January 9, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Index to travel directories helps lodgings market online

Lodgings in our region can use an index of national travel directories recently published on the Web to market themselves online. Web-traffic records of a dozen local lodgings were broken down into a list of all the directories sending visitors to those lodgings, ranked in order of how much of each lodging's traffic came from each directory. The resulting list provides valuable information about how well each directory performs in our region.

Also published is a similar index for regional travel directories. This may be even more valuable because local directories can deliver even more traffic to lodgings' web sites than national directories, but up to now there hasn't been a guide to how well local directories perform. This list could help lodgings in our region decide which chamber or lodging association to join, or which local directory to approach for a paid listing.

These indexes can be viewed at www.shaunjohnstondesign.com. Shaun Johnston has been publishing regional web directories for nearly a decade, and is now broadening out his services to include registering lodgings in other directories, as well as providing lodging-specific website design. Shaun is also the regional representative for BookingCenter, makers of a suite of tools for in-house property management and online room-booking. Additional details can be found at the web site.

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