Pocono Mountains Pennsylvania

Pocono Manor which opened its doors in 1902 plans to spend over a billion dollars in improvements if it gets one of the slot machine license. This is expected to bring thousands of jobs to the area. This is not going to be a small project. If the slots are awarded they plan to build a 20 story 750 room hotel and casino. Not the usually small resort in the Pennsylvania mountains. From what I have heard around the net the builders are doing there best to keep the resort blended into the Pocono mountains background. My question is can you really blend a hugh resort in to the mountains, I hope so.

These projects are so big that not only will the resort properties change a great deal but so will the local roads. One of the plans to keep the locals form feeling the visitor traffic is have a exit ramp off of interstate 380 directly to the resort. Since the slots are coming I hope everyone is starting to think about how to work with the resorts to make sure the Pocono mountains keeps its small town feel.

www.PoconosBest.com, is one of the region’s most popular online travel guides for the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania. The site has been up for eight years now. PoconosBest.com is owned by GoldenTravelGuides a company that operates many travel guides for different vacation destinations in the USA. The PoconosBest.com site was GoldenTravelGuides first and most popular online travel guide. GoldenTravelGuides has more than 80 websites promoting travel. This Pocono mountains web site is known for its great package deals. If you are looking for a travel package check out the site and look over all there deals. Headquartered in East Stroudsburg in the Pocono Mt’s of PA The site ranks well in most of the major search engines. Its Google pagerank is 5 out of 10. According to www.Alexa.com Pocono’s Best has 263 backlinks form other websites, while google lists 75. For more information on the PoconosBest website you can call them at 800-805-3559.

If your business provides products or services to winter travelers to the Pocono mountains it is time to re due your website to reflect the season change. For a website to rank well you must provide your visitors with quality content. No matter what your website covers you must change the content every few months to rank well in most search engines. The way people search for information will also change with the season. Instead of people searching Google using terms such as “Pocono summer vacation” or “Pocono lake house” they will be typing in “Pocono ski trip” or “Pocono Ski House” Make sure your site talks about skiing in some way. If you sell real estate write a story about owning a house located on the ski slopes.

Here is a check list for your website update.

1. Change all images to reflect the season.
2. Re due your meta tags, title tags and alt tags
3. Change your keyterms to reflect the season
4. Ask your linking partners to change your listing to reflect new offers.
5. Write new content using winter keyterms.

• The word “Poconos” is type in to major search engines 5 times the amount that “Pocono” is typed in. So website owners make sure you use both in your content.
• The term “Pocono” is used more when combined with other search terms. (Ex: “Pocono raceway” not “Poconos raceway”
• “Pocono Pennsylvania” is typed in 75% less than “Poconos Pennsylvania”

The main point is to learn as much as possible about the way people search for your business. There are certain terms that the majority of people when searching for information on the Pocono mountains use. If you want your site to come up when these terms are typed into major search engines like google you must make sure they are used in the content of your site.

One of the most important things any Pocono web site owner must do is get other relevant web sites to put links to your site on their sites. If you own a rafting company that caters to people visiting the Pocono mountains of Pennsylvania it is important that you get the local hotels and resorts to link to your web site. You can do this in many ways.

Top 5 ways to Get Pocono Links

1. Trade links with anyone you do business with in the Pocono’s, this is called a link exchange.
2. Pay other sites to list your web site. Join the local chamber of commerce ( www.poconochamber.net, http://www.delawarewatergap.com/ )
3. Send emails to other webmasters that have Pocono web sites and tell them about your site. If they like it many will put links to it,
4. Provide useful information to your visitors. I have never seen sites will good info not have links.
5. Pay a professional to get links for you.

• Under the term “Pocono” the raceway is first. “
• The official Pocono Vacation Bureau website is number two.

These sites rank first due to many factors. One is the age of the sites. Both of these domain names are old compared to other sites coving the Pocono’s mountains of Pennsylvania. Age is a major factor with many of the search engines these days.

The large amounts of backlinks these sites have also help keep them at the top of the search results. Both of these sites have over 200 backlinks. The average small business website has maybe 20 links. Building links is a great way to improve your sites ranking, make sure anyone you do business with has a link to your site.

These sites also have links on the Open Directory Project (ODP) website. Links from ODP are very powerful and cannot be purchased. If you have a website your first goal is to get listed on ODP. Make sure you follow there submission rules. For more information on how to improve your website search ranking email PoconosP@PoconosPoconos.com

The meetings over the slot licenses started this week. I am not sure how I feel about slots in the Poconos there is good and bad. What ever happens I hope the area retains its small town feel and protects it environment Nature is the real reason so many people are drawn to the mountains lets not forget it. I would hate to see the area turn into Atlantic City.

Only two resorts have applied for slot licenses which will be awarded by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. From what I hear we will know who gets the license just before the winter holidays in December. The two Pocono resorts that are applying for a slot licenses are Mount Airy Lodge and the Pocono Manor Resort.

• What are People saying about the slots.
  • Some people think that anything that brings in the tourist is good for the Pocono mountains.
  • If the Poconos get the slots it will be another attraction in the area such as skiing that will drive business.
  • Many people think large casinos will ruin the home town feel of the Poconos.
  • Property value will go up.

Jim Thorpe is considered one of the most versatile athletes in modern sports. The town of Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania known as the “Switzwerland of America” was created to honor him. I have justed added a new page to the Poconos site with information on Him and his town.