We live in the digital age of savvy consumers who do most of their queries online. Moreover, Google has 92% worldwide market share of the search engine. If you are in the hotel industry, it’s high time you think about hotel SEO.

Besides, this hotel SEO guide will help you get traffic and generate direct bookings.

Why you should focus your resources and energy on hotel SEO

• Business Visibility. If you take your time and some little investment in SEO, your business will reach more customers. In this case, you strive to penetrate the 4.5 billion active online users.
• More sales and bookings. You’ll be ahead of your challenger and rank on top of them. As a result, your site will generate more traffic, which leads to sales.
• Trust and user experience. Not all domain name you see around are clean; some are crooks and rip-off. But, online searchers are more confident and trust what is at the top. In most cases, a website that ranks on top fulfills a customer’s journey. In other words, searchers believe Google, and by ranking high, you build trust and credibility.

But, it does take a lot of undertaking and research for most businesses to realize good traffic. But don’t fret, because this guide will answer your call. You’ll learn how to do hotel SEO that you dire need to outrank your competitor.

How to do hotel SEO for more traffic

Do comprehensive keyword research.

Keyword research is the dogma in search engine worlds because Google relies on it to provide answers. Without proper keyword placement, you’re threatening to batter your business to wreck and ruin.

In essence, your hotel SEO strategy should begin with selecting viable keywords. These are words and phrases that searchers are looking for in search engines. For example, Google “SEO Cape Town,” The result will show a list of an SEO agency in Cape Town.

However, the challenge is to rank on a search engine for keywords that more users are searching online. But, that should not intimidate you because you can still use” low competition” keywords.

How to generate hotel keywords

• Begin with a keyword mind map. You’ll start with your “seed” keyword, for instance, “SEO cape town.” Then, create categories and subcategories around your seed keywords. You can use a free tool such as Google keyword planner.
• Explore your competitor keywords. Notably, tools such as BuzzSumo and SemRush will give you an idea of keywords your competitor using.
• Analyze profitable keywords. Again,” Google Keyword Planner “is a useful tool that can help you meet your site’s valuable visitors. It will show you search volume per month, competition, and bid range.

For example, Google keyword planner search for “SEO cape town” will give you this result

• 1k-10k average monthly searches.
• The top of page ads bid is in the range of $1.49- $2.6.
• The competition level is low. Low competition means that the “SEO in Cape Town” keyword will not be challenging to rank.

Local optimization

It is imperative to create local optimization, which means optimizing your website to your geographical location. Besides, local SEO will help your hotel business permeate across a particular geographic area.

72% of consumers who do local search visit a store within five miles (source: Hubspot).

So, how do you do local SEO for a hotel?

With a busy schedule and a robust business environment, it becomes arduous to practice local SEO. Many thanks goes to seo firms such as SEO Cape Town that can help you achieve the required visibility online. If you have a hotel business that needs more customers, it’s time to apply local SEO.

How to improve your local SEO

List your business on Google.

The first step of your local SEO campaign is to list your business on Google. After that, you’ll be able to manage your hotel appearance on Google search and maps.

Furthermore, customers will now be able to access relevant information about your hotel business. Your clients will know opening hours, bookings, contacts, and locations.

How to list your business on Google

• You need a Gmail account, then Sign in to Google My Business. After sign in, next sign up using your business email domain. Then, fill in your business name, for instance, “SEO Cape Town.”
• Enter your hotel business physical address.
• Now, in this section, you’ll choose whether to appear on Google maps. For the hotel business, that is the Holy Grail because you serve customers at your address.
• Next, select your business category from the list.
• After that, enter your business phone number and website URL.
• Last, click verify.

How will Google my business benefits my business?

· Help you develop authority through your hotel profile

· Help to generate traffic which leads to sales

· Earn trust from clients

· Meet and engage with your customers

In summary, a hotel business requires listings that are relevant to local customers. You need to weave it with the location in mind. The process above is just the beginning; learn more with SEO Cape Town.

Get reviews

Hotel business needs to maintain many factors to uphold streaming, profitable returns. The most important ones are online presence and reputation. When it comes to hotel reputation, the benchmark starts with online reviews.

83% of online users will decide to book a hotel only after referencing reviews (source: Power Reviews). In this case, online reviews are a powerful tool to build a strong reputation.

What next!

Since Google thinks a business with more five stars is trustworthy, board the plane. Notably, having quality five-star reviews will boost your ranking and generates more sales.

How to get more reviews

· Create a review URL. Sending to your customers a link sometimes doesn’t work because of navigation problems. When you create a URL that pops up and asks them to review is better. You can also achieve this through “SEO Cape Town” if it’s technical on your side.

· Place reviews on the front page or center. In most cases, your customers will see this as a reward and help you draw a huge fan base.

