Anyone running a hotel business is aware of the importance of having a strong online presence. As the hotel industry gets more competitive, it becomes increasingly crucial for you to engage in Internet marketing. According to Indian Ministry of Tourism data, the total number of hotel units in India in 1990 was 694, which increased to 1,702 in 2020.
Digital marketing for hotels is the main key that can boost your online presence among this competition. When you use search engine optimization (SEO) for your website, it increases your hotel’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. and eventually attracts more guests.
According to the stats published by Backlinko, the first page of the Google search results has a click-through rate (CTR) of 27.6%, compared to its second page CTR, which is only 0.63%.
So, it is important for your hotel website to show up on the first page of Google. And today’s SEO tips will surely help your hotel business get ahead of your competitors. Whether you are searching for local SEO for small businesses or for your large hotel chain, this article has the right solutions for you.
What is Local SEO and Who Needs Local SEO in Hospitality?
Local SEO is important for any business that is operating in the industry, has a physical location, and wants to attract more visitors, such as hotels, resorts, restaurants, motels, bars, cafes, and others.
Local SEO for hotels helps to get higher rankings and a large number of visitors. Local SEO promotes your hotel in a particular city or region. For example, if your hotel is in Mumbai, local SEO will target Mumbai audiences.
You can do local SEO in several ways.
First by including targeted keywords and city names in your website content, including titles, Meta descriptions, header tags, and URLs.
According to Google, 67% of smartphone users are more inclined to make a purchase from a company whose mobile site or app customized information to their specific location.
Additionally, another way to optimize local SEO is by creating your Google My Business account, if you don’t already have one. This account will show your audience your hotel address, phone number, operating hours, and other information such as reviews and ratings.
These are some key points that any hotel searcher looks for in any hotel to get a good look at the hotel’s services. If you find local SEO tips hard to follow, you can opt for any agency that offers local SEO packages at a low cost to optimize your website better.
Keyword Research for Improved SEO
Keywords are a set of words that a searcher types in the search bar. For example, hotels in Delhi, hotels near the railway station, luxury hotels in Kerala, and more. The key tip here is to include such keywords in your content. These are the main factors that will help your website rank on the first page of search engines.
You can include these keywords in your website’s content, blogs, Google My Business profile, and other platforms that directly or indirectly attract customers for you.
However, before your keyword research, it is important that you narrow down your vast target audience to a small group. Also, understand their interests. This way, you’ll likely get more visitors who are interested in the type of hotel services or rooms that you are providing.
To get a more detailed understanding of keywords, you can simply search for keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or look for the best local SEO Company that can understand your needs.
Focus on Titles and Meta Description
Page titles are your website or webpage titles that are displayed on the search engine results pages before someone clicks on your website. So, to get the web searcher’s attention, you need to have a title that is click-worthy. These titles should be short and catchy and include your main keyword.
Besides, meta description is an HTML tag that summarizes your website’s overall content. The meta description highlights your hotel services and must have keywords that you want your website to rank for, e.g., “best hotels in Vizag.”
Content Quality and High Conversion
Posting quality content is crucial for SEO because search engines focus on providing their users or searchers with relevant and useful results for their queries. For this, Google’s algorithms analyze various factors, such as the quality of the content on a web page.
Hence, web pages that have high-quality content that is relatable to the user, informative, and easy to understand rank higher in search results. On the contrary, low-quality content pages that have poorly written or irrelevant content do not rank well or get penalized by Google.
In August 2022, Google also announced its new content and ranking rules with the “Helpful Content Update.” According to Google, this new update will ensure that low-quality and unoriginal content does not get to the first page of Google.
So, creating high-quality content that meets the needs of your target audience is key to improving your website’s search engine visibility and attracting more traffic. Also, including local SEO hospitality tips in your content will also help you reach your goal.
Clear Call-to-Action (CTA) and Payment Method
Having a clear call-to-action and payment method on your hotel website is crucial because it helps potential customers make a booking quickly and easily. When you provide a clear and on-point call to action, e.g., “Book Now” or “Check Availability,” visitors get encouraged to act and make a reservation instantly.
Additionally, having a clear payment method on the website pages helps to simplify the booking process for the visitor. For instance, payment options, such as credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, and others offer a hassle-free booking experience.
Optimization of Image SEO
Image SEO is a crucial way to increase your website’s appearance and let search engines show your images to potential visitors. One part of image SEO is alt text. When you add images to your website, it is important to provide a short description of the image called “alt text.”
Alt texts are a way to make search engines understand what the image is about and how relates to your business. When Google crawlers find a good amount of images with alt text on your website, they can understand your business and its target audience, resulting in a higher ranking for the website in the hotel niche.
Headings and Subheadings
Headings and subheadings are important for your website because they help organize the content in a structured way that is easy to read and understand.
When a visitor comes to your hotel website, structured content with headings or subheadings helps them find the information they are looking for quickly and easily. This also helps search engine crawlers understand your content and rank it accordingly.
Mobile-Friendly Website
Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, because if it is not, your website’s bounce rate will increase and its visitor rate will also decrease.
A mobile-friendly website means the load speed of website pages is fast and that the data is structured according to a mobile device.
According to Oberlo statistics, 63% of Google’s organic search traffic in the US comes from mobile devices. Since most people use search engines on mobile devices, it is important for you to make a mobile-friendly website.
Build the Sitemap
Building a sitemap is important for website SEO because it helps search engine crawlers understand the structure of your website and finds all your pages easily.
A sitemap is a map of your website that lists all your pages and their connections to each other. By submitting a sitemap to Google, you’re essentially giving crawlers a road map to crawl and index your site more effectively. This helps to improve your search engine rankings.
Optimize for Voice Search
People are using voice search with the help of digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google. According to Google’s stats (2016), 20% of mobile queries were activated through voice assistants, and the overall use of digital assistants and voice searches increased by over 40% from 2015.
For hotels, it’s important to adapt to this trend and use a voice search SEO strategy because voice search can help you connect with potential customers and increase website conversions.
Follow a Good Backlink Strategy
Through backlinks other websites or bloggers direct their readers to your website. Backlinks can be key to building your website or business’s authority and credibility. For example, when any well-known website adds a link in its blog to your content, it signals to Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy.
You can create a good backlink portfolio by reaching out to other websites in the hotel industry or other bloggers or influencers in a direct or indirect niche such as travel bloggers and ask them to link your website to their content.
However, to do so, it is important that your content is shareable and of high quality. You can also take assistance from a local SEO agency that can help you build your backlink portfolio.
Use Reviews as a Marketing Tool
How many times did you search for anything and go to check reviews after checking the service or product? The correct guess would be always.
Reviews are crucial in increasing the credibility and authenticity of a business. Positive reviews also help your website’s ranking.
To increase your business or website reviews, you can start by encouraging your customers to leave reviews on your website, as well as on popular review platforms like Google My Business. You can also offer incentives, such as discounts or freebies, for customers who leave reviews.
Also, make sure to respond to those reviews. This way, you’ll gain more trust among customers and can thank or promise any previous customer to give improved or better services.
UNAP Consistency for Better Reach
UNAP stands for “Name, Address, Phone Number, and Website URL,” and it’s an important aspect of website SEO. UNAP consistency means making sure that your business’s name, address, phone number, and website URL are the same across all online directories and platforms.
If your UNAP information is inconsistent or inaccurate, it can confuse both search engine crawlers and potential customers, which can harm your SEO efforts.
Improve Schema Mark up for Crawlers
Through schema mark up, search engines understand the content posted your website or the subject or category of your website. It is a type of structured data.
Schema markup is a way of adding information about your content to your website’s HTML code. These codes can help search engines showcase your content to searchers in a more organized meaningful ways in search results.
Additionally, to know if your schema markup is working properly, you can also use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
Consistency is the Key
Being consistent with your website SEO efforts are the last and crucial step to take. Search engines like Google prefer to see that your website is regularly updated with fresh and relevant content. When you consistently post new blog articles, product updates, or other content, you signal to Google that your website is active and engaging for users.
Additionally, maintaining a consistent brand voice and style across your website can help establish your credibility and authority in the hotel industry. This can help improve your search engine rankings and make it easier for potential customers to find you online.
Conclusion
Now it’s easier for you to use SEO for your hotel business and reach out to more potential customers and increase visitors. However, to implement effective SEO strategies, you may need to do some proper planning, which can be time-consuming and confusing as well.
For this, you can seek assistance from a reputable marketing agency such as OMR Digital, which offers local SEO services. We can help you create a strong online presence for your hotel business and improve search engine rankings.
Anyone running a hotel business is aware of the importance of having a strong online presence. As the hotel industry gets more competitive, it becomes increasingly crucial for you to engage in Internet marketing. According to Indian Ministry of Tourism data, the total number of hotel units in India in 1990 was 694, which increased to 1,702 in 2020.
Digital marketing for hotels is the main key that can boost your online presence among this competition. When you use search engine optimization (SEO) for your website, it increases your hotel’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. and eventually attracts more guests.
According to the stats published by Backlinko, the first page of the Google search results has a click-through rate (CTR) of 27.6%, compared to its second page CTR, which is only 0.63%.
So, it is important for your hotel website to show up on the first page of Google. And today’s SEO tips will surely help your hotel business get ahead of your competitors. Whether you are searching for local SEO for small businesses or for your large hotel chain, this article has the right solutions for you.
What is Local SEO and Who Needs Local SEO in Hospitality?
Local SEO is important for any business that is operating in the industry, has a physical location, and wants to attract more visitors, such as hotels, resorts, restaurants, motels, bars, cafes, and others.
Local SEO for hotels helps to get higher rankings and a large number of visitors. Local SEO promotes your hotel in a particular city or region. For example, if your hotel is in Mumbai, local SEO will target Mumbai audiences.
You can do local SEO in several ways.
First by including targeted keywords and city names in your website content, including titles, Meta descriptions, header tags, and URLs.
According to Google, 67% of smartphone users are more inclined to make a purchase from a company whose mobile site or app customized information to their specific location.
Additionally, another way to optimize local SEO is by creating your Google My Business account, if you don’t already have one. This account will show your audience your hotel address, phone number, operating hours, and other information such as reviews and ratings.
These are some key points that any hotel searcher looks for in any hotel to get a good look at the hotel’s services. If you find local SEO tips hard to follow, you can opt for any agency that offers local SEO packages at a low cost to optimize your website better.
Keyword Research for Improved SEO
Keywords are a set of words that a searcher types in the search bar. For example, hotels in Delhi, hotels near the railway station, luxury hotels in Kerala, and more. The key tip here is to include such keywords in your content. These are the main factors that will help your website rank on the first page of search engines.
You can include these keywords in your website’s content, blogs, Google My Business profile, and other platforms that directly or indirectly attract customers for you.
However, before your keyword research, it is important that you narrow down your vast target audience to a small group. Also, understand their interests. This way, you’ll likely get more visitors who are interested in the type of hotel services or rooms that you are providing.
To get a more detailed understanding of keywords, you can simply search for keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or look for the best local SEO Company that can understand your needs.
Focus on Titles and Meta Description
Page titles are your website or webpage titles that are displayed on the search engine results pages before someone clicks on your website. So, to get the web searcher’s attention, you need to have a title that is click-worthy. These titles should be short and catchy and include your main keyword.
Besides, meta description is an HTML tag that summarizes your website’s overall content. The meta description highlights your hotel services and must have keywords that you want your website to rank for, e.g., “best hotels in Vizag.”
Content Quality and High Conversion
Posting quality content is crucial for SEO because search engines focus on providing their users or searchers with relevant and useful results for their queries. For this, Google’s algorithms analyze various factors, such as the quality of the content on a web page.
Hence, web pages that have high-quality content that is relatable to the user, informative, and easy to understand rank higher in search results. On the contrary, low-quality content pages that have poorly written or irrelevant content do not rank well or get penalized by Google.
In August 2022, Google also announced its new content and ranking rules with the “Helpful Content Update.” According to Google, this new update will ensure that low-quality and unoriginal content does not get to the first page of Google.
So, creating high-quality content that meets the needs of your target audience is key to improving your website’s search engine visibility and attracting more traffic. Also, including local SEO hospitality tips in your content will also help you reach your goal.
Clear Call-to-Action (CTA) and Payment Method
Having a clear call-to-action and payment method on your hotel website is crucial because it helps potential customers make a booking quickly and easily. When you provide a clear and on-point call to action, e.g., “Book Now” or “Check Availability,” visitors get encouraged to act and make a reservation instantly.
Additionally, having a clear payment method on the website pages helps to simplify the booking process for the visitor. For instance, payment options, such as credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, and others offer a hassle-free booking experience.
Optimization of Image SEO
Image SEO is a crucial way to increase your website’s appearance and let search engines show your images to potential visitors. One part of image SEO is alt text. When you add images to your website, it is important to provide a short description of the image called “alt text.”
Alt texts are a way to make search engines understand what the image is about and how relates to your business. When Google crawlers find a good amount of images with alt text on your website, they can understand your business and its target audience, resulting in a higher ranking for the website in the hotel niche.
Headings and Subheadings
Headings and subheadings are important for your website because they help organize the content in a structured way that is easy to read and understand.
When a visitor comes to your hotel website, structured content with headings or subheadings helps them find the information they are looking for quickly and easily. This also helps search engine crawlers understand your content and rank it accordingly.
Mobile-Friendly Website
Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, because if it is not, your website’s bounce rate will increase and its visitor rate will also decrease.
A mobile-friendly website means the load speed of website pages is fast and that the data is structured according to a mobile device.
According to Oberlo statistics, 63% of Google’s organic search traffic in the US comes from mobile devices. Since most people use search engines on mobile devices, it is important for you to make a mobile-friendly website.
Build the Sitemap
Building a sitemap is important for website SEO because it helps search engine crawlers understand the structure of your website and finds all your pages easily.
A sitemap is a map of your website that lists all your pages and their connections to each other. By submitting a sitemap to Google, you’re essentially giving crawlers a road map to crawl and index your site more effectively. This helps to improve your search engine rankings.
Optimize for Voice Search
People are using voice search with the help of digital assistants like Siri, Alexa, and Google. According to Google’s stats (2016), 20% of mobile queries were activated through voice assistants, and the overall use of digital assistants and voice searches increased by over 40% from 2015.
For hotels, it’s important to adapt to this trend and use a voice search SEO strategy because voice search can help you connect with potential customers and increase website conversions.
Follow a Good Backlink Strategy
Through backlinks other websites or bloggers direct their readers to your website. Backlinks can be key to building your website or business’s authority and credibility. For example, when any well-known website adds a link in its blog to your content, it signals to Google that your content is valuable and trustworthy.
You can create a good backlink portfolio by reaching out to other websites in the hotel industry or other bloggers or influencers in a direct or indirect niche such as travel bloggers and ask them to link your website to their content.
However, to do so, it is important that your content is shareable and of high quality. You can also take assistance from a local SEO agency that can help you build your backlink portfolio.
Use Reviews as a Marketing Tool
How many times did you search for anything and go to check reviews after checking the service or product? The correct guess would be always.
Reviews are crucial in increasing the credibility and authenticity of a business. Positive reviews also help your website’s ranking.
To increase your business or website reviews, you can start by encouraging your customers to leave reviews on your website, as well as on popular review platforms like Google My Business. You can also offer incentives, such as discounts or freebies, for customers who leave reviews.
Also, make sure to respond to those reviews. This way, you’ll gain more trust among customers and can thank or promise any previous customer to give improved or better services.
UNAP Consistency for Better Reach
UNAP stands for “Name, Address, Phone Number, and Website URL,” and it’s an important aspect of website SEO. UNAP consistency means making sure that your business’s name, address, phone number, and website URL are the same across all online directories and platforms.
If your UNAP information is inconsistent or inaccurate, it can confuse both search engine crawlers and potential customers, which can harm your SEO efforts.
Improve Schema Mark up for Crawlers
Through schema mark up, search engines understand the content posted your website or the subject or category of your website. It is a type of structured data.
Schema markup is a way of adding information about your content to your website’s HTML code. These codes can help search engines showcase your content to searchers in a more organized meaningful ways in search results.
Additionally, to know if your schema markup is working properly, you can also use Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool.
Consistency is the Key
Being consistent with your website SEO efforts are the last and crucial step to take. Search engines like Google prefer to see that your website is regularly updated with fresh and relevant content. When you consistently post new blog articles, product updates, or other content, you signal to Google that your website is active and engaging for users.
Additionally, maintaining a consistent brand voice and style across your website can help establish your credibility and authority in the hotel industry. This can help improve your search engine rankings and make it easier for potential customers to find you online.
Conclusion
Now it’s easier for you to use SEO for your hotel business and reach out to more potential customers and increase visitors. However, to implement effective SEO strategies, you may need to do some proper planning, which can be time-consuming and confusing as well.
For this, you can seek assistance from a reputable marketing agency such as OMR Digital, which offers local SEO services. We can help you create a strong online presence for your hotel business and improve search engine rankings.