Your Own Website for Direct Booking—What Platform?

It’s important to get your own URL. You don’t want some websitebuilder[dot]com/yourlisting thing. URLs are cheap, you can buy them from GoDaddy.

You need the URL to be something you can easily say without any slashes or whatever.

Once you’ve bought your URL, GoDaddy can also arrange hosting for you. They will try to sell you all sorts of other stuff along the way, none of which you need.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to access your control panel and easily add Wordpress. WP sites can be as simple or as complex as you like. One thing they are good for though is search engine presence. If you’re creating your own site, the marketing of it ought to be considered first and foremost - design, colours, even content can come later once you’ve got the marketing and promotion sorted out.

There’s no need to pay for search results. Create an informative site with information about your listing and the local area. Best of all, have a regular blog where you update the content of the site. (Every week, every month or whatever - the regularity of updates is more important than the time gap).

Promote your website via social media, tagging local influencers (such as a tourist authority).

5 Likes