You’ve filled out the information on our List Your RV page and your beautiful Class A is up on the site. The time is right, and you’re ready to start earning money from renting out your RV. You just want more renters! What can you do to get more people to rent your RV on Outdoorsy? Here are 10 great ways to help us help you by building up SEO (search engine optimization, or a fancy way of saying, “Hey, Google, look at me!”):
1. Join the Outdoorsy RV Owner Community
The Outdoorsy RV Owner Community really is the place to be. It’s filled with hundreds of passionate, knowledgeable people with the same mission as you. Which means that it’s the perfect place for idea-sharing. In fact, at least three of the ideas on this list came directly from the group. We are stronger united as a group, and this community certainly proves that.
Here’s a recent example: One owner had the idea of everyone sharing their social platforms with each other. If the entire group followed each other’s Instagram, Facebook, Google +, Youtube, Twitter, etc channels, it would increase traffic to all when they posted their listings or other content. This is a great, fast win.
2. Share your listing on your social platforms.
Speaking of social platforms, make sure to put your listing up on all of your social media accounts. And it’s a good idea to repost it every few months, depending on seasonality. Share photos of your renters or a note about a trip someone took…all it takes is a new hook and a photo.
3. Create a Travel Guide using the “Recommend” tab on your owner dashboard.
When you add the places near you that you know and love, they appear on local city pages near you, driving more traffic to your listing! This is a great way to get more people to see your RV.
4. List your rig on Craigslist, too.
Here’s a how-to on posting your rig on Craigslist. As you are building up a new rental business, Craigslist can do wonders for sending you interested renters. It’s often where people start when searching for rentals.
5. Take opportunities to be featured on Outdoorsy.
We look forward to more and more of these opportunities moving forward in 2017. The goal is for everyone to be able to share their knowledge and expertise about their area while building up traffic. It’s a win-win for everyone.
6. Put your RV rental on Linkedin.
This idea came directly from the owner’s group and the mind of Peder Halseide of Colorado SUV Rentals. What a good mind it is!
7. Put a video of your RV up on Youtube.
Be like CamperVanGuy. Check this out!
8. When you see Outdoorsy in Google search results, click on it.
Michael Baines, owner of this great Forest River Sunseeker in Mobile, Alabama, brought these words of wisdom in the Outdoorsy Owner’s group. He says, “The more we do click on Outdoorsy from different devices/IP addresses the higher up the page google will place Outdoorsy. ” He even notes not to click on the ad cause we end up paying for that without hitting renters!
I also wanted to let people know that just because you’re seeing Outdoorsy on the bottom of page 1 doesn’t mean that everyone else does. Here’s why different people see different Google results.
9. Review your renter right after the trip.
“I find that if you review the renter after the rental is over, they tend to review you back. I always just mention the review when we are shaking hands at the end to to kind of hint at it. Had fairly good success with reviews from this method.”
This is very smart–thanks for the tip, Wyatt. (It’s clearly working for you, too. People love renting from you!)
Getting reviews is a huge way to bump up your results not only in Google, but in Outdoorsy, too. Another way: respond within the first 24 hours when a renter reaches out to you. Even if the answer is no, the most important thing is to respond quickly.
10. Share Outdoorsy content and PR appearances.
This one is going to seem self-serving since I am the one working on these initiatives, but the truth is that other brands like Outdoorsy get a high proportion of their traffic from backlinks. If we are able to get traffic to our appearances (did you know we were on CNN recently?) then Google takes notes and boosts us overall. It makes a huge difference if our content is shared on the internet, which is why I try create useful, entertaining content relevant for everyone in our community.
Thank you to everyone in our owner’s group who has so passionately worked to help us get stronger and bigger every step of the way! We have great momentum thanks to you.