· Do a follow up with your buyers. In other words, ask your past customers to do you a favour by writing a review. You can email them and promise to offer a discount on future bookings if they give an honest review.

· Respond to both positive and negative reviews.

It is an excellent opportunity to learn about your customers and improve.

· Offer discounts to those who review you.

At present, it’s hard to get a review. But, a little incentive like a 10% discount on the next booking can work.

· Add your hotel photos on Google my business page.

Placing the best images of your hotel rooms at “Google my business” will boost impressions.

Build a local citation

Citations are online business data that are available on the internet for reference. In short, it has elements such as business name, phone number, and address.

Why do you need hotel citations?

· Improve search visibility. Google wants to learn more about your hotel business and get extra information. Thus, if you convey accurate business data across these sites, you’ll get a good reputation. Having a good reputation with Google is a perfect opportunity to get rank on top.

· More traffic and sales. Usually, many consumers do search these directories for hotel bookings. When you have accurate data, it can result in sales.

Examples of free top hotel citations sites

· Bookings

· Trip Advisor

· Expedia

· Yelp

· Facebook

Make your site load faster.

A hotel website is full of photos, such as rooms and other amenities. But, more photos is a problem because they are heavy and slow site. As a result, pages on your website might load slower.

Ensure you compress images for faster page load. Also, make sure booking forms and payment gateway provide a good user experience.

Summary

Given these points, you now need to create relevant local content for your consumers. Make sure to optimize post titles and descriptions with relevant keywords.

Last, it would be best if you were consistent with your hotel SEO. Measure results from the little that you do because there’s no silver bullet that works magic. If you don’t have the time and technical knowhow, look for “SEO Cape Town services.”

Designing a marketing hotel website has got to be one of the most challenging tasks, especially with the head to head competition between hotels. If you’re starting a new website for your hotel, you have to put in much effort into attaining hotel SEO. Sometimes we make silly mistakes on our site, which we don’t realize. However, these small mistakes have a significant effect on the traffic that comes to the website.

If you want to generate more traffic to your hotel website and make it SEO worthy, you should follow these 2020 “Don’ts of hotel SEO.

1. Don’t Have a Slow Website

First, make sure that your website doesn’t take too much time to load and that it is mobile-friendly. People don’t like waiting too long for a website to respond; this encourages them to go to another site. In order to avoid this, make sure your website is mobile-friendly.

2. Don’t Just Add Pictures

Whenever you include pictures on your website for your blog post, make sure to supplement it with some valuable information. The more informative your website is, the more likely it is for the same traffic to come back to your site. For example, if it is a “how-to” post that explains the steps to book a room in a hotel, you must include both pictures and information describing the process.

3. Don’t add too Much Content

Sometimes websites have loads of information, and it gets difficult to understand. So, avoid including loads and loads of info, only include specific things, and don’t drag it too much. The best thing to do is include information in pointers or small paragraphs so that it is easier for people to read and understand. Also include pictures that draw more attraction.

4. Don’t Scramble Everything on One Page

Don’t make the mistake of covering everything on one page; improvise on having different sections – for example, media section, about section, booking page, and a separate page for blogs. This way, the user will find it easier to see what they’re looking for, which in turn will drive more traffic to your website. Make sure you have a fun gallery section that should be SEO optimized. In this way, users will know what to expect, and it might also encourage them to make more bookings.

5. Don’t Target to Just One Group

Having a target audience is very important, and you have to create content targeting that specific audience. The key demographics that come under hotel targets include married couples, business meetings, college conferences, and families on vacation. Make sure to have content that targets each group and attracts them individually. To make this work, you can have different tabs that cater to each group; this will make it easier for the user to find what they’re looking for, making it SEO quality.

Wrap Up

Make sure to go through the “Don’ts” of hotel SEO to avoid the chance of missing out on traffic. With all the competition, you shouldn’t take any risks, so work harder towards getting the best hotel SEO website.

Hotel SEO has been a significant movement in the hotel industry. It is essential if you want your hotel website to appear on top of search engine results when someone comes looking for information regarding hotels. To increase your hotel bookings, you have to have an SEO website. There are different ways to have an SEO optimized website. All it requires is extensive research and marketing skills.

It’s not easy achieving a hotel SEO website, especially with all the competition in the hotel industry. If you want to have a clearer picture of how hotel website optimization works, read further on and attain the right hotel SEO for your website.

What Is Hotel SEO All About

SEO, short for search engine optimization, is a process that helps you get your website to the top of the engine search; in turn, it helps to derive more traffic towards your website. Whenever you search something on Google, it’s always the first few option you select; hence you want your hotel website to be that first option whenever someone searches anything regarding hotels.

