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circlehlodge

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Joined
Aug 13, 2013
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I'm a little frustrated with the volume of inquiries we are getting. We have guests at the B&B right now that said it was next to impossible to find us. We spend a lot with google ad words, we're on bedandbreakfast.com, we have amazing reviews on trip advisor, I feel like we're trying very hard to let guests know that we're here, but feel like I'm missing the mark. Does anybody have suggestions?
 
I went to your website and it took forever to load. Now, I do have a slow connection, so I would like others to comment in case it's just my connection.
No online reservations?????? This is MUST to stay competitive. Most people now will just go on to the next site if they can't see at least an availability calendar.
I can't find a Google+ page for your business...ok, now I found it, but you haven't 'claimed' it or done anything to it. This is important for your google online presence.
How are your organic search results for your keywords? You must be logged out of google, then do searches for your keywords and see how far down you're listed.
 
We're glad you're here Circle H!
1) Start blogging
2) The LIKE page symbol on your website doesn't bring me to your FB page, why not? How do I find your Facebook page? I don't want to like it, I want to see it! I am a googling queen and already I am put off by that, I have to cut n paste or try to find it in Facebook...
3) I have never heard of you. I should have, your place is amazing!
5) I found your FB page it is overwhelmingly wedding devoted (at first glance) is this what you want or do you want B&B guests as well aside from the wedding part? If not, then it is terrific focusing on the wedding aspect.
6) You come up well in google images
Say hello to your Chef from Virginia... :)
 
Sorry! I forgot to welcome you! WELCOME!
Ditto with what JB said. Time to start blogging. Also, I would love to see more pictures on your website. Just for an example, show us a picture of your chef and some amazing food he creates. Have some pictures on your menu page, etc. People just don't read much anymore. Pictures sell these days.
Your place looks beautiful!
 
Welcome but....
Sorry to say your website is really poor. So dated and not at all appealing to visitors. That may be at the heart of your problem Plus what everyone else has already said.
 
We're glad you're here Circle H!
1) Start blogging
2) The LIKE page symbol on your website doesn't bring me to your FB page, why not? How do I find your Facebook page? I don't want to like it, I want to see it! I am a googling queen and already I am put off by that, I have to cut n paste or try to find it in Facebook...
3) I have never heard of you. I should have, your place is amazing!
5) I found your FB page it is overwhelmingly wedding devoted (at first glance) is this what you want or do you want B&B guests as well aside from the wedding part? If not, then it is terrific focusing on the wedding aspect.
6) You come up well in google images
Say hello to your Chef from Virginia... :).
Thanks so much for the tip on the FB on our website. We just had the website re-done and we're still working out the kinks. We have been doing wedding for years and opened up more recently as a B&B. Also, I am working on setting up a blog soon, to get that part going.
I very much appreciate you taking the time to give me this insight!! And I will tell Chef you say hi!
 
I went to your website and it took forever to load. Now, I do have a slow connection, so I would like others to comment in case it's just my connection.
No online reservations?????? This is MUST to stay competitive. Most people now will just go on to the next site if they can't see at least an availability calendar.
I can't find a Google+ page for your business...ok, now I found it, but you haven't 'claimed' it or done anything to it. This is important for your google online presence.
How are your organic search results for your keywords? You must be logged out of google, then do searches for your keywords and see how far down you're listed..
I have been on the phone all day getting the on line booking set up. But I very much appreciate the google+ tip, that's great! I'm not familiar with how that works, so I'll have to look into that?!
I'm going to try to update our google adwords, thanks for that, too!
 
Hi & welcome! Your place is to die for!
Now on to your question. I did a few searches on Google for your place. Other than seeing the adwords, your website it not coming up on the first couple of pages. Not sure how, or if, the web designers did SEO but that may be your biggest problem on people finding your site. If you had them focus primarily on weddings, receptions then that may be the reason as well. Speak with them and ask about SEO.
As a person that has used Ad words, they can eat you alive these days. And more and more we find that people searching do not click on the ads. After signing up for Google Analytics, which if you haven't done so you should, we started tracking our Ad words click throughs and found that they attributed to a 95% bounce rate. This was primarily due to the 3rd party sponsored ads (i.e. personal pages with Google ads where there is a commission per click - look in the left column on this forum for example)
One thing I strongly suggest to edit on your website is the video. Many people are searching during work hours and to have a video with sound start (and then repeat) is one reason many may opt OFF your site right away. Have your web designer change this to a click to play with an additional option for sound on/off.
I do agree with another poster - you need to have online reservations.
Also I suggest adding a general info page under the B&B tab. Provide general info like you did under the reunion tab, then on to the individual rooms pages.
Best of luck and hope you stick around.
 
