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Why Webcams Can Be A Hotel�s Best Friend
May 25, 2007 - Ever since the online video YouTube era began, I�ve heard less and less about its important and once ubiquitous predecessor, the webcam. In case you�ve forgotten, the webcam is basically a camera that broadcasts pictures to the internet in real time. While this instant distribution has its advantages, the disadvantages (slow frame rates, poor image quality, etc) have quickly hastened its demise.

So if the webcam isn�t pretty and can�t seem to compete against its evolved and polished follower the video why are we talking about it? 

There are two main reasons: The direct traffic they can drive to your hotel�s website and the additional links you�ll acquire by having one at your hotel. 

Although the amount of searches being performed for webcam related words has dropped in the past couple years, they are still significant. That, coupled with the relatively low saturation of pages related to geo-specific webcam searches makes obtaining a top listing for a webcam related word quite easy to do. In addition, the pages and sites that do have webcams are often weak when it comes to basic optimization, making those top rankings and subsequent traffic even easier to grab than you would think. 

At this point you may be thinking, �Sounds great but my keyword research tells me there aren�t enough searches for �webcam� to make setting it up worthwhile.� Fair point but in my experience the best reason to build and host a webcam at your property isn�t for the direct traffic, but for the links you�ll earn to your website. (Quick overview: Links to your site=Higher rankings in search engines. For more info visit here). 

One hotel I manage, for instance, earned two Wikipedia links alone by adding webcams to their site. In addition, after notifying local tourism, visitor bureaus and city government sites of the webcams the amount of high quality links the site earned was fantastic! Keep in mind, adding a webcam doesn�t mean you�ll automatically get the same kind of links, but not having the webcam will definitely ensure that you won�t get those kinds of links.

It should be noted that pursuing this is not going to be a magic solution for any property that is hurting badly in a search engine. It is, however, one of those many other things you could be doing with your website to make sure your online presence is as effective as possible.

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Contact:

Adam Dorfman
SIM Partners
773.259.9319
[email protected]
http://www.simpartners.biz

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Also See: 3 Easy Ways to Increase Your Hotel�s Search Engine Presence� Without LinkBuilding! / Adam Dorfman / February 2007
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