There are a lot of steps you have to follow to achieve hotel SEO, and sometimes these steps can get complicated, especially if you don’t have the right resources or information about hotel SEO.

Mentioned below are different ways how SEO will help to bring your website to the top and derive more useful traffic towards it.

Page SEO

Page SEO is a category that falls under the type of SEO. This type of SEO focuses on your website content, and this affects both your website and the search engine. Mentioned below are the different features involved in page SEO.

Content

You have to include the perfect content for your websites that’s qualitative, easy to understand, relevant, unique, and user-friendly. Google looks for these traits in a website.

The other things that come under this category are easy to read and clean URLs, optimized Meta description, internal links, and a descriptive title tag.

On-Site SEO

On-site SEO is a word used to describe your whole website. Using this strategy will help both users and search engines to understand the entire outlook of your website and will also prove its worth to them. Below are a few features that come under on-site SEO.

Keywords

Keywords are the central feature ff achieving excellent hotel SEO. To get the right keywords for your website, you have to carry out an extensive hotel keyword research, looking for appropriate words that will derive traffic towards your website. Goggle has an eye on all on the keywords, and if your website is keyword enriched, you may have a chance of appearing on that search engine.

Final Words

SEO agencies suggest optimising your Hotel website fully. It is one of the smartest ways for people to look up to the hotel services you provide to them. All this because there are constant changes Google makes with its SEO algorithm. This is what has helped hotels in Cape Town, and it will help yours too.

SEO plays an important role when it comes to marketing any product and service. It becomes even trickier when you have to market business such as hotels, considering its head to head competition and high demand all over the world.

You cannot keep up with the competition unless you improve and optimize your hotel’s website. However, SEO is not an easy job, as it requires a lot of research and effort.

In this post, we will share some SEO tips for your hotel website. With the help of these tips, you cannot only improve the SEO for your hotel website, but you can also stand out in the marketing world. So, get down to it and follow these five fabulous tips listed below.

1. Keyword Search

Keywords are one of the crucial features for improving the SEO of any website. Without using keywords, your hotel website is good for nothing. You have to follow a precise process for incorporating the correct keywords, including intensive research of hotel keywords. Go to other hotel websites and see the main words they have used that have got them to the top of the search engine.

Your main aim is to get the highest ranking, so draft out a list of keywords related to hotels and use them on your website. Please make use of headings and subs, and include keywords in them. Overusing the keyword is a common mistake; always include the keyword in the first sentence of your paragraph.

2. Add Internal Links to Your Website

Internal links are an excellent way to navigate more traffic towards your website. Internal links take you from one page to another. The links make it easier for visitors to go directly to the page they want to explore, such as going to the Contact page directly from the Home page. People don’t want to make an effort digging into a website to find something; it’s easier when the option is right in front. Hence, you have to create a proper internal link structure.

3. Make Use of Google

Make sure to include your website on different Google platforms, such as Google Plus, Google Places, and Google My Business. This improves your SEO ranking in the Google search results. It does not go without saying that better SEO ranking is beneficial to direct extra traffic towards your page.

4. Mobile-Friendly Website

In today’s digital age, it is vital to design a mobile-friendly website. People usually prefer searching for things on their smartphones; therefore, make sure that your website automatically adjusts to the screen of a phone and any other electronic device. Mobile-friendliness ensures that the size of the text and design automatically fits different monitors.

5. Add Blogs

Blogs are an excellent way to generate traffic towards your website and improve SEO. The more content you share, the more readers your website will attract, thereby improving traffic. There are certain things hotels visitors want to know and learn. Make sure that you engage and attract visitors by writing different blogs that you think will be useful for people who want to stay in a hotel or work in them.

Conclusion

You can quickly improve the SEO of your hotel website without having to spend millions of dollars on specialists. Building up SEO is not that difficult as it may seem, especially if you follow the tips mentioned above. Just remember to write for visitors and not search engines.

If you’re in the hospitality industry, the chances are that you may not have realized the importance of your online footprint. It’s a common mistake most hoteliers make. An error that can lead them to fall for the trap of one size fits all marketing and Hotel SEO strategies. 

The hospitality industry is very different from the other industries with equally different sets of regulations, customer base and unique problems governing them. You can judge the magnitude of their difference just by examining their operating hours. Hotels like Cape Town’s beach hotels are open 24/7, 365 days a year. A hyperactive customer base demands for them to be always on top of their game.

Keep the above in mind as we tell you that approximately 300 million people use Google daily to look up services and products. For quality content, Google is forever changing its search engine optimization algorithm, making it difficult for the companies to capture and retain the first-page position. The more SEO optimized your content is the more chances you have of making the top position.

The higher you rank on SERPs (search engine results page), the more people are looking at your online presence, and the more customers you attract. All these factors contribute to SEO being essential for hotels.