We're glad you're here Circle H!
1) Start blogging
2) The LIKE page symbol on your website doesn't bring me to your FB page, why not? How do I find your Facebook page? I don't want to like it, I want to see it! I am a googling queen and already I am put off by that, I have to cut n paste or try to find it in Facebook...
3) I have never heard of you. I should have, your place is amazing!
5) I found your FB page it is overwhelmingly wedding devoted (at first glance) is this what you want or do you want B&B guests as well aside from the wedding part? If not, then it is terrific focusing on the wedding aspect.
6) You come up well in google images
Say hello to your Chef from Virginia... :).
Thanks so much for the tip on the FB on our website. We just had the website re-done and we're still working out the kinks. We have been doing wedding for years and opened up more recently as a B&B. Also, I am working on setting up a blog soon, to get that part going.
I very much appreciate you taking the time to give me this insight!! And I will tell Chef you say hi!
.
If you just had your website redone...then I must be looking at the wrong site...I would never have paid someone for doing that!
 
I went to your website and it took forever to load. Now, I do have a slow connection, so I would like others to comment in case it's just my connection.
No online reservations?????? This is MUST to stay competitive. Most people now will just go on to the next site if they can't see at least an availability calendar.
I can't find a Google+ page for your business...ok, now I found it, but you haven't 'claimed' it or done anything to it. This is important for your google online presence.
How are your organic search results for your keywords? You must be logged out of google, then do searches for your keywords and see how far down you're listed..
I have been on the phone all day getting the on line booking set up. But I very much appreciate the google+ tip, that's great! I'm not familiar with how that works, so I'll have to look into that?!
I'm going to try to update our google adwords, thanks for that, too!
.
circlehlodge said:
I have been on the phone all day getting the on line booking set up. But I very much appreciate the google+ tip, that's great! I'm not familiar with how that works, so I'll have to look into that?!
I'm going to try to update our google adwords, thanks for that, too!
There is a ton of info on this forum about online marketing and social media. I hope you stick around for it, you couldn't PAY for this innformation anywhere else! There are web designers here, Presidents of B&B Associations, innkeepers who excel at marketing and fun people all around. We tend to not sugar coat, so you can ask and we will tell. Please keep that in mind when reading the remarks.
You have come to the right place!
shades_smile.gif

 
I found your site easily when I Googled it by name, and was impressed until I read the sentance about your pricing:
Pricing
Given rates change based upon time of year, length of stay and demand, ​Please email us to get current pricing at [email protected].

I was immediately turned off. To me this reads "If you have to ask, you can't afford it". My inclination was to look elsewhere. Someone that may want to book with you is not going to wait around for an email to see if they can afford you or not. Consumers want instant results and information. you're making your potential customers work to get basic information.
As mentioned previously, online reservations are a must. But, you have to state your rates! At a minimum, provide a price range.
If they change seasonly, say so, but state them.
 
I found your site easily when I Googled it by name, and was impressed until I read the sentance about your pricing:
Pricing
Given rates change based upon time of year, length of stay and demand, ​Please email us to get current pricing at [email protected].

I was immediately turned off. To me this reads "If you have to ask, you can't afford it". My inclination was to look elsewhere. Someone that may want to book with you is not going to wait around for an email to see if they can afford you or not. Consumers want instant results and information. you're making your potential customers work to get basic information.
As mentioned previously, online reservations are a must. But, you have to state your rates! At a minimum, provide a price range.
If they change seasonly, say so, but state them..
And it takes me all of 2 minutes to go into my web site and change my prices plus another 5 to change them in my online reservationskey simply because it takes me that long for this numbnutz to figure out what to do - not because it is hard.
 
I think the website is nice, but I agree that it's too heavy on the weddings. If I was looking for a B&B, my first thought was that the place would be crawling with wedding guests and reception partiers.
  • Photo stream at bottom of site: 30 pics total = 20 are wedding specific & 10 are generic B&B
  • When I started to search for you and typed "circle h lodge", Google does its little guessing game to decide what else I might want to type and there was a list of other keywords. The other key words were "weddings", "leakey tx" and "inks lake" (in that order). There was no "bed & breakfast" keyword. So, you might want to check your keyword & SEO settings as someone else mentioned.
  • Your Bed & Breakfast page has no information, just a sentence telling them to look at your rooms. You've made alot of effort to put info on the Reunion and Wedding pages. It looks like the B&B is just a side effort.
  • On your home page, you mention that your place was voted the best B&B in the Texas Hill Country. Why is that hidden at the end of a paragraph? Why aren't you screaming that to your visitors??? That's huge! You should have a banner or seal or some distinction on your home page that shows that important designation!
  • I'd like to see more pictures of inside the rooms in the photo stream on your Bed & Breakfast Page - most are of guests and common areas. And JB will tell you that you should name those pictures better. All of those pics will show up in Google image searches, but if they were named better they will market for you even more. Also consider that the picture name is coming up when the person has their cursor over the picture - good opportunity to give them a bit of info instead of B%26B+description+%235.jpg. How about Free-Canoes-Circle-H-Lodge.jpg
  • Activities page - these are all pictures, clicking on them brings up a bigger picture. No links to businesses/attractions or more information. Spicewood+Vineyards and Splash+Boats+Rentals doesn't tell me anything. You're making the guest leave your website to do a manual search for these things. You should be making it easy on them. Once they leave your page, they are liable to get sidetracked or stumble across another B&B that does a better job of closing the sale.
Just some quick thoughts. I like the website, but I can see why you are not getting the B&B traffic that you want.
Good luck & Welcome to Innspiring!
 
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