Optimising your ATDW Profile: A Comprehensive Guide
Optimising an ATDW profile is about building a strong foundation that supports growth, resilience, and market reach.
When profiles are current, complete, and compelling, they push higher in search results, and in some cases can even activate national, state and territory tourism organisation (STO) campaign opportunities.
In fact, tourism businesses who proactively optimise their profiles consistently report greater online engagement, higher conversion rates, and increased recognition through DMO-led marketing programs.
Optimise your profile for greater online engagement and higher conversion rates.
Profile Structure.
Take a closer look at your business.
Categories matter
Think about the entirety of your experience when selecting Profile Categories and ensure each experience gets the attention it deserves by creating separate profiles for each element.
For example, if you own a hotel that has an onsite restaurant, you could create one accommodation profile, and another Food and Drink profile for your restaurant. Multiple categories, means broader reach for your business and broader appeal for potential travellers.
Selecting the best category or categories for your ATDW profile is your first step.
Even minor missing details can limit distribution or lower ranking. Start with business name, address, contact details, website, and the all-important booking information, and go from there.
Use the Progress Bars (shown below) to see how many mandatory and non-essential fields are outstanding. Once clicked, it will show what's outstanding with links that will help you jump to the relevant section, saving you even more time.
Use the progress bars to view steps required to complete and optimise your Profile
Keep it customer-facing
All profile fields display directly to consumers—so ensure addresses, emails, and phone numbers are guest-friendly and up to date.
In today’s crowded digital world, travelers have endless options at their fingertips, so having a strong Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is essential. Ensure you resonate with your audience at every touchpoint by bringing your unique strengths to the forefront.
Before you begin with your profile, take a moment to consider what will make a potential customer click, share, or book with you?
Your USPs should be at the core of all your marketing efforts, including your ATDW profile. These are the key to:
Shaping your own product story or narrative
Setting you apart from your competition—ensuring you stand out from the crowd
Making your product memorable for potential travellers
Put your USP at the heart of your profile. (Image courtesy of Tourism Tasmania)
Writing for Results.
The Power of Product Descriptions.
The structure of your product or event description is important for engagement, and your search rankings. To assist, we recommend using the pyramid structure, shown below. Remember, that most profile categories, allow up to 255 words, so make the most of this by adding more detail for more opportunities to rank higher and convert readers.
Help travellers discover your product with a compelling, optimised product description.
Paragraph one—the why
Open with a Search Engine Optimised, benefits-orientated sentence. For example, 'Noosa Springs Golf & Spa Resort offers a luxury getaway on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, blending resort accommodation, world-class golf, and tranquil day spa experiences.'
Need help with keyword research for SEO? There are some great online tools, some of which are free, including SEMRush.
Paragraph two—build out your story
Use the next paragraph to detail unique selling points—what sets you apart, local partnerships, special amenities, or guest-favourite features. Speak in the third person (avoid “we”, “our”, or “I”).
Paragraph three—the practical details
Close the description with key logistics—access, location context, must-knows. Avoid duplicating information found in other fields, such as prices, address or URLs.
AI & your Product Description
Feeling stuck or need some inspiration? Try our sample Product Description AI Prompt that can be used in AI tools, such as ChatGPT or Perplexity.
Making the Experience Real for Potential Travellers.
Photo selection
Prioritise images that showcase people enjoying your experience, as these drive higher engagement. See What Photos Should I Upload for inspiration and guidance.
Help travellers imagine their experience with immersive images. (Image courtesy of Destination NSW)
Upload up to 10 images
Photos must be landscape, high-quality, free of text overlays, logos, or banners, see Photo Requirements for more information.
Add videos
Profiles with embedded YouTube or Vimeo video links experience higher shareability—video content generates up to 1200% more shares than images and text combined.
Alt text matters
Use descriptive, keyword-rich alt text (about 100 characters) for every image—think 'Snorkelling tour group at Palm Tree Island, Southern Great Barrier Reef' for both SEO and accessibility.
ATDW profiles that feature a compelling offer see significantly more traffic and higher conversion rates. So, cut through a crowded market, create urgency, and drive low or shoulder-season bookings by adding up to three active deals and offers per profile.
Deals and offers surface on dedicated ‘deals’ pages on major sites - including your STOs, amplifying visibility and driving urgency.
Define your objectives
Before publishing a deal, ensure it supports your business objectives. For example, are you looking to fill short term vacancies, drive low season occupancy or launch a new product or service.
For example, if you're wanting to drive mid-week stays, you might consider offers such as - extended mid-week stay bonues (Stay 3, Pay 2 or 'Kids eat free on Wednesdays.'), mid-week value adds such as complimentary breakfast or mid-week discounts.
