Put your hotel firmly on Google Maps with an optimised Google Places Pages as part of your hotel SEO strategy.
With the launch of Place Search late last year, Google Place Pages started to blend with organic listings in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), making hotel SEO even more relevant for internet hotel marketing teams to reach the local market. Find out more about Google local search and the factors that help influence local search rankings.
What is a Google Place page?
Google Place Pages is a free product offered by Google that businesses can use to list their business address, phone number, email address, website URL, describe their products and services, their hours of operation and so on. You can also add content like images, videos and seasonal offers to your Places page and customers can add reviews.
Place pages appear in the search results when someone typically searches for a service-orientated business such as a hotel in a particular city or region. Places Search was launched in October 2010 where Places Pages results merged with organic results with pay-per-click results still being placed to the top and right of search results.
Not only does the listing appear but you can also see an image of the hotel, how many reviews the hotel has received not just on the Place Page listing but on other relevant travel websites that are considered quality and trustworthy sites by Google. Want a quick preview? Find out more about Google Places Pages and local search here:
How can I claim my Google Places listing?
Before you can optimise your Place Page; you will need to ‘claim’ it first. First you must create a Google Account. Once this is done, visit Google Maps and search for your business. As part of the verification process, Google will send you a pin number via your mobile or post so you can authenticate your listing.
When you receive your pin, enter it in your Place Page under your new account details. Once you have claimed your listing, not only will you be able to optimise your listing and edit and update it when you want, you will also gain access to the Google Places Dashboard to analyse your Place Page data.
How can I optimise my listing for my hotel?
100% completion rate
Google likes to give users the ultimate experience when surfing the net and seems to give a preference to Google Places listings that have a 100% completion rate – important for Google local search. You can check your actual completion rate by looking at the top right of your screen, when you are logged in.
Consistency of information
Local search experts interviewed in David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Report 2011 gave a huge weighting to the consistency of business details across the Web such as the name of the business, physical address and telephone number. This includes your Google Places Page, your website and other trusted Web sources.
Title of Google Places Page
The title should be the exact name of your hotel. It might be tempting for hotel SEO purposes to include a keyword or geo-modifiers in the title but Google frowns on this and may even deny listings that have aggressive keyword placement. If you have hotels in different locations, create a Google Place Page for each one.
Correct category types
When optimising a Google Places page for hotel SEO, you can choose up to 5 categories that describe the exact nature of your business. You must choose at least one of Google’s suggested categories which would most likely be hotel. Other categories might be accommodation, restaurants, city (location) and resort for example.
Description of your hotel
This is where you enter a 200 words or less description of your hotel. This represents an opportunity to optimise your Place Page with relevant keywords. However, standard hotel SEO rules apply; include at least your targeted keyword and primary keyword phrases but in a seamless and natural manner ie no keyword stuffing.
Citations
The more citations you have for your account, the more weight will be given to your Google Places profile. Citations are Web references of your hotel which include the name, address and telephone number. In local SEO, the ideal citation would also include a link to the website with the name of the hotel as the anchor text.
Reviews
Reviews are an important component of a Place Page and as seen by the screen dump, the number of reviews is now being displayed on the SERPS with a rating (averaged across all reviews). It’s a great idea to ask satisfied hotel guests to put a review on your page to help optimise your listing and optimise conversion rates.
Images and videos
Enhance your Place Page listing with images and videos of your hotel. With changes to the Place Page interface, now your leading image is appearing as part of the Google Search Engine listing. A survey by local SEO specialists Bright Local found that 60% of 1,250 people surveyed would give more consideration to Places Pages which had images.
Title tags
Title tags on the other hand are a different matter entirely. Local SEO experts suggest to the Google Places pages should have the matching city and state in the page title. The keyword is consistency – this should match the city and state listed on the Places Page, on your website and on other Web references.
Updating your Google Places listing
It is important to keep your Place Page listing updated with new, original and fresh content. As well as images and videos, you can also upload seasonal rates and offers, seasonal restaurant menus and so on. You also promote hotel events or specials in real-time by posting to your Place Page directly from the Google Places Dashboard.
Multiple listings
Google allows you to create a separate Google Places Page for each of your hotels only if they are in a different physical location. This is highly recommended instead of listing all properties on the same Places Page. As mentioned, information needs to be consistent across the Web and for local SEO; it is always preferable to have a local number.
Duplicate listings
Through no fault of your own, you may have duplicate Places Pages for the same business with the same physical location – this is against Google’s guidelines and your page can be penalised or even suspended. After claiming your listing, it is essential you request Google deletes any duplicate Google Place Pages if applicable.
Linking to your Google Places Page
As per your link building activities for your website, it’s also important for hotel SEO to link to your Google places profile. Opportunities for link building include your hotel website, social media profiles, hotel-specific directories and so forth. It is important to build a natural link profile with websites that are authoritative, trustworthy and credible.
We have a proven record in partnering with hotel internet marketing teams from leading hotel brands to improve their local Search Engine rankings and drive quality traffic to their website who are ready to enquire or book their hotel. Contact us to find out about how you can capture the local market through targeted hotel SEO strategies.
