Backlinks and citations: the authority that lives on other people's sites.
Google ranks a park higher when other websites mention and link to it, because that is evidence the park is real and worth sending people to. Those links live on other sites, so no crawl of yours will find them, and most parks have never asked for one.
IN ONE PARAGRAPH
A backlink is a link from another site to yours. A citation is a mention of your park's name, address, and phone on another site, with or without a link. Both tell Google your park exists and is known, and both raise ranking, especially from local and camping-related sites. Parks get them from directories, the state tourism board, the chamber, local news, the county fair, the boat ramp, the club that rallies at the park, and the websites of businesses on the park's own map. Almost no park works on this, which is why a little goes a long way.
What counts
- Camping directories. Campendium, RV Life, Good Sam, The Dyrt, Hipcamp where it fits, Allstays, FreeRoam. Listings with a link to your site.
- The state tourism site and the county visitor bureau. Most list campgrounds and most will link.
- The chamber of commerce. A membership usually comes with a listing and a link.
- Local news. A story about the park's new bathhouse, the rally it hosted, the flood it weathered.
- Nearby businesses and attractions. The marina, the outfitter, the hot springs, the brewery. Their "where to stay" page.
- Clubs and events. The rally group that comes every June, the fishing tournament that uses your ramp.
- Your own other properties. If you own two parks, they should link to each other. If your printed map is made by RV Park Map, its example page links to you.
What does not help
Paid link packages, directory farms with a thousand unrelated listings, comment spam, and reciprocal link schemes. Google discounts them and can penalize them. Ten links from real local and camping sites beat a thousand from nowhere.
What it costs a park
Authority is the tiebreaker. Two parks with correct profiles, decent sites, and similar reviews, and the one that the state tourism board, the chamber, and three camping directories link to takes the top spot. A park with no links at all can do everything else right and still sit below a competitor that has been linked from the local paper since 2014.
How to check your own
- In Google Search Console, open Links and read the top linking sites. If the list is short or empty, that is the state of things.
- Search your park's name in quotes on Google and count the mentions on sites other than your own.
- Check whether Campendium, RV Life, Good Sam, and the state tourism site list you, and whether the listing links.
What we do about it
The Marketing band includes the outreach: claiming and completing the camping directory listings with links, submitting to the tourism and visitor bureau sites, drafting the chamber listing, and asking the businesses and clubs that already know the park for a link. We do not buy links. We report the linking sites quarterly, and the number goes up slowly, which is how it should look. The local outreach, step by step.
Questions about this.
What is a backlink?
A link from another website to yours. Google treats it as a vote that your site is real and worth sending people to, and links from relevant local and camping sites carry the most weight.
What is a citation in local SEO?
A mention of your park's name, address, and phone on another site, such as a directory, whether or not it links. Consistent citations support local ranking.
Where can an RV park get backlinks?
Camping directories like Campendium and RV Life, the state tourism site, the chamber of commerce, local news, nearby attractions' where-to-stay pages, and clubs that hold events at the park.
Should I buy backlinks?
No. Paid link packages and directory farms are discounted or penalized by Google. A handful of real links from local and camping sites is worth more and carries no risk.
Want this checked on your park site?
Send us the address. We run the full check and tell you what we found, in plain words. SEO for parks starts at $250 a month.
Part of the RV park SEO guide, section: What a script cannot see. Previous: Name, address, and phone: why every listing has to say the same thing. Next: Internal linking: which of your pages Google can reach, and which it thinks matter.