Managing Property Descriptions on Your Website Through VRM
Your vacation rentals can exist in multiple web groups without limit. They can also have unique property descriptions based on the web group if you are attempting to target different audiences with the different web groups. For example, you have a property that is both pet friendly and ocean front. In the ocean front group you might want to begin your description and emphasize the information about the ocean while in the pet friendly, you may want to start the description with that information.
If you have a large number of rental units or a small staff, this can become difficult to keep up with, as any changes to equipment, beds, etc would have to be changed in each web group. But it is possible and we have a few clients using this functionality. However, if you want to only manage one description across all web groups, be sure to choose "Descriptions - All Groups" when saving any changes.
Writing Good Property Descriptions
Over the years we have observed that companies who take time to write good property descriptions for their website convert at a higher rate.
Best practices for writing good descriptions.
- Make the first 150 characters count. The will become part of your meta description if you have VRM's on line search engine 4.x or newer. Put your main selling points first. Then describe your beds and bedrooms next. Sleeping arrangements are critical for many parties so don't just list the number of bedrooms and beds. Describe the features and sleeping arrangements within each room. Use numbers to help the reader find what they are looking for. 1 bedroom is better than one bedroom. Then describe the common areas such as kitchen, dining and living areas and be sure to include all the features to each room, including the television, internet and other entertainment amenities. Be specific and include the details, making it easier for vacationers to plan what items they need to bring.
- Eliminate abbreviations - The web gives you virtually unlimited space to write the description of your vacation rentals, so lose those abbreviations that you've been using for years in the printed brochure. When writing a property description, take the time to form complete sentences using proper grammar.
- Use paragraph spacing, bold, etc. Its much easier to read a long description when it is broken into paragraphs. The description field is HTML friendly, plus you have a WYSIWYG editor you can use.
- Be careful to avoid too much duplication. While many of your properties may have similar characteristics, especially condo units, it will hurt your efforts to get all of your property pages indexed in the search engines if the only thing different about the description is the name of the property. Emphasize those features that make the rental unique.
- Aim for a minimum of 300 words and use keywords like your area, oceanfront, pet friendly, condo complex name, etc. But be careful and DO NOT over use keywords.
- Lose outdated announcements - Keep descriptions up to date. If you announce that the parking lot is being repaved June 1st 2010 and its December 1st 2010, well it looks like you aren't on top of things. When you put an announcement like that in, mark your calendar to let you know when to take it back out again.
- Add a call to action. The reader has seen the pictures and read the description, and they like the property. Help them make a decision by directing them to the next step. Tell them exactly what you want them to do.
- Read it out loud. This is the most simple, and yet underused way to make sure your description reads well and is effective. If you don't like how it sounds out loud, it won't read well either.
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