Ranking Well on Search engines: A Must for Hotels!
If you want existing and potential customers to reach your hotel/resorts website and book rooms or other services then ranking well on a search engine is no longer an option; ranking well is a critical part of any hospitality ventures marketing strategy.
Consider the internet statistics:
Over 80% of internet users are search engine users
There are about 30 billion web pages out there (and growing every day) and 113 billion searches per month.
Over 50% of searches result in a click on organic listings, i.e. results that are not paid for by advertising.
These organic listings are ranked as a result of Search Engine Optimisation.
SEO, Search engine optimisation (or Organic search as it is sometimes known) is about increasing the rankings of a website in a natural search on search engines such as Google or bing.
Search engine optimisation SEO gained a lot of momentum over the last 10 years as search engine popularity increased and cost of advertising on search engines grew.
This has fuelled even more focus on search engine optimisation SEO due to SEO’s potential to drive growth using search engines at a relatively low cost.
Customers And Traffic Without Upfront Advertising Cost – There is no advertising cost associated with search engine optimisation SEO – fundamentally, SEO is a process of improving a website – its structure, content, links etc – to ensure that it is correctly structured to allow a search engine to read the content of the website.
The end goal of search engine optimisation SEO is to be as relevant to the keywords searched by users as possible. This way, the website will rank well on search engines results pages when users search for these specific terms. Search engine optimisation SEO is proven to be one of the most efficient ways of online marketing by driving increased traffic as well as capturing potential, targeted customers when they are considering and searching to buy a product or service.
Challenges of Search Engine Optimisation SEO
If everyone is doing Search Engine Optimisation SEO, why are there differences in rankings on the same search engine? Different businesses have different SEO challenges.
Do you have an in-house SEO team BUT you’re still unclear if you are maximising opportunities on SEO?
Do you have an external SEO agency on a retainer BUT you are unclear about their SEO tactics – if they are right and if they fit in with your broader marketing goals?
Depending on your hotel business needs, the following SEO strategy must be implemented:
- Site Audit – Audit of your existing website structure, content and links to understanding the challenges and requirements of the business.
- Site Structure Recommendation – High-level recommendations to ensure search engine friendliness.
- Keyword Research – Define the most comprehensive list of keywords that are relevant to your business so that your business has maximum SEO
coverage. - On-Page Search Engine Tactics – Optimised page title, description, keyword meta tags to improve SEO ranking.
- Content and Copywriting – Review and deliver strategy and tactics to deliver appropriate SEO friendly content in a scalable, low-cost way.
- Conversion Review – Identify and target the most targeted keywords for your business and enhance on-site conversion.
- Link Building and Link Management – Define a good linking strategy to improve visibility online and relevancy on search engines.
- Reporting and Tracking – Use Google Analytics to track the visitors on your website.