has won the reward for the pro-active use of AXSES technology.

Regarding AXSES Kashka says: 'I think you guys do a fantastic job. We at Adulo Apartments have benefited significantly from working with AXSES. The exposure and room bookings received through the Internet via our AXSES developed web site and through our presence on http://Barbados.org has become a major part of our business'.

A brand doesn't exist on shelves—it exists in the hearts and minds of people! Your brand needs to be seen and it needs a clear hook to stand out of the crowd and connect.

Being seen on the Internet means being on the first page of search results. This is getting harder as more and more companies vie for position.

Have you wondered why Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are often listed above brand websites on the Search Engines. The answer is that OTAs understand the importance of optimising content for Search Engines and they employ professionals to Search Engine Optimise (SEO) their website. Their brand pages also provide better and more strategic information, including instant quotes, special rates, packages, air, cost comparisons and services that are relevant to travel shoppers. But with today's technology, hotels and tourism websites can be just as rich and better.

"Creating the best, deepest, most unique and relevant content (textual and visual) about your hotel on your own website, naturally optimised for the search engines, should become a top priority for any hotel in 2010" Max Starkov (eHotelier 2010).

The keys to good placement on the search engines are really quite simple. It is all about relevant content, links and process.

CONTENT for SEO Branding

Words are strategic, use them effectively. Don't call your pages index.htm or welcome or home. If your target is families looking for a Caribbean holiday, consider naming it "Caribbean-family-hotel.htm". Use "Caribbean family hotel" in your page titles, heading, text and images. Each page must focus on a specific keyword or phrase (>>> make each page a "pea soup" not a pottage).

Don't duplicate content and don't overdo a word. Any word with a frequency over 5% may be considered spam. Duplicate content can get you de-listed. To see how complicated it can become check google

Add your brand name to every page. Use your brand name as the directory or the Internet address (URL). Search engines will then see you as mybrand.com/caribbean-family-hotel.htm. Your brand must reach out to its market with relevant comment. A family page should talk about aspects of family vacations: Kids clubs, children activities, family meals, family entertainment, baby-sitting, child paddle pools, playgrounds etc, are all relevant to your brand and are very relevant to the search engines (>>>semantic index).

Use words that people are looking for. There are several tools that will tell you how many people are searching for a word or phrase. The trick is to find your niche - express that in words that will resonate with searchers and the search engines. ( >>> SEO keyword tools)

Target and re-target. 16 million pages compete for "Caribbean family hotels". Only 10 are on page 1. Consider "Barbados Family hotel": 1/2 million pages. The most hardened SEO professional could spend ages optimising this and not get on the first page. Consider "Barbados budget family hotels" 110.000. Can you beat all 110.000 sites for first place? Probably not. A SEO marketing consultant who understand every detail of how the engines work might.

Search engine constantly change their systems to make search as relevant as possible. They also tweak systems to stop abuse, Ie: to stop those who try to get high ranking by using deceptive practices and search engine tricks (SEO spamming). If a site is suspect it can be de-listed. SEO consultants have to be very informed and must be very careful not to inadvertently cause a site to be perceived as spamming.

Finally when your pages are optimised you still need help to get to the top. You have to have links from quality sites and your site must be seen as superior. We will deal with links and process in the next newsletter. When all things are equal and you are as good as 100,000 other sites, your links and process will make the difference.