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Are you finding it hard to get direct bookings at your hotel? Do you wish to attract plenty of visitors through search engines for hotels? The hospitality industry is becoming more and more saturated with lots of competition. And the only way to ensure that you stand out is by implementing SEO for hotels.
SEO for hotels is one of the easiest ways to ensure a ceaseless stream of new visitors to your hotels. It is also one of the most proven marketing strategies for hotels.
We have created this guide to help implement this ultimate marketing strategy in your hotel marketing. As you read on, you will soon discover the importance of SEO as a marketing strategy for hotels and how you can use it to drive in more visitors for direct bookings
Let’s start by looking at why SEO for hotels is essential for hotel marketing.
Why is Hotel SEO Important?
First of all, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which involves implementing various techniques to rank higher on search engines. SEO can help increase visibility and traffic on your websites, among many benefits. SEO itself is a top marketing strategy for hotel marketing. Below are a few other important things of Hotel SEO:
Become more visible to search engines
By properly implementing the right SEO for hospitality techniques, your website can experience an increase in visibility in search engines for hotel metasearch. SEO for hotels also helps in improving your website’s ranking so that your website shows up in higher search.
It is an affordable marketing strategy for hotels
One of the significant benefits of SEO for hotels is its low price. Compared to other media or the traditional methods of marketing, such as television ads and expensive billboards, SEO for hotels is a far more affordable and effective means of optimising and marketing your business websites.
Increase bookings on your website
Websites for hotels that are adequately optimised have the potential of attracting tons of visitors, therefore leading to an increased number of direct bookings. The more visible your website becomes on search engines for hotels, the more organic traffic you enjoy on your website.
Stay ahead in the hospitality industry
It is not enough to say you have websites for hotels in today’s world. The chances are that there might be thousands of hotels that also have websites, are doing extremely fine, and are rendering beautiful services.
What sets you apart is SEO. SEO for hotels is gradually looking like the trick to staying ahead of the curve. A few backlinking or link-building can quickly help you outrank other industry players who neglect SEO.
Powerful SEO Tips for Hotel Marketing
Ready to start increasing direct bookings on your website? Here are five SEO tips that will help you achieve that goal.
Find the Right Keywords for your hotels
A significant component of SEO for hotels is the keyword. Keywords include the exact words or phrases that your potential customers use when they want to search for websites for hotels.
When people want to book hotels, some specific words or phrases must be included; unless these keywords or phrases are included on pages of your website, your website probably isn’t going to appear in Google’s search results. Remember that you can also add keywords to titles, copywriting, etc.
One way to get the best right keywords is through proper research. It will help you discover the exact words and phrases hoteliers or travellers use to find hotels in their area.
Although keyword research can be a bit tough at first, once you quickly get the hang of it, it becomes beneficial to marketing your business’ website.
Write Unique Content
Content creation is another marketing strategy for hotels that can help you gain direct bookings. By content, we mean putting out informative articles or blog posts that have the power to attract potential guests who are searching for specific information online. Content for hotel marketing can come in various formats – videos, texts, etc.
The usefulness of content in SEO for hotels comes in handy when your guests can always find helpful information on your website. Creating content is one easy way to integrate SEO for hospitality and SEO into your hotel marketing strategy.
For example, a traveller is searching for some travel-related topics, and if you have written an article about it and done your keyword assignment correctly, the chances are that you could rank for some keywords contained in the article.
Add Direct Booking on your Site
You can also increase bookings on your website by making it possible for guests to book directly via social media. When you do this, guests are not only looking for a stay; many of them come back to share their travel experiences and photos on their social media networks.
Here are various ways to add an online booking system to your site:
- Insert a link to an external booking system
Pick an online booking engine and add a link to your website. The only negative side of using this method is that you stand a risk if sending your website traffic to some other locations.
- Use Plugins
The plugin is excellent for small businesses or hotels that receive fewer bookings. Most business owners love it because it is responsive, works effectively, and also sends notifications.
- Create a Develop custom coded Booking engine
This method is recommended for those hotel owners with a large number of bookings. If you choose this method, you might require the services of a programmer. However, it becomes beneficial in the long term.
- Use API
API (Application Program Interface) is another way to add the booking to your website. Although this method is expensive, it is easily indexed by search engines. And is also highly SEO-Friendly.
Track Site Traffic
A lot can go wrong if you can’t track what is happening on your website. It is not enough to have your website fully optimised, and there’s every need for you to monitor how your website is performing in search hotels. Monitoring your website will help you know if you are on track to achieve your goals. It is easier to take chances on your direct booking process when you track it.
Things you should monitor include – what customers are searching for, what competitors are doing, where visitors go after leaving your website. Tracking your site’s traffic will give you a clue into what part of your marketing strategy for hotels isn’t working.
Local SEO
When it comes to getting more bookings for your hotels through Hotel SEO, your primary focus should be on local SEO hotels since most of your visitors will probably add the location to their search queries, for example, “Cheap hotels in California.”
The following tips will help you improve your website’s local SEO:
- Use Google Ads Keyword Planner to generate keyword ideas that will be used in your content marketing
- Optimise your hotel’s Google my business
- Use keywords in your headlines. It should suffice at least twice every 100 words. But most importantly, avoid stuffing your content with plenty of keywords.
- Create local SEO content. Use names of cities or famous places in your surrounding environment.
- Create both internal and external links. The more internal and external links you have leading to your website, the more Google sees your site as credible, and the more it prioritises relevant pages on your website.
- Get more reviews from satisfied customers. You can do this through a CRM, your organisation’s staff, or social media networks.
FAQ
How can I Improve my hotel SEO?
In addition to all the tips given above, you can also improve your hotel SEO by trusting your it with an expert or an agency. They will help you with the complete optimization of your website. The agency will be responsible for SEO-friendly blog posts and easy to understand. Hiring an SEO expert can help you save time, money, and effort.
How to increase direct hotel bookings from your website?
One way in which your hotel can record a high volume of direct bookings is by offering loyalties or incentives to your loyal customers. Examples of such loyalties are travel perks, discounts, or coupons. All these can quickly turn your visitors into loyal customers.
Allow website visitors to do a virtual tour of your website
Simplifying the booking process for your guest will encourage them to either come back to your website or refer you to their friends and family that need similar services.
Conclusion
Over time, the result of good hotel SEO can be rewarding. You enjoy increased visibility and traffic.
However, to get more direct bookings, you need to implement strategies that will keep them coming again and again. Having a good website and offering enticing incentives is what does the job for you.
