How to create awesome web content and achieve top search engine rankings

This blog post highlights a very successful marketer - Larry Waight of The Lodge at Chaa Creek, an eco-resort in Western Belize - who has achieved high search engine rankings for many important keywords. This content marketing effort generates a remarkable 80% of new business for the Lodge. This important case example is among the best I've seen if you want to learn how content drives business. This is brand journalism at its finest.

As anyone who has built a web site knows, there is much more to think about than just the content. Design, color, navigation, and appropriate technology are all important aspects of a good web site. Unfortunately, in many organizations these other concerns dominate. Why is that? I think it’s easier to focus on a site's design or technology than on its content.

One of my favorite examples of sites with poor content but big budget design and technology are the global hotel chains. Go to any hotel property from the majors: Hilton, Sheraton, Marriott, or any others from around the world. They all look the same! They have almost no original content about that property!

Yes, appearance and navigation are important. But the best sites focus primarily on content to pull together their various buyers, markets, media, and products in one comprehensive place where content is not only king, but president and Pope as well.

Content drives action

Contrast the vast majority of hotel sites with that of The Lodge at Chaa Creek. I had an opportunity to stay at Chaa Creek a few weeks ago and I interviewed Larry Waight about how he creates his awesome content.

Direct link to the video How to create awesome web content and achieve top search engine rankings on YouTube.

Larry researches what people are searching on such as Belize honeymoon and Belize all inclusive. He then created content on his site or Belize Travel Blog specifically for these phrases which are ranked highly in the search engines.

Solving buyers problem with content

Most interesting to me is how Larry creates content that is about Belize, not just about the hotel.

This is an essential element of Chaa Creek's marketing success. Search terms such as Belize winter solstice 2012 and bird watching in Belize drive people to the lodge who were searching on general travel information. Brilliant.

On his Belize Travel Blog, Larry also writes not about the lodge itself but about Belize travel such as Ten reasons why Belize makes for Honeymoon Bliss.

Brand Journalism

One of my favorite examples of this technique of writing about the things people are interested in is how Larry has created a bunch of content about the local Mayan sites nearby the hotel such as Xunantunich Maya Temples. And, get this, he even writes about the Tikal Mayan site - which is in Guatemala – another country! - about two hours from Chaa Creek.

All this content drives people to the hotel site and blog through the search engines and many people will then choose to stay at The Lodge at Chaa Creek. Indeed, some 80% of new bookings to the Lodge are from this content marketing effort.

This is one of the best examples of content marketing I've seen. If you want to learn more about how Larry creates content, do take the time to watch the video.

It was Larry's introductions that got me to Belize which shows the power of connecting with people via social media. Thanks Larry! I'm planning on returning, with my family next time.

Disclosure (updated September 12, 2012): I connected with Larry several years ago through both Facebook and Twitter. This year we communicated via Facebook about a visit to Belize. To facilitate that, Larry introduced me to the Director of the Belize Tourism Industry Association who invited me to speak in Belize at the Belize Marketing Summit. Because I was going to be in Belize anyway, Larry invited me extend my visit and stay to The Lodge at Chaa Creek for a few days, covering part (but not all) of the costs of my hotel stay. However, this blog post is in no way a paid endorsement. I chose to write this because I truly believe the Lodge at Chaa Creek is a terrific example of success.

Comments

[Dragan Mestrovic]

Great article David.

This is another proof that content marketing drives business. But there are still unteachable people out there which prefer to claim the opposite out of their fears of the new.

[David Meerman Scott]

Thank you Dragan. @LarryWaight is a superstar marketer.

[Johna]

Fantastic interview David. And a big Congratulations again to Larry, on this years exceptional progress. Magnificent and precise SEO work!

Highest regards,
John Alexander
Http://www.SearchEngineAcademy.com

[Dexter Abraham - MyNoteTakingNerd]

Wow how beautiful is that place?

From a marketing perspective it goes to show you how the internet has leveled the playing field with just a little effort.

So much time is spent by marketers trying to game the system and find the shortcuts or just no effort at all.

the truth is that if you just get inside of your readers and prospects mind and then provide Epic Content they want...

..They will in turn share and that is what it takes to succeed online.

Relevant content shared with a hungry market.
'
Thanks for this David

[David Meerman Scott]

THank you John. I love when I find a perfect example like this one.

