2020 Hotel SEO – A step by Step Guide

why hospitality industry needs seo

We live in the digital age of savvy consumers who do most of their queries online. Moreover, Google has 92% worldwide market share of the search engine. If you are in the hotel industry, it’s high time you think about hotel SEO.

Besides, this hotel SEO guide will help you get traffic and generate direct bookings.

Why you should focus your resources and energy on hotel SEO

  • Business Visibility. If you take your time and some little investment in SEO, your business will reach more customers. In this case, you strive to penetrate the 4.5 billion active online users.
  • More sales and bookings. You’ll be ahead of your challenger and rank on top of them. As a result, your site will generate more traffic, which leads to sales.
  • Trust and user experience. Not all domain name you see around are clean; some are crooks and rip-off. But, online searchers are more confident and trust what is at the top. In most cases, a website that ranks on top fulfills a customer’s journey. In other words, searchers believe Google, and by ranking high, you build trust and credibility.

But, it does take a lot of undertaking and research for most businesses to realize good traffic. But don’t fret, because this guide will answer your call. You’ll learn how to do hotel SEO that you dire need to outrank your competitor.

How to do hotel SEO for more traffic

Do comprehensive keyword research.

Keyword research is the dogma in search engine worlds because Google relies on it to provide answers. Without proper keyword placement, you’re threatening to batter your business to wreck and ruin.

In essence, your hotel SEO strategy should begin with selecting viable keywords. These are words and phrases that searchers are looking for in search engines. For example, Google “SEO Cape Town,” The result will show a list of an SEO agency in Cape Town.

However, the challenge is to rank on a search engine for keywords that more users are searching online. But, that should not intimidate you because you can still use” low competition” keywords.

How to generate hotel keywords

how to look for seo keywords for resorts
  • Begin with a keyword mind map. You’ll start with your “seed” keyword, for instance, “SEO cape town.” Then, create categories and subcategories around your seed keywords. You can use a free tool such as Google keyword planner.
  • Explore your competitor keywords. Notably, tools such as BuzzSumo and SemRush will give you an idea of keywords your competitor using.
  • Analyze profitable keywords. Again,” Google Keyword Planner “is a useful tool that can help you meet your site’s valuable visitors. It will show you search volume per month, competition, and bid range.

For example, Google keyword planner search for “SEO cape town” will give you this result

  • 1k-10k average monthly searches.
  • The top of page ads bid is in the range of $1.49- $2.6.
  • The competition level is low. Low competition means that the “SEO in Cape Town” keyword will not be challenging to rank.

Local optimization

It is imperative to create local optimization, which means optimizing your website to your geographical location. Besides, local SEO will help your hotel business permeate across a particular geographic area.

72% of consumers who do local search visit a store within five miles (source: Hubspot).

So, how do you do local SEO for a hotel?

With a busy schedule and a robust business environment, it becomes arduous to practice local SEO. Many thanks goes to seo firms such as SEO Cape Town that can help you achieve the required visibility online. If you have a hotel business that needs more customers, it’s time to apply local SEO.

How to improve your local SEO

List your business on Google.

The first step of your local SEO campaign is to list your business on Google. After that, you’ll be able to manage your hotel appearance on Google search and maps.

Furthermore, customers will now be able to access relevant information about your hotel business. Your clients will know opening hours, bookings, contacts, and locations.

How to list your business on Google

  • You need a Gmail account, then Sign in to Google My Business. After sign in, next sign up using your business email domain. Then, fill in your business name, for instance, “SEO Cape Town.”
  • Enter your hotel business physical address.
  • Now, in this section, you’ll choose whether to appear on Google maps. For the hotel business, that is the Holy Grail because you serve customers at your address.
  • Next, select your business category from the list.
  • After that, enter your business phone number and website URL.
  • Last, click verify.

How will Google my business benefits my business?

· Help you develop authority through your hotel profile

· Help to generate traffic which leads to sales

· Earn trust from clients

· Meet and engage with your customers

In summary, a hotel business requires listings that are relevant to local customers. You need to weave it with the location in mind. The process above is just the beginning; learn more with SEO Cape Town.

Get reviews

How reviews work for seo

Hotel business needs to maintain many factors to uphold streaming, profitable returns. The most important ones are online presence and reputation. When it comes to hotel reputation, the benchmark starts with online reviews.

83% of online users will decide to book a hotel only after referencing reviews (source: Power Reviews). In this case, online reviews are a powerful tool to build a strong reputation.

What next!

Since Google thinks a business with more five stars is trustworthy, board the plane. Notably, having quality five-star reviews will boost your ranking and generates more sales.

How to get more reviews

· Create a review URL. Sending to your customers a link sometimes doesn’t work because of navigation problems. When you create a URL that pops up and asks them to review is better. You can also achieve this through “SEO Cape Town” if it’s technical on your side.

· Place reviews on the front page or center. In most cases, your customers will see this as a reward and help you draw a huge fan base.

· Do a follow up with your buyers. In other words, ask your past customers to do you a favour by writing a review. You can email them and promise to offer a discount on future bookings if they give an honest review.

· Respond to both positive and negative reviews.

It is an excellent opportunity to learn about your customers and improve.

· Offer discounts to those who review you.

At present, it’s hard to get a review. But, a little incentive like a 10% discount on the next booking can work.

· Add your hotel photos on Google my business page.

Placing the best images of your hotel rooms at “Google my business” will boost impressions.

Build a local citation

Citations are online business data that are available on the internet for reference. In short, it has elements such as business name, phone number, and address.

Why do you need hotel citations?

· Improve search visibility. Google wants to learn more about your hotel business and get extra information. Thus, if you convey accurate business data across these sites, you’ll get a good reputation. Having a good reputation with Google is a perfect opportunity to get rank on top.

· More traffic and sales. Usually, many consumers do search these directories for hotel bookings. When you have accurate data, it can result in sales.

Examples of free top hotel citations sites

· Bookings

· Trip Advisor

· Expedia

· Yelp

· Facebook

Make your site load faster.

A hotel website is full of photos, such as rooms and other amenities. But, more photos is a problem because they are heavy and slow site. As a result, pages on your website might load slower.

Ensure you compress images for faster page load. Also, make sure booking forms and payment gateway provide a good user experience.

Summary

Given these points, you now need to create relevant local content for your consumers. Make sure to optimize post titles and descriptions with relevant keywords.

Last, it would be best if you were consistent with your hotel SEO. Measure results from the little that you do because there’s no silver bullet that works magic. If you don’t have the time and technical knowhow, look for “SEO Cape Town services.”