If you are running a hotel or motel and want to increase the amount of people looking at your website, and in turn boost the amount of guests staying with you, you need to know about SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) which is all about optimising your website so that it appears high up in search engine results for potential guests.
The science of SEO has changed a lot over the years, and it continues to change as technology develops, people’s ability to use search engine improves and search engines make changes to the way they operate.
However, this article aims to tell you the top 5 tips that are up-to-date with the latest search engine changes and help you get that all-important traffic to your website.
1. Do Your Research. This might sound pretty basic and obvious but this is so important and covers pretty much everything you need to know in SEO. You need to find out what is trending in the world of hotel and motel searches. What are holidaymakers looking for in a hotel? What type of place do they want to stay in? Carry out this research by doing your own searches online for hotels and seeing what the results are. What comes up in the typing box in Google when you start typing? Look on internet forums. Do surveys. Then you can target your audience with your website
2. Keywords – Today it is better if you focus your website around one central idea, one keyword. So for example. If you hotel is in a popular tourist area like Surfers Paradise, you would focus your website on being about Surfers Paradise and how great your hotel is for seeing the sights and exploring the beach there. If your hotel is great because it is so affordable with great value, you would focus on your keyword being “inexpensive” or “affordable” and base your website content around that. Google has also changed how it uses AdWords in that it accepts variations of words, including the plural form of a word and any misspellings a potential guest might make in searches.
3. Google Analytics – This is still a very useful tool for growing your hits on your website. It helps you keep up-to-date with what is trending. Keep an eye on this regularly and make adjustments on your website accordingly. That’s not to say you should rely solely on this to know what your customers are looking for. Keep a record yourself of what you see and hear from them.
4. Mobile phone friendly – according to marketingcharts.com around 40% of all traffic comes from mobile phones. Ensure your website is one that can be easily accessed by someone using their phone, so set up an automatic redirect to a mobile-friendly version of your website or keep your website simple with minimal images, videos, plug-ins and faulty pages.
5. Maps – make sure your website is listed on Google with a map that people can click directly on from the search engine and find out where it is, how to get to it and how close it is to local landmarks. This is so important because all top brands have maps for their locations on search engines. It makes things a lot easier for customers and honestly, people are just so much more likely to go to your hotel or motel if they can quickly see how accessible it is.
What is your experience of using SEO for your hotel or motel?