Dear property client,
I would like to advise you of some recent changes at Dav1es Property Management; For the last few years our client base has gradually increased and we have added some beautiful new properties in Knysna, Noetzie & Plett. Our portfolio now stands at a total of 13 houses [12 of them are available for short-term lets]. Property Management has always been our core business but short-term rentals are now a significant contributor – for us and for our clients. The market is also ever changing. The recession hit us hard in FY10/11 but we picked up the following year and are now back in growth. Specifically, we nearly doubled our rentals business last year over FY11/2 and there have also been some major improvements in the way we are now able to promote and advertise our products on the web. This has made it necessary to do two significant things;
- We have taken on the services of Jessie ten Velde – specifically to manage rental enquiries and to coordinate our internet marketing activity. Jessie comes from an strong IT / tourism background and brings with her a wealth of experience and not an insignificant amount of drive and energy. She has already begun to ring in the changes – which takes me nicely onto the second recent initiative…
- We have just launched our brand new website;
The reasons for this are;
- DPM started as a property management company and the original website [and regular revisions] were based on this core activity. This emphasis has gradually shifted to the point where rentals are now the primary focus of our advertising and marketing activity.
- The website has altered over time to keep up with this shift, in not only emphasis, but more importantly, in audience. 99.8% of the visitors to the site are now people looking for a holiday rental property.
- As the traffic to the site has grown [between 700 to 1,000 visits per month, 3,500 individual page views per month and an average time on site of 7 minutes] it has become obvious that, in order to maximise visitor numbers, it should be more capable of tapping into various techniques that will improve its Google ranking further [and therefore improve the number of visits to the site] through the various search engines.
- This gave us the opportunity to develop a site with content that changes more often – very important for search engine optimisation [SEO]. In addition to the careful manipulation of content and keys words & phrases we now have a blog section [on the new Garden Route events page] where events, news, etc. can be added by a variety of contributors.
- People now browse the internet more often using a variety of devices such as tablets and smartphones. Currently 23% of all visits to the site are from mobile devices. The new site is capable of being viewed and used on all formats and, although mobile Internet speed isn’t the best here in SA, it was thought that now was the time to migrate and get ahead of the competition.
Other initiatives are;
- We are currently designing a showcase on the accommodation pages of ShowMe community web sites with a focus on attracting additional exposure primarily from Cape Town and to further assist in boosting our Google rankings – more to follow on this later…
- Finally we now have a Dav1es Exclusive holiday Rentals Facebook page!
So how can you help us to move forward?
Here are a few easy ways;
- Please send us your stories – and as often as possible. The more news, blogs, interesting snippets about your property or experiences in and around this area the better. Please send them directly to Jessie [ Jessie@dav1es.co.za ] and she will post them on the site.
- Please “like” us on the Facebook section [on the foot of the main page].
- Please send the webpage link – https://dav1es.co.za – to all your friends [tell them to take a new look at your beautiful holiday home] and ask them to “like” the site too. Ask your friends to send the link to their friends, and so on.
Remember; the more new content, “likes” and hits we receive on the website the higher your property will feature in the Google rankings when people are searching for luxury accommodation on the Garden Route. The more people see your property, the more rentals we secure, etc., etc.
We still have few things that we have to complete for the website – including the introduction of previous guest “testimonials” on each property page – but from now on it will be a moving feast so watch this space! ;]
Very best wishes,
Richard (& the DPM team)
Villa Rentals
Dav1es Property Management
Tel: +27 (0)72 679 7473
