As you know, FishingBooker’s main purpose is to connect captains with customers.
In other words, we exist to get you booked, while at the same time,
making sure customers find the fishing trip that’s right for them.
Things like how well you rank, the status of your verification,
and whether you’ve set up features like Instant Book can go a long way in terms
of how many customers see your listing and eventually end up booking with you.
This month, we’ll explain how your listings show up in the search results
and how to take full advantage of our platform so that you can get more customers.
Check out this complete guide to make sure you’re doing everything
you can so that customers find your charter and book with you.
How well you rank on FishingBooker affects how many customers will see your listing
and end up booking with you. It determines which listings customers
see first when searching for charters on our website. This is based on several factors.
One of them is your Reliability Score, or in other words, your past commitment to booking requests.
So committing and following through with
trip requests increases your Reliability Score and gives you a solid ranking boost.
Another way to positively impact your ranking is by growing your verified reviews from
FishingBooker customers. Positive reviews and high star ratings increase your chances
of ranking better in search results and having them looks much more attractive to customers.
Having Instant Book enabled also increases your ranking.
This is because Instant Book provides a hassle-free way to quickly book a charter.
Our research shows that more customers are willing to book with captains who have
the Instant Book badge and that they’re more satisfied with the overall booking experience.
Finally, look out for your commission rate. Setting a higher commission rate means you
get a substantial ranking boost in search results. But keep in mind it is not the be-all and end-all
to having a high ranking position. Captains with higher commission rates don’t always
necessarily rank higher than others due to all the other factors that are taken into account.
Lastly, it’s important to note that, for now, ranking is not affected by how long you’ve been
listed with us, meaning older listings do not have an advantage over newer listings.
Instead, paying attention to these other factors will help increase your ranking and
lead to more bookings. Be sure to read our full article to learn more about ranking and other
important ways that affect how many customers see and book your listing.
Being fully verified on FishingBooker means customers will be able to find
and book your charter. If we’re not able to verify that you’re a legitimate operator,
your listing won’t be visible to customers. It also gives you a ranking boost and you get
a badge on your listing, showing customers that you’re qualified to take them fishing.
In order to be fully verified you need to provide valid documentation that proves
your charter is operating safely and legally. Once you are fully verified,
you’ll get a badge on your listing that will also show up in search results.
Depending on your level of verification, there are three ways your listing will appear.
If we haven’t received any documents your listing won’t get a badge and will remain invisible
until we’re able to verify you. If we’ve received certain documents but not all of them or some have
expired, you’ll have a clear badge on your listing indicating that you are partially verified.
You’ll still be visible to customers but you won’t receive the same ranking boost as a listing that
is fully verified. Only once you’ve uploaded all your documents do you become fully verified,
meaning you’ll get a green badge on your listing which gives you a boost in ranking.
Keep in mind, if you’re operating out of Florida or anywhere in the Gulf of Mexico,
your listing will also show whether you’re registered to fish in state or federal waters.
Read on to learn more about verification and other things that affect how many customers see
and book your listing. And if you haven’t done so already,
be sure to upload your documents to verify your listing so that you stay visible to customers!
These days, customers are looking for instant confirmations whenever they book something online.
That’s why activating features such as Instant Book makes your business look
much more attractive to customers. In fact, 70% of our customers choose listings with Instant Book.
This is because it makes the entire booking process smoother and faster for them.
But it’s not only great for the customer, it’s also an added benefit for your business.
Listing with Instant Book get a free ranking boost, helping you stand out from the rest of the crowd.
It also eliminates the need for you to manually accept all of your trip requests. In other words,
bookings that come in for the available dates on your calendar get accepted automatically,
so you never have to miss a request. Just be sure to always keep your calendar up to date
so that the days you're able to go fishing stay open and the days that you’re not stay closed.
We recommend setting this up so that you get instant bookings starting from 2-3 days
before the trip. This is because up to 50% of customers book trips that are less than a week
away while 30% are looking to book within less than a three days’ time period.
If you don’t have Instant Book enabled for short notice bookings,
you miss out on attracting these customers and you won’t get a ranking boost for these searches.
So be sure to activate Instant Book and reduce your notice period to attract more
customers and read on for even more ways to boost your visibility and get more bookings!