For decades, SEO has been treated as one of the cornerstones of hotel digital marketing, hotels have invested millions in keyword research, metadata optimization, H-tags, local SEO, backlink campaigns and monthly reports, all based on a simple assumption: that improving organic visibility leads to more bookings.
In this age of AI search, is conventional search driving discovery? Or is discovery now coming exclusively via generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, agentic AI like Google’s Gemini, social media platforms, etc?
Here is my take:
SEO exists for over 30 years now. Traditionally, organic search produces 25%-30% of hotel website bookings vs. 20%-25% from paid search. So, the importance of SEO cannot be ignored.
Even in the age of AI search, the fundamentals of SEO haven’t changed. Even today, 70–80% of SEO best practices that worked for decades also work for GEO (Genetative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).
All three formats - SEO, GEO and AEO require:
- Original, editorial-level, structured and extractable website content.
- Content marketing: social media, PR, articles, blog postings, expert knowledge pieces by your property golf, spa specialists, famous chef, etc. to generate links to the property website and citations of your property on the AI platforms and the search engines.
- Backlinks to the hotel website from highly authoritative websites (CVBs, online directories, travel guides, digital versions of newspapers and magazines, etc).
- Technical SEO (Good PageSpeed Insights Ex. website download speed under 2 seconds, optimized image sizes, minimizing HTTP requests, browser caching, etc.
- Schema, which has been crucial for SEO for decades, is now even more important for AI search. Schema enables rich results and improves search visibility. Ex. 3/4 of first page Google results use schema.
So, what should hoteliers do? They must:
a) invest in content marketing to “earn recognition” on the LLM platforms via citations.
b) invest in Online Reputation Management (ORM) to monitor AND promptly respond to customer reviews.
c) invest in SEO, GEO and AEO.
Max Starkov
Hospitality & Online Travel Tech Consultant & Strategist
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