Show me a good geo site

[pbryd]

I have chosen to develop my geo site, I live on the coast in the North East, so it's pretty decent for tourists.

I'm looking for inspirational sites to help me develop a geo site aimed at tourists visiting Tyneside.

I'll be using Wordpress of course.

Phil

 

[ratboy]

http://www.selkirk.co.uk/

Scottish Borders - uses Wordpress. £50 worth of content.

 

[robrob is verified member.]

More local news but I have a few contributors to http://www.wrexham.com !

 

[mallymally is verified member.]

http://www.selkirk.co.uk/

Scottish Borders - uses Wordpress. £50 worth of content.

Nice looking site, do you build these under your ministe projects for customers?

 

[ratboy]

Here Mally
http://www.topsearch.co.uk/minisites/

Few new ones done recently, don't think the owner will mind:
www.weddinginsurance.net
www.carinsurancegroups.org

 

[ratboy]

More local news but I have a few contributors to http://www.wrexham.com !

Rob you know I hate to compliment you, but that site is better than most local newspapers sites!

 

[Sussexite]

www.westsussex.info. Got shortlisted for .INFO awards a coupe of years back.

Started late 2008. 40-50,000 UVs a month

PS agree about Wrexham - v v good news site.

 

[ratboy]

@Sussexite - lovely site that. Masses of excellent content - thats the key feature to any geo development.

 

[Sussexite]

@ Ratboy

Thank you for the kind words.

By the way, for any geo domain owners on Acorn I've started collecting news about UK Geodomains in a minor way on a site called georeport.co.uk. It's mostly noting geodomain sales and stuff like that, but I believe passionately in the private sector developing good quality geowebsites on geodomains to compete with the state (which dominates geo search terms at the moment in most parts of the country).

If any geo domain owners want to talk about their geodomains, how they've developed their sites etc, either by way of a guest post or an interview-style article, please PM me.

 

[pbryd]

Ok so I'm thinking I need pages for

Hotels
Guest houses

What's On

Cinema
Galleries and museums
Beaches
Shopping

Get here
Contact

 

[retired_member36]

You could also add

Local News Feeds
Weather

Places To Eat
Pubs & Clubs
Taxi Numbers
Local Shops etc

 

[boxfish]

Ok so I'm thinking I need pages for
Hotels
Guest houses
What's On
Cinema
Galleries and museums
Beaches
Shopping
Get here
Contact

I think having a what's on makes it a lot more 'hands on' than not to keep it updated. Take a look at Wrexham.com. The last going out post on the homepage was 'Bonfire night events 2011' and imo does the site more harm than good as is doesn't look like it's being kept on top of, and keeping on top of them takes time, or money.

Also, looking at your list you have hotels and guest houses first, which is probably your priority. My priority would be local information, history, the area, local knowledge, local quirky independent shops. Make a really interesting site, full of pictures, doing this will make it really easy to get quality links from similar sites but also from hotels and guesthouses as it's quality information they can refer their guests to.

You can also feature any interesting/old/different hotels/buildings/attractions, get some interesting facts/pictures/stories, write it all up then ask the owner to link to their feature from their website. (The benefit of this is you get free content, a link and a high ranking when someone searches for their hotel/business name)

Once you have all this I would then look at monetising it with the guesthouse/hotel stuff. It is a lot more work and takes longer but you'll get a lot better result than installing wordpress, sticking up lateroom banners and a hotel datafeed and then wondering where to go next.

 

[Sussexite]

I think having a what's on makes it a lot more 'hands on' than not to keep it updated.....

and..

It is a lot more work and takes longer but you'll get a lot better result

Both are very true. What's On is very popular. You can build up a core of annual events which get refreshed once a year to ease the work and supplement this with more temporary things like theatre listings and new events. You will get lots of links from people asking to be in your What's On Guide so 3 hours or so a month is worthwhile.

Like any site, go after long tail searches first where there isn't much competition. Write nice things and link out freely.

Eventually enough of that goodwill will come back to you for you to rank OK for "yourdomain" + hotels and other competitive phrases.

 

[pbryd]

I think i'll drop the "what's on" because I don't want to be continually updating it to begin with. "Places to Visit" might be another option on the main menu then.

Home
Places to Visit

• Galleries
• Museums
• Beaches
• Local History

Accommodation

• Hotels
• Guest Houses

Food and Drink

• Restaurants
• Gastro Pubs

Getting here
Contact