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A holidaymaker looking for a campsite first lands on booking platforms, comparison sites and holiday directories. These websites hold the first page for almost every general search, and I'd rather tell you that straight away. Every stay they send you costs you a commission. Yet your site has what no listing describes well: its exact location, its accommodation, its atmosphere and the person who answers the phone. I work on your website and your Google Business Profile so that holidaymakers who saw your name elsewhere come and book directly with you.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroThe map, seen by a family planning their summer
A family is looking for a campsite on the banks of the Charente. On the map, Google shows them three profiles: a large site far from the river, a motorhome stopover and a campsite with old photos. Yours is by the water, and its profile is in fourth place. Get it into the three profiles shown.
Fig. 1. A riverside search, three profiles, none of them by the water. (Your site ran right down to the river. Your profile didn't say so anywhere.)
What this means for you. I complete your profile with your actual location, your dates, your accommodation and this season's photos, so Google knows when to show you.
SEO for a campsite is the work that makes your site visible on Google when a holidaymaker looks for an outdoor stay in your area. It relies on a complete Google Business Profile, one page per type of accommodation and pitch, pages on what there is to do nearby, and prices you can read without going through a booking engine. It's judged by the bookings made on your website and the calls received at reception, not by the number of visits.
The problem
For “campsite” followed by a region or département, the top results are platforms, comparison sites and directories. Your site appears there in a list, among twenty others, sorted by price. On these broad searches, your website will stay behind them. It can, however, answer specific searches and those that include your name.
A holidaymaker who types your campsite's name has already chosen. Often, a platform appears above your website for that search, sometimes with a paid ad. They click, book through it, and you pay a commission for a customer who was looking for you.
Many campsites change their online prices just before opening. Families, however, plan their holidays months earlier. By the time the new prices reach the website, some of the stays have already been booked elsewhere. Google also needs time to reread a changed page.
An audit, for real
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
Welcome to holiday paradise
An idyllic setting for unforgettable holidays with family or friends.
See the galleryFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
What your customers type
Here are six plausible searches for a family campsite. I give them as examples. The real list comes out of the audit and changes with your region and your accommodation.
What works
The profile answers searches on the map and for your name. I set the category, opening dates, facilities, this season's photos and the link to your booking. I also help you reply to reviews, including those from last summer left unanswered.
Tent, caravan, motorhome, equipped rental, unusual accommodation: each offer has its own permanent page, with its photos, layout, capacity and prices by period. Holidaymakers compare these details. A platform sums them up in three lines.
When prices only exist in the booking engine, Google can't read them and visitors have to enter dates to get an idea. I show a simple table by period on each page, then the button to book.
A family chooses a destination before choosing a site. I write pages on swimming, bike rides, markets and visits, with distances from your reception. Platforms handle these searches badly, because they don't know the area.
Holidaymakers book on a platform because it's easy and they trust it. Your website needs to offer the same simplicity: a visible button, few steps, clear cancellation terms and a number for those who prefer to call.
What costs dearly
Google can't read text in an image and rarely shows a file. Holidaymakers on their phones have to zoom in to make out a price. Prices should be written on the page.
Some websites display “closed, see you next year” on every page in autumn. What those pages had earned disappears over the winter, just when families start searching.
Visitors leave your website for that of a provider they don't know, with a different look. They hesitate, and you no longer know where the booking came from. I check that the journey stays consistent and measurable.
The rentals have been replaced, the pool redone, but the website still shows the old site. Holidaymakers compare with the photos in recent reviews and have doubts. A set of photos each season solves this.
The method
Four steps. I fit the schedule around your season: most of the work is done while the site is closed.
One-minute test
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 500 searches a month for a campsite in your area, 3% of visitors make an enquiry, one enquiry in three is signed (this varies a lot from one trade to another), €700 per customer. Click-through rates by position are rough estimates, and they've been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the calculation with your numbers
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
In Charente, people come camping for the river, the streams, the stone villages and the peace and quiet. Holidaymakers also pass through Angoulême for its festivals and Cognac for its cellars. Whoever plans this kind of stay searches with the name of the river, a town or a village such as Jarnac or Confolens. I know this département, where I co-founded the Newp agency, and I write your pages for visitors who choose the countryside and fresh water.
The river and the cycle route along it bring swimmers, paddlers and cyclists. If your site is close to a stopping point, a canoe base or a river beach, a page says so with the exact distance. Cyclists also look for a pitch for a single night.
During the town's big events, festival-goers look for accommodation nearby. A campsite open on those dates can say so on a dedicated page, with travel time and parking options. First check that your opening dates allow it.
Around Cognac, people come for the cellars, the vines and the riverbanks, sometimes for two or three nights and outside summer. A page on these visits, written with your local tips, answers those planning a short break rather than a summer holiday.
Beyond Google
Families now describe their entire holiday to an AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral. For example: “there are five of us with a dog, we're looking for a quiet campsite by a river in Charente, with a rental for the second week of August”. The AI sums up what it has read, then sometimes suggests a few sites.
It finds these sites on campsite websites, Google Business Profiles, reviews and tourism websites. A campsite that writes down its dates, accommodation, pet policy and distance to the river gives it facts to repeat. “An idyllic setting for unforgettable holidays” answers none of these questions.
Question asked to an AIThere are five of us with a dog. Which quiet campsite by a river in Charente, with a rental in August?
Three leads for this family holiday:
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
These three campsites don't exist. I made them up to show where I start depending on the size of the site. Yours will get its own plan after the audit.
It has around forty pitches and takes its bookings by phone.
Most of its stays come through platforms, with a commission every time.
July and August are full; May, June and September stay half empty.
In practice
Pricing
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
Fancy a game?
The copycat, the price-slasher, the big chain: they all want your spot. Grab the piece and slide it into the slot.
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds, five opponents, only one first place.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
For “campsite” followed by a region, no, and I'm not promising it. For your campsite's name, a specific place or a facility, your website and profile can appear alongside them or ahead of them. These are the searches of holidaymakers close to booking.
No, not as long as they fill weeks you wouldn't fill on your own. They also spread your name. My job is to bring back to you the holidaymaker who discovered you there. You then decide how many pitches you hand over to them.
It depends on the contracts you've signed with each platform. I won't settle that question for you. Reread your terms or have them reviewed. In any case, you can highlight what direct booking brings: choice of pitch, a contact, flexibility.
At closing time, or from the autumn. The pages have time to be written, read by Google and corrected before families book. If you contact me in May, I start with the Google Business Profile and the campsite's name, which work faster.
They stay online. Only the prices and dates change. A page that has been around for several years keeps what it has earned. In winter, it announces the dates of the coming season and offers to let people know when bookings open.
Yes, using your information. You tell me your current rating and labels, and I place them where holidaymakers look for them. I don't explain any award criteria and I don't display anything you can't back up.
Reply to them, even late, with facts: what happened and what has changed since. Holidaymakers read the replies as much as the reviews. I give you a template, and you adapt it to each case in your own words.
Not necessarily. I look at what Google can read: the pages, titles, prices, photos. If some settings are locked, I list what to ask your provider. Sometimes, a few pages added alongside are enough.
If some of your holidaymakers come from abroad, yes, for the pages used to book: home, accommodation, prices, access. A machine translation left as it is raises doubts. Better five proofread pages than fifty approximate ones.
I know SEO, which I've been practising for fifteen years. I also run my own online shops, so I know what a sale through an intermediary costs. The site, the season and your customers, you know better than me, and the audit starts with your explanations.
See also
30 minutes · video call · with me
Together we look at where you stand on Google and in AI, and what should change first.