Maintain relevance to your audience
When developing your deal or offer, always consider your audience and ensure the offer is relevant to them.
For example, if you're targeting families, you might offer multi-attraction passes, or kids go free. For couples you might consider value add offers, like cooking classes or date-night packages.
Add a Deal or Offer to your profile and open doors to DMO-led tactical marketing opportunities.
Think outside the box
Deals and offers don't necessarily mean discounts. You may offer a collaboration with another local experience, value add packages, or align with a local event. Need inspiration? See Deal Types for examples that could be applied to your business.
Reinforce your USPs
Offers that speak to your USPs will do more than drive bookings or sales—they reinforce what makes your experience distinct, memorable, and worth choosing. Whether it's a focus on sustainability, exclusive access, local expertise, or creative innovation, these offers become authentic differentiators that competitors can't easily replicate.
When you add your social channels (including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok) to your profile, travellers can see real photos and videos from your guests, read comments, and feel more confident about booking with you.
It's like having friends recommend your business to others. Social media lets you answer questions quickly, share what makes your offering special, and build a community around your brand. Most travellers check social media before they book, so having an active presence helps you stand out and builds trust.
Add your TripAdvisor URL
Tripadvisor works differently but just as powerfully. When your Tripadvisor profile shows good ratings and positive reviews from real guests, it gives potential customers confidence that your business delivers what it promises. Think of it as independent proof that you're worth choosing.
Request online reviews
Positive Google and TripAdvisor reviews boost both search placement and assessment ratings. Make it a routine to invite guests to review post-visit. Ensure you also promptly respond to every review—both positive, negative and everything in between.
Improving and promoting your accessibility credentials is not only good for travellers, it also makes good business sense. However, despite the significant opportunity, many operators are yet to take this up.
Assess your business
Think your experience is not accessible? Think again. Being accessible is more than being wheelchair accessible. Can your customers book over web, email and phone? Can you provide assistance with booking arrangements? Is your signage clear and easily read? Do your stairways have handrails? Do you have menus that cater to allergies or intolerances?
Accessible tourism delivers real growth, and a stronger, more inclusive industry. (Image courtesy of Tourism & Events Queensland)
Provide detailed information
Every ATDW profile requires business owners to provide details surrounding the accessibility of their experience. The more comprehensive your accessibility information, the better the customer experience and booking potential.
So, when creating or optimising your profile, select 'Actively Welcomes People with Access Needs' and review all the available accessibility attributes—including physical access, vision support, dietary options and more.
Did you know that businesses with a complete Google Business Profile are 70% more likely to attract clicks and 50% more likely to attract bookings.
By syncing your Google Business Profile with your ATDW Profile you're making your business easier to find and broadening your reach for potential travellers.
In certain situations, cloning a Profile can be a really valuable time saver, allowing you to quickly and easily create new profiles while maintaining quality and consistency across each. This function is especially useful:
If your business is across multiple locations
If your new profile has similar information to an existing profile. For example, if you manage multiple holiday homes with similar amenities, you can clone one profile and adjust the unique details for each property.
If your event is held across multiple dates or locations. For example, tour events or pop-up markets.
Clone services
Where details are largely the same, cloning services can also save you time and effort, while ensuring each aspect of your business is consistent and distinctive, precisely where it needs to be.
Let your customers know what to expect year-round by reviewing and refining your ATDW content seasonally. Remember also, that our deals are only valid for up to 3-months, so they too may need to be updated to reflect your seasonal offering.
Profiles expire every 12 months. Log in and update when anything changes—pricing, offerings, new photos, or after guest feedback. Every update resets the expiry clock, reducing admin burden.
Got a question or need immediate support? Click the chatbot icon in the bottom right of our Platform (shown below), this website, or our Support Hub. Our Digital Guide, Laura is on hand to provide answers quickly and easily, and if ever you need human support, we're also available to chat during business hours (Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm AEST)
ATDW's Digital Guide, Laura is available 24/7 to solve any problems you might have.
Our online Support Hub is also available, and contains hundreds of step-by-step guides, and support articles.
Prefer to speak to someone? Not a problem. Our team are available from Monday to Friday 9am-5pm on 1300 137 225 or via email at [email protected].
Businesses who regularly review and refresh their profile, upload new images and video content, updating deals, and tell their unique story—see real results: higher engagement and broader digital reach.
So, now’s the time. Audit your profile, rally your team, and activate those untapped features—because every field completed, every story told, and every offer loaded can make all the difference.
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