Good hotel SEO (search engine optimization) is the top priority when it comes to putting up a website for your hotel; your hotel is in competition with hundreds or even thousands of other hotels.
The best website design in the world won't do you any good if no one ever sees it—that's where hotel SEO comes in.
SEO pumps your website up above the generic, rooms-prices-location-contact model. Not that these things aren't important, but there are ways to make your facility stand out—and pop it up to page one of search engine results.
Niche marketing is becoming more and more important as part of your overall hotel sales marketing strategy. Hotel SEO plays a critical part in your efforts to reach those smaller, specialized segments of your customer base.
Your Website As we talked about in previous articles, once you've identified the niche customers you want to reach, start optimizing your website. Create a separate landing page for each niche, which is essentially a mini website within your main website.
Make sure that page contains all the information that special interest group wants to know – room features, amenities, services, testimonial excerpts from previous customers, and contact information (pet concierge, anyone?)—all focused on that niche.
For hotel SEO, text is critical! Think about what a customer in search of a pet-friendly hotel will enter into a search engine. For example, "pet friendly hotel in (city name)."
Make sure that phrase appears several times on that landing page to maximize the chances a search engine will pick it up. Note: We're not recommending keyword stuffing or overusing your key phrase; this will look spammy to readers (and to Google!) and may end up hurting your SEO. The idea is to show search engines that this is what your business is about and encourage them to help potential customers find you more easily.
Creating Content If your hotel website is well designed, you probably have a built-in blog function. Use it! Creating fresh, timely content is important to keep web visitors coming back to see what's new. For example, an article with tips for traveling with pets will spark interest from the niche customers you're looking for.
Make sure these articles are cross-linked with the niche-targeted landing page we talked about above. After all, what's the point of creating content if at the end there isn't a call to action such as, "(Name of your hotel) welcomes pets! Book with us today!"
SEO As A Problem Solver In a way, you can look at hotel SEO niche marketing as a way to solve a particular problem for a specific customer.
- Where can I stay with my pet when I visit (location)?
- Which hotels near the stadium will let me leave my car during the big game?
- Wow, the ComiCon hotel is expensive. Is there a less expensive hotel nearby?
Branching Out In addition to including those phrases that are key to your niche market on your website, make sure to include those words in your listings on travel review sites and reservation hubs. Tick the box for "allows pets," for example, and include appropriate wording in the description you'll likely be writing yourself.
In addition, look for specialized booking engines, like officialpethotels.com. If there's a niche customer, there's probably a boutique booking engine dedicated to them!
Get SEO savvy! Smart eHotels can help. Contact us today.
