SEO for Hotels

SEO for Hotels requires patience and a high level of expertise…

SEO for Hotels is hugely competitive and gone are the days that you could be promised Page 1, Position 1 rankings in this industry. In fact, if these promises are made by an SEO Company, run!

Local SEO for Hotels

Having said that there is so much that you can do to drive traffic, conversions and sales through proper optimisation of your website both on-page and off-page.

A Hotel is essentially no different to any other local business when it comes to online marketing. As the business exists at a physical location, is identifiable by a brand name and has a local phone number, the search engine optimisation of the hotel can be done in a very ‘local SEO’ manner.

Promoting your hotel on Google Maps / Google+ Local (formerly Google Places) has massive advantages. Google uses the three things mentioned above (Name, Address and Phone Number) to identify your hotel and rank it in the SERP’s.

This is good news. Although there are only 7 results shown in the local ‘push-pin’ results, your hotel can consistently show up in these results even if the potential customer is searching from a location other than your own.

On-Page SEO for Hotels

On-page your website has to excel to compete in this industry. There are many other properties trying to covet the #1 spot in the SERP’s so your website has to tick all the boxes.

Apart from the usual on-page optimisation, you should also consider the navigation of your website. Google expects a website to have a navigational structure that is easy to follow. All to often a website evolves to keep up with the ever expanding business without this in mind. This often results in a website with a very messy navigational structure especially for big brands with international presence and many properties.

The further down the navigational structure that your property page exists, the less important it is considered to be. Therefore it might be time for an overhaul or time to consider a micro-site strategy for each individual property.

Off-Page SEO for Hotels

One of the often over looked off page strategies for hotels is review websites. With the recent purchase of Zagat by Google and the on-going war between Google and Yelp there is no doubt that these sites hold some hefty weight with Google. You can legitimately make the most of these sites by ensuring your details (Name, Address and (local) Phone Number) are all correct as well as soliciting reviews on these platforms via e-mail marketing to your clientelle.

Social Media for Hotels

Social media is a fantastic way of keep in touch with your current and potentially new customers. If done with zest this can be a great way to get the word out about specials, deals and offers to make sure your running as close to capacity as possible.

Ian and Lisa have extensive experience in SEO for Hotels. Some past and current clients include: