With research showing that 80% of people use Search Engines to find and book hotels, it is critical for a hotel internet marketing team to understand how SEO works.
Hotel marketers may be aware of the importance and relevance of Hotel Search Engine Optimisation but may not be conversant with exactly how SEO works. It is imperative for all hoteliers who have hired an SEO company to have a basic understanding of SEO principles so they can evaluate the effectiveness of a campaign.
Hotel Search Engine Optimisation or hotel SEO is a specialisation of hotel internet marketing. The role may be performed in-house but it is usually a task undertaken by an SEO company for larger hotel chains, exclusive resorts and boutique hotels. To understand how SEO works, it can be broken down into four core components:
- Keywords – both ‘money’ and ‘broad’ keywords
- Technical infrastructure – how a Search Engine accesses your Web pages
- Content – both ‘on-page’ and ‘off-page’
- Link profile – external and internal range, depth and scale
Keywords
‘Keywords’ or ‘keyword phrases’ are the terms given to the words that people use to search for your website on a Search Engine. Choosing the most relevant hotel-related keywords is fundamental to the success of a hotel SEO campaign. How SEO works is that each keyword or keyword phrase is evaluated by its relevancy, search volume and level of competition.
A quality keyword portfolio will focus on both ‘broad’ keywords (attracting hotel lookers) and ‘money’ keywords (attracting hotel bookers). For example if you are searching for a Sydney hotel such as Sebel Pier One, you may search for the ‘broad’ keyword phrase ‘Sydney waterfront hotel’ or the ‘money’ keyword phrase ‘Weekend packages Sydney’.
Technical infrastructure
The technical infrastructure focuses on the architecture and the ‘bones’ of your website. There are many factors that can affect the performance of a website from a SEO perspective. As part of its initial audit, an expert SEO company ideally should evaluate any potential site structural problems including but not limited to:
- domain strategy;
- web host;
- content management system;
- site navigation;
- page speed;
- duplicate content issues;
- redirects and broken links;
- site maps.
Content
The keyword research lays the foundation for on-page optimisation. Keep in mind that website content needs to be written for humans, not Search Engines – you do not want to disappoint your website visitors and see them turning away because of your low-quality copy.
Chosen keywords need to be seamlessly integrated into the on-page content in a way that is organic to the site. The on-page optimisation lets the Search Engines know what the page is about and helps Search Engines rank your web page accordingly, for appropriate keyword searches.
On-page optimisation includes:
- title tags;
- meta keyword and description tags;
- H1, H2, and H3 tags;
- URL structure;
- alt tags for images and filenames;
- page (body) content;
- internal linking strategy.
Link profile
A quality link building campaign is an important component of hotel SEO and a heavily weighted factor in Search Engine algorithms. Search Engines see a link to your web site like a vote of confidence in your website, so in theory the more links, the higher your site’s authority. However, not all votes have the same weight and links ideally should come from quality, trustworthy and on topic websites.
Search Engines believe that if other websites are linking to your web pages, you must say something worth linking to and will rate the page very positively. How SEO works in link building is that when all things are equal and two hotel websites have a similar structure and content, the site with the best links will be served up first.
Some hotel link building strategies include:
- hotel blogging;
- participating in industry-related forums;
- commenting on related websites;
- writing guest posts on industry-related blogs;
- listing links on community websites such as your local Chamber of Commerce, industry associations and so forth;
- distributing media releases and article marketing;
- listing links on quality directories;
- listing links on clients, suppliers and partners websites
- creating a Google Places Page;
- video SEO and commenting on videos related to your industry;
- linking on social media sites;
Don’t just drop a link to your hotel website on those online properties; get involved in those communities, participate, share and position yourself as an authority in your field of competence.
Your hotel SEO strategy should be a harmonious balance of on-page and off-page optimisation, a well conceived link strategy and a Search Engine-friendly technical infrastructure. Contact us to find out more about how SEO works and how you can improve your Search Engine visibility, increase hotel bookings and boost online revenue.
