Hipcamp Host SEO & Marketing Guide

To empower Hipcamp Hosts and campground owners to market their land, we’ve created a guide with our top SEO and marketing tips.

Check them out, and feel free to get in touch with our support team if you have any questions.

Optimize Your Listing

Make your listing complete + competitive

✏️ Title your listings with unique, descriptive names

Follow these key tips from the Hipcamp SEO team to optimize your land and site names.

For listing names, specific nouns and adjectives that make that listing both clear to the searching camper and unique among other listings is the way to go. Adjectives should aim for the thing that makes the listing special. Privacy? Shade of old hardwoods? Sounds of a bubbling brook? Big enough for a party? Nouns should be structure-specific if there is one (or not!).

Examples of great listing names for SEO:

• • Peaceful RV Spot
  • Glamping Canvas Tent With a View
  • Large Group Sheep Farm
  • Babbling Brook Tranquility for Tents
  • Private Wooded Tent Getaway
  • Treehouse Perch Glamping

Your listing names do not have to be funny because people don’t Google puns (as much as we love puns). It can be super literal. Think about clicking on one of those listing names and getting what it delivers. It’s perfect for the user (and eventually, Google).

🎟️ Add local activities, events, and attractions to your listing description.

This increases the chances that campers will find you in local search results. Describe nearby activities and points of interest. Including these words will allow your listing to reach people who are searching for those attractions, and camp on your land.

Offer Discounts and Promotions

Create your own custom discount codes

Also known as promo codes, discount codes are a great tool for Hosts to run their own promotions, provide a friends-and-family discount, or offer special pricing to certain groups of campers. You have two options for discount codes: Either offer a percentage discount (save 30%) or a fixed amount (take $10 off). The percentage option allows Hipcampers to take a certain percentage off of their booking, whereas the fixed amount allows them to deduct a certain monetary value from their booking.

To create your own and manage your codes, head to your Dashboard, then select ‘Discounts.’ Once you select the type of discount you’d like to offer, you can then fill in the optional fields including a description, dates for which you’d like the offer to apply, and the expiration date. You can also choose a one-time-use only code, or one that can be used multiple times.

After you’ve created your discount code, add it to your site’s description or share the code directly with friends and family! Here are just some ideas for using discount codes to creatively attract more bookings.

• Send a promo code to previous guests to use on their next booking. Example message to send after their first stay: “Hey, thank you so much for staying with us! We’d love to welcome you back one day. Here’s a code for a 20% discount for the next time you book! Use WELCOMEBACK20 at checkout.”
• Share your promo code with all of your Facebook friends.
• Run a promotion during a specific timeframe, such as fall foliage season or one week in summer, then add the code to your listing description.

Try a weekday discount to incentivize bookings

Weekdays tend to be quieter than weekends. Draw some weeknight bookings by adding a special discounted price Sunday through Thursday (even better if your land has wifi or cell service so remote-working Hipcampers can work from camp!). Weeknight discounts can be added anytime in your Dashboard under ‘Pricing.’

Add custom pricing for certain dates

There are many reasons why you’d want to choose to set a different price for your Hipcamp on a specific night. Holidays, special events in your area, or dates where you want to offer off-season discounts are all great reasons to set a special price.

Simply open your Calendar, click on the date you’d like to set a special price for, then update the price. It’s also possible to use the ‘Bulk Edit’ button to update pricing for many dates at once.

Get Social

Love it or hate it, social media is an extremely helpful marketing tool. Post about your Hipcamp property on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—you name it—to spread the word about your business! To get started, here are some example messages to post about your listing beyond Hipcamp.

Post on Facebook and Instagram

• Hey friends! Happy to announce that I just listed my property on Hipcamp, a company that partners with landowners to create new places to camp. I’m excited for my first campers to come! Send any adventurers my way… [Link to your listing]
• Looking for a place to camp this Labor Day? We still have sites available at [your listing name]! [link to your listing]

Post on Twitter

• Just signed up on Hipcamp. Come camp with us! [link to your listing]
• We have availability for Labor Day at [your campground name]. Book on Hipcamp! [link to your listing]
• It’s a beautiful time to see fall leaves at [your campground name]. Book on Hipcamp! [link to your listing]

Post in local groups and forums

Some examples include:

• Tin Can Tourists
• Roadtreking: The Group
• Camping Neighbors

Add a Booking Button to Your Own Website

We provide all Hosts with a Booking Button to add to your own personal website if you have one. This will direct potential Hipcampers to your listing so they can book with ease. Just head to ‘Resources’ in your Dashboard, then copy and paste the HTML code in the gray box into your website’s code wherever you’d like the booking button to appear.

As soon as you add it, Hipcampers on your website will have easy access to your Hipcamp listing so they can book stays with you. Clicking the button from your website takes users straight to your property page on Hipcamp. 

Have any tips of your own to share? Let us know!