Hotel SEO is, without a doubt, profitable today. Managing it may seem daunting, but it’s actually not too difficult at all. You only need to know how to go about everything, and the rest unfolds on its own. But before you start seeing real results, there are a few things you need to keep in mind. This post takes you through key things to do to see actual results. Ready to learn more? Let’s get started.
A clean, comfortable hotel room
Build a stunning site
In this day and age, you need not only a stunning website but also a responsive one. There is no shortcut, and the two go hand in hand. You skip one; the other also fail to deliver. There are an inseparable pair.
One thing you need to keep in mind when optimizing for hotel SEO is to make your website mobile-friendly. It is now clear many people have smartphones and use them for browsing. How many people do you meet daily using their smartphones to access the web? Many, of course. With that in mind, make sure your site is optimized to work well on mobile devices.
Keep in mind Google is also rolling out Mobile-first index, which means that all search results will be indexed according to what the mobile crawler sees. This is a positive step for making sure search results on smartphones count today.
The best thing about today is that it is easily possible to test your site for mobile-friendliness in many ways. There are plenty of tools online you can use to learn more about your website. Some even help you make the necessary changes.
You may also want to pay keen attention to technical SEO. As much as you invest in content creation, remember technical SEO is crucial and plays a big role in marketing. The best time to start working on your technical SEO is during website development, and the earlier you start, the better.
Check your site speed
Another thing to consider is the website load speed. You have to make sure your site takes little time to load; otherwise, visitors will be turning to other sites that load faster. You don’t want people to book reservations from other hotels or resorts because your site takes forever to load.
We have even talked about Google mobile-first index move. This is another reason why you have to make sure your site speed is not disappointing. Actually, all you need is to make sure users are in a position to access your website and its content within the shortest time possible. Whether a user is using high speed or low-speed internet, make sure your site speed is not causing trouble. Fortunately, there are few ways of improving your website speed. Below are a few ways:
- Optimize code by minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
- Use appropriate image compression and sizes
- Use Gzip to compress files
- Cut down on unneeded redirects by linking directly to destination URLs
- Utilize browser caching. Avoid using render-blocking JavaScript
The above ways plus using tools like Google’s Lighthouse browser extension, Google’s TestMySite, WebPagetest, and PageSpeed Insights make your work easier.
Crawling
Search engine robots crawl each page on a website. Practically, these are supposed to take the least time possible to crawl a site. Unfortunately, this is not always possible, as some website have unnecessary and extraneous content. This does not mean you should have less content on your Hotel site. You can have more content, but influence search engine behavior through the use of the robots.txt file.
This file allows you to tell the search engine robot which sections to crawl and those to avoid. Doing so make it easier to focus on the section of your site with the most SEO value. One crucial thing to remember is that you need to completely understand what you are doing to avoid blocking the entire site from crawling.
Structured data
This is data that provide additional information about page content to search engines. A schema, which is a collaborative effort between Microsoft, Yandex, Yahoo, and Microsoft, is a good example. The contribution of structured data, SERP presentation, and provision of semantic information to search are some of the main reasons why you need to consider this kind of data seriously.
Competitive advantage
What are your competitors doing? What can you borrow from them? It is always advisable to know who your competitors are and how they’re doing. Remember, you can only be on top of the games once you completely understand what gives your competitors a competitive edge. In this case, track ranking and search engine optimization. You can use tools like seoClarity, BrightEdge, and SEMrush to make your work easier.
You may also want to analyze the backlinks of your competitors to learn more about what kind of link building techniques that are effective in the hotel SEO niche. Ahrefs is an excellent tool to track backlinks, so make use of it.
Lastly, try to find out the nature of content prepared by your competitors. What makes their content unique? How often do they publish content? Which content types do they publish? The idea here is to have a complete picture of content that gives your competitors an edge, and whether it is possible to beat them with better content.
Keyword search
Understanding keywords or search terms likely to be used by visitors visiting your site is equally relevant. The moment you have an idea about the kind of keywords likely to be used, the easier it becomes to prepare the right content. Tools like SEMrush, KWFinder, and Ahrefs make your work even easier. Make sure to utilize them well.
You will find these tools very useful when comparing factors such as search volumes, competition, intent, and so on. Your main goal should be that of using competitive keywords, those widely used by other hotels or your competitors, such as resorts.
Meta tags
The strategic and witty way of using title and meta descriptions cannot be overlooked. Remember, page titles are ranking factors, and you want to make sure every title used contributes to your ranking. Also make sure to pay keen attention to meta keywords, descriptions as they contribute to technical SEO which you also need to generate lead and revenue.
A unique location helping a hotel to create great SEO content
Repeated Engagement
So, how does this work? It is very simple. For example, you can continuously engage your users by updating your content. Remember, updating your content contributes directly to your ranking. So, don’t do it haphazardly. You can even hire someone to update your content if updating it yourself is an uphill task.
The other way to nurture continuous engagement is through user-generated content. The best way to do this is through hashtags and reviews. If you opt to use reviews, remember to respond to all comments. Whether positive or negative, take that opportunity to make things right.
Monitor your performance
We have talked a lot about hotel SEO. From site health to keyword monitoring and repeated engagement. The above are excellent ways that will help you leverage hotel SEO. But this is not possible without measuring your performance. You cannot move forward without tracking your every move.
Monitoring helps you know where you are, what improvements to make, and where you will be in the future. Minus continuous tracking, it is not possible to tell how you are performing in the industry. You can even have a guideline clearly stating the best time to audit your performance.
Wrapping up
Without a doubt, Hotel SEO is a profitable niche today. You don’t need to be told it is profitable. There is a lot of evidence out there. As Alicia Hoisington says, “A hotel’s website will never drive conversions if it’s not properly optimized.”
That evidence is a good reason enough why you should invest in hotel SEO.
Ready to invest? The above tips will make your work seamless. This piece has simplified things for you to the easiest form possible. Need more information? Hit this link to learn more about how you can leverage hotel SEO.
Jay
I've worked for WooRank, SEOptimer, and working on a cool SEO audit tool called SiteGuru.co. Now I have build Linkilo and SEO RANK SERP WordPress theme. I've been in the SEO industry for more than 5 years, learning from the ground up. I've worked on many startups, but also have my own affiliate sites.
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