Dexter - I was thinking the same thing and you wrote it for me -- so many marketers are looking for shortcuts or figuring out ways to game the system (for example, I just deleted 20 spam comments from this blog). But this example shows that Larry's hard work in developing content is what pays off in the end.

[Emma Hart]

David, love the blog!
Its amazing that your video is compelling, engaging and watchable even when the video quality isn't the best, no tripod ect.

[Paula Patton]

SEO is the very effective part of website promoting technique. So we have to follow proper ways to build quality backlinks to improve ranking. after read your blog I've found lots of amazing information regarding this topic.

[Rj_c]

I have worked with hotels who are part of the major brands and it is pretty shocking to see how these major brands to keep uniformity will shut down anyone posting unique content for a property.

That is where the smaller hotels can grab a competitive edge over the major brands.

[Larrywaight]

Thank you once again David for featuring the internet marketing work that I have been doing at Chaa Creek for the past few years.

It was back in 2009 that I stumble on your book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" and it was that book that changed my paradigm on how to market a business online. Everything that you recommended in the book, I instituted on our website and I was glad to connect with you on Facebook and invite you to Belize to help change the paradigms of marketers in this country.

If your business cannot be found online, then you do not exist. If you want to know why Marketing is evolving and why the internet has to do with it, then read the book "The New Rules of Marketing and PR".

[William]

Very cool stuff. I am always wondering where to get some extra keywords that are not already highly saturated. Using events to drive in the traffic is a great idea. It is hard to do that on something like our business, being a website design company but for parks and hotels, this is a great idea!

[Ibelmopan]

Good day,

I am a Belizean blogger and I know what you talking about here. But just to add a little, the competitiveness on Belizean keywords, has risen just like tourism. What this means is that Tourism has a lot to do with the amount of traffic your Belizean site receives nowadays. That is why Larry is such a successful writer in Belize. He uses keywords that a common tourist will search for in Google and then he elaborates on it. Simply Brilliant! I have experienced the same luck, like Larry, in my blog and I recommend to all Belizeans out there that this is one of the best examples of content marketing.

Regards,
ibelmopan2.blogspot.com

[Connie Brentford]

Nice to see a Belizean resort doing a great job. I've been hanging on Ambergris Caye in Belize for a couple of months now and this is not the case in San Pedro. Most hotel resort businesses have the flat, static one page website that never gets updated and they wonder why business is slow.

[Angela Booth]

Excellent article and video about creating content, and thinking about content from the searchers' point of view.

I love the idea of partnering with others, too, and promoting them using content.

Thanks for this.

[David Meerman Scott]

Emma - Done with an iPhone and iMovie!

Rj_c - yes! I love how a smal independent resort can smoke the big chains in search.

William - everybody says that "this works for the other guys but not us". Really? Have you tried?

ibelmopan - Larry was among the first and has a lead but the best content wins in the end.

Connie - exactly!! "I wonder why Chaa Creek is busy and we are not..."

Angele - Larry is the best.

[David Meerman Scott]

Larry!!

Thanks for jumping in. I can't tell you how excited I am when someone like you implements my ideas and has such an amazing success. I appreciate you letting me know.

The face that we met via social media and cooked up my Belize visit on Facebook makes the whole thing a wonderful example of The New Rules of Marketing and PR at work!

See you back in Belize next year.

David

[BG Jenkins]

Thank you David for sharing this. This is quite an exciting idea for bringing tourists, not only for his resort, but also for this area, and Guatemala, as well as being cost effective.

[chad]

no doubt... with good keyword research and quality content you can drive lots of targeted traffic. However, writing good quality content is what seems to be almost every website owners worst nightmare.

[Lucy Fleming]

David, I just want to clarify that we use a professional writer at Chaa Creek to develop our content, and I think that’s an important ingredient to the content mix. It seriously boosts your chances of getting your media releases run on professional sites, such as online editions of newspapers and magazines. For the record and as Chaa Creek's GM and Marketing Director, I just wanted to make sure that Mark Langan, our Australian journalist and writer, gets credit as our content writer.

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Lucy

Many thanks for stopping by. Of course! Mark and your entire team deserve praise!

