B&B Website Advice

The advice I offer comes in two forms. The first is advice for things to avoid on your Bed and Breakfast's website. This can help you avoid the all too common mistakes many web designers make that can cost you a lot of guests. They won't run from your inn because your website is ugly, they will simply never find your web site and they will miss out on all the wonderful things your inn has to offer. The second section of advice focuses on making sense of the marketing recommendations some "marketing professionals" will offer you. Keep in mind, as you go through my advice, that I approach my explanations from the standpoint of both an innkeeper and a web developer.

B&B Website Design Advice

Top web design mistakes to avoid

• Mistake #1: Images of text instead of real text
• Mistake #2: Splash pages
• Mistake #3: Fancy pull-down menus
• Mistake #4: Bad page titles
• Mistake #5: Optimizing just the Home page
• Mistake #6: Web site uses frames
• Mistake #7: Flash as your whole site
• Mistake #8: Hidden text or hidden links
• Mistake #9: One-way valve pages
• Mistake # 10: Music or Sounds on your website

Quality Website Design Advice

• Optimize your web site to show up well in search engines
• Should my B&B website link to other attractions in my area?
• How can a B&B save money or limit their expenses on web site design?
• When starting up, build your Bed and Breakfast web site early
• Use high quality photos of your B&B
• Your B&B website should use CSS

B&B Web Site Marketing Advice

Common lies told by website promotion companies

• Lie #1: We'll submit your site to 1000 search engines
• Lie #2: You should host your site with us because we do design, marketing, and hosting
• Lie #3: We have magic powers and can get you the best listings
• Lie #4: The best thing for your site is to use Pay Per Click (PPC) advertizing
• Lie #5: We can get you to the top of the search engines tomorrow
• Lie #6: Add this page of "Link Partners" to your site, it will boost your rankings with no risk
• Lie #7: You need more domain names (web addresses) to get more visitors
• Lie #8: Use our technology to put you at the top of the Search Engines
• Lie #9: Pay us a yearly SEO fee and we will make sure your site is continually optimized

Good Marketing Advice for your B&B

• Which search engines should my B&B website target?
• How do I choose which Bed and Breakfast directories to list my B&B in?
• Honesty Really is Best by Kathleen Panek
• Create a B&B blog and use it wisely to promote your area
• What can a website tracker tell me about my B&B website?
• If we live in a small town near a bigger city, should we get a PO Box in that city so we can list that as our address to get more B&B traffic?

Website tools for evaluating the health of your B&B website

Resources for Starting a Bed and Breakfast / Innkeeper Resources