Search engine optimisation (SEO) is a marketing method that has been around for some time now, yet many hotels may not be using it to the best of their advantage to boost bookings and sell rooms.
Indeed, with so many trendy buzzwords and phrases around in the 21st century, it’s possible that some readers might be unsure about what it actually is, let alone how to implement it.Let’s take a closer look at SEO and how you could use it, no matter what size your property is. What is SEO? Back to basics first: what exactly is SEO? Essentially, it is the name given to any activity that aims to improve search engine rankings and get traffic from the organic, editorial or natural results in their listings. Because we know that internet users won’t click through page after page of listings after they Google something, where a website ranks in a results page is essential when it comes to increasing visits and hopefully boosting sales.
Effective SEO ensures that sites are accessible to search engines and raises the chances that they will be found in a search by considering how search engines work, what people will be searching for, potential keywords and preferred search engines.Unfortunately, simply investing money into the design of a website isn’t enough these days; you need to adequately promote it if you are to see a return on your investment and achieve the ultimate goal of fewer empty rooms.Methods of boosting SEO for hotels Don’t be daunted, though. Hotel search engine marketing isn’t actually as complicated and fearsome as it might sound and there are lots of techniques you can use to raise your profile and see more conversions.
The key thing to remember is that you need to ensure your website is visible and that people are going to be attracted enough to it to stay there and get their credit cards out.
1. Keyword research If you are to carry out SEO effectively, you need to do some research on keywords first. Keywords are words, phrases or terms that your would-be guests are looking for and that you can then make the most of on your website.It used to be that people with websites to promote simply thought of a list of keywords related to their businesses and then created content positively crammed with them in order to be found by search engine spiders.However, this resulted in a lot of low-quality content populating the internet and search engines like Google eventually got wise to it and put a stop to it by penalising sites that carried out keyword-cramming.Today, we still use keywords, but rarely more than a handful to a page and only if they fit in organically and naturally to read. SEO works better with long tail keywords that are more specific – although they result in less search traffic than generic phrases, that traffic is typically better quality because it is made up of people who are ready to buy.For instance, someone looking for ‘New York hotels near Empire State Building’ is clearly looking for somewhere to stay that fits in with the break they must have already started planning in detail, so they are more likely to make a booking than people simply Googling ‘New York hotels’.
2. H1 tags H1 or tags are a good way to boost the traffic coming to your website because they provide an overview of what your website is about to the search engines and allow you another place in which to use your keywords without appearing spammy.They’re a little like the sub-headings you’d see in newspapers, so for your hotel you might try ‘[Name of hotel] is a stylish boutique hotel situated in the heart of the Portuguese resort of Lagos, ideally located close to both restaurants and shops.This gets in plenty of keywords, acts as an introduction to your would-be guests and lets them know exactly what you offer at a glance.
3. Quality content With the advent of quality-related algorithms such as Google’s Panda 3.9, it is no longer enough to just publish a few little descriptions of hotel rooms, a nod to facilities and then call it a day. Property owners need unique, relevant, engaging and interesting copy if they are to stand a chance of being found by search engines. HeBS Digital recommends between 35 and 50 pages of content for a full-service property website, but closer to 100 might be more appropriate for a big hotel in a popular resort.This might sound like a lot, but if you consider landing pages for every special offer you’ve got, pages to describe each different type of room, content about events and other happenings, then you’ll soon get a good bank of words built up.It isn’t just about static, evergreen content though. You need fresh content because it is looked upon more favourably by the search engines, which is where a good, regularly-updated blog comes in. This allows you to publicise the latest goings-on at your property, include a few extra keywords and introduce a lifestyle element that makes content useful and shareable.Don’t forget to capitalise on timely revenue by publishing content that caters for upcoming events close to your resort, such as sports games, university graduations and conferences, as people will be looking for places to stay at these times.
4. Google AdWordsWe’ve singled out Google AdWords here, but this is only part of a wider pay-per-click strategy that can work alongside your organic SEO campaign for optimum results. You can work out which keywords are performing well for you organically, then take a look at which aren’t doing particularly well.This latter category can then be improved using bidded-for keywords and ads that will appear higher on search engine results pages. We’ve talked in detail about PPC before, so do check out our archives if you want an in-depth look at this topic.
5. Responsive designThe boom in mobile search means website design is having to change and this was highlighted in April 2015 when Google made an algorithm alteration that favoured websites that work just as well on devices like tablets as they do on PCs.This means that your hotel’s site needs to be operable on any device and optimised to change if someone is trying to view it on a smaller screen. If you don’t go responsive, then you risk losing out to the competition and annoying would-be guests who are likely to abandon their browsing. In the long term, this could result in lower search listings, so it’s worth getting someone in to take a look at your site if you’re not confident about doing it yourself.Again, we’ve looked at this in detail before, so go back to our past articles if you want more information on responsive design.
There are lots of other SEO techniques you can use to boost your hotel bookings, including social media, backlinks and influencer marketing, as well as making changes like removing all downloadable PDFs, so it’s just a case pf taking a look at your site and seeing what would work best for you.Most of them are simple to implement, can easily be monitored using tools like Adobe’s Omniture and can really make a difference to your revenues, so why not give a few a try this year?