Best, David

[Mark]

Thanks for the kind words David
I’d like to share my views on one component that makes Chaa Creek marketing so successful, and such a delight to be part of -teamwork.
We’ve developed a synergy at Chaa Creek that brings out the best in people. For example, owner and GM Lucy Fleming is a very talented writer and obviously successful marketer herself, but with the advent of blogging and content marketing she put together a team that is not only SEO savvy, but could capture the interest of a general audience as well as journalists and editors with quality content. The fact that I can write media releases and content from here in Australia (although I’ve lived in Belize for years) to be posted from Chaa Creek in real time shows the awesome potential of global teambuilding via the internet. You gotta love it.
At Chaa Creek we are all constantly on the lookout for media opportunities, and Google daily media alerts are invaluable. By sharing information, no matter how offbeat it may seem, we always find something of interest to our growing audience. It’s a fairly relentless process, but it’s creative and great fun.
Also, continually feeding a PR Web account is the best investment an organisation can make, and HARO is another great asset.
I love writing Chaa Creek’s content because it’s like playing in a band or ocean yacht racing – a great ride with people pulling together to get some pretty awesome results.
Thanks again David, and please keep up the inspirational work.

[David Meerman Scott]

Mark, what I love about what you, Lucy, and Larry are doing at Chaa Creek is that you have embraced the stuff I've been talking about and made it a huge success. You're real-time. You do press releases for SEO purposes. You're into newsjacking. You create content in the way a mainstream media journalist does.

I'm not taking any credit - you've done it. But I do so appreciate that I can talk up your success to all the skeptics out there. Yesterday I spoke to 50 Swiss CEOs at an event outside Zurich. I told them about Chaa Creek. They listened and learned.

Keep up the great work.

[Mark]

Please do take credit, Mate.

By distilling all those elements down into clear, comprehensible and even entertaining reading, you opened many people's eyes to the awesome power available to all of us right now. As I wrote earlier, you helped level the playing field so that an agency in a big city skyscraper no longer stands above a little office in a rainforest.

And that's pretty far-out...

We're all in this together, but you're out in front with the torch leading the way, and sincere thanks for that David.

Cheers,

Mark

[David Meerman Scott]

Thank you Mark. You've made my day.

[Ayisha]

Great article about creating web content. I got some idea from your post. You've done really excellent work. I'll visit your blog again.

[Volkan Callar]

Really a nice article and great example for content marketing.

Many companies started creating more content, but still they are only talking about themselves and their products instead of thinking what their target group need.

I will show this example to my customers.

[Mark L]

I think many organisations miss the opportunity to create meaningful, lasting relationships with their target audiences instead of just pushing the product or service at them. We look at it like being at a party - do you see crowds around the person just talking about themselves, or the one who has something interesting to say? And once you have their ear - and their trust - they naturally want to know more about you.
It's why I love content marketing and why it works so well for Chaa Creek. You get to talk about interesting stuff instead of just being a salesperson. And the bonus is the teambuilding aspect - the more people contributing the more interesting your content becomes and everyone feels involved. It's win-win to the max...

[IXWebHosting coupon]

The problem is that many website owners either focus on the content only or else focus only on achieving a high search engine rank (dishing out huge amounts of cash for SEO). I believe that these are interdependent, and by neglecting any one of them, the website would be certainly destined to fail in its purpose. It is useless trying to rank high in search engines without having quality content captivating your audience, and likewise it is useless having perfect and extensive content but which no one reads as the website is not search-engine-friendly. Very helpful article for those wishing to achieve success with their website, David.

[Mark Langan]

Hi IXWebHosting

Could not agree more. We have a strong creative team that works closely with our strongly focussed SEO/ media outreach team. They are two different disciplines but create great synergy when working together. The Marketing Director (who at Chaa Creek is also the owner)coordinates all efforts to ensure consistency and organisational integrity. It works very well.

Anyway, I think you hit the nail on the head...

[Sambredl]

Absolutely inspiring David!

It made me write a german blog post about the story. Don't know if you speak german but you can check it out here anyway: http://www.takeoffpr.com/wie-man-mit-online-pr-zu-kunden-kommt/

I'm always happy to see such powerful examples of how the new rules of marketing and pr are working :)

[Richard H.]

Branding will surely helps site rankings. Thanks for your brilliant insights. Somehow I learned to change my strategic approach.