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SEO Tips to Rank your Hotel Website

What is SEO?

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” It refers to the process of improving a site’s visibility for relevant searches. In other words, it is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to the website through organic search engine results.

Why Is SEO Important for Hotels?

A hotel SEO refers to the optimization of the hotel’s websites in a manner that attracts more visitors to the website through various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Any hotel that has a website, clearly understands how important each visitor is, especially in the current post-lockdown times. More visitors without any advertising indicates better profit margins for the hotels.

In other words, this means, if you want your website to rank on the top results of the Google search every time someone searches for your product or service, you need to work hard on your SEO. This is when Hotel SEO comes into place to improve your search engine rankings and help you drive more visitors organically. SEO is one of the many successful strategies, to win over competitors in the long run.

Various researches have shown that the top result in a Google search gets about 33 percent of clicks. This percentage drops drastically to 17 percent for the second result. At least, 92 percent of people click on the results on the first page. Only, 5 percent of the people click through to the second page of the Google search results.

 

SEO Tips for Hotels

1. Keyword Research

A keyword is a word or a phrase that is used by most people to find a product or service like yours on different search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc.

Keyword research is a process of finding those words or phrases that are classified as keywords. Google is very smart yet, it needs some of those keywords to rank your website on the top results of its search. Without finding relevant keywords for your website, it would only be considered random guessing.

There are three kinds of keywords, you should focus on:

• Primary Keywords: A word or two that describes your page comprehensively. For example, “Scottsdale Hotels.”
• Secondary Keywords: A little less obvious but more specific than primary keywords. For example, “budget Hotels in Scottsdale.”
• Long-tail Keywords: Longer and more specific, almost around 3-5 words. For example, “budget Scottsdale hotels near beach.”

1. Page Titles and Descriptions and URL

• Title Tag: TIt refers to the name of your web page. The title of your web page is read and analyzed by Google to understand what it is all about. So, keywords should be used wisely in the title. You can find the title tag when you search for a query on Google and different search results appear with titles in blue, it is the title tag. Its length should not be more than 50-60 words.
• Meta Description: Meta description refers to the snippets that appear below the title on the search engine result page (SERPs). It should contain a keyword. Meta descriptions should be accurate and attractive enough that forces the one searching, to visit your website. But make sure your meta description has a keyword for it to be read by the search engine.
• SEO-friendly URL: It is always recommended to optimize the URL of each page of the web page. Neither should it be very long nor should it be very short. A good URL should be clear and should contain a keyword but keyword stuffing should be avoided. Apart from this, one important thing to keep in mind is that the words in the URL should be separated by using hyphens instead of underscores. For example, “https://besthotel.com/contact-us”

1. Optimize your Website loading speed

If your webpage takes more than a few seconds to load, almost no one is going to wait for you. Not only this, search engines analyze the loading speed of your web page in consideration as well while assigning a rank to it. So, just don’t try to overlook this factor while working for SEO.

A small thing such as the speed with which your website loads can often become the reason for the success or failure of your web traffic and potential business.

1. Your content should be appealing

Your content is the king. If you are writing content that is useful to people, it can serve as a great advantage for your long-term SEO. But you need to be careful while placing the keywords. Do not ever try to overstuff your content with keywords because if Google detects this, your website can suffer a lot in terms of search engine rankings.

Make sure, your website is up to date and your content is updated regularly. As an add-on, you can create a blog and post regularly over there. Once people start visiting your blog, you can have the advantage of drawing them to your website through the internal link present in your blogs.

1. Make the most use of Google

For all your problems, Google has an answer. I am not talking about Google as a search engine here, but a variety of other things. Google offers a variety of platforms that are completely free to use. If these platforms are used properly, they can help your hotel website to rank on the top results of the search engines.

• Google Search Console: Search Console by Google helps you identify for your website if there are any 404 errors that may be having a negative impact on your site’s SEO. It also helps your website get indexed and get an overview of the vast variety of terms used by people to find your website.
• Google Analytics: Everything you need to know about the users on your website can be known from the Google Analytics web page. It provides the most comprehensive yet detailed analysis of every tiny bit of the information about your users.
• Google My Business (GMB): Google defined this service as, “for businesses and organizations to manage their online presence across Google, including Search and Maps.”Keep your profile updated regularly on the GMB listing. It can help you go a long way in terms of local SEO.

1. Be Consistent and in Sync with the Trend

You need to regularly update your website’s content in order for the Google algorithms to know that you are providing the latest information and are relevant. Keep a close eye on the trends.

If you can manage to be from among the ones who match with the trends, search engines will show your website on the top. Secondly, never undermine the strategy of starting a blog because it is the place where you can put your keywords and generate links to your website and do actual business.

For example, if you regularly post blogs about different places to visit in Scottsdale or traveling hacks and other important stuff about different places and traveling and put relevant keywords to attract more visitors, it is clear that your audience would be the people who like or are planning to travel. You can generate links for your visitors here and help them land on the buying page of your hotel’s website. 

1. Go Local

Don’t worry, going local does not mean you will not be able to find customers from far away places. It just means that you are refining your search results. Instead of being part of only the generic search terms, by going local you become more specific and become part of the long tail keyword group. In this way, there can be more chances of you being shown in the top results of the SERPs.

To mention a few strategies for the same try using the NAP: Name Address and Phone number method. Or your focussed keyword with the name of the city your hotel is present in the title tag, meta description, and the URL of your hotel’s website.

1. Build strong links

Link building refers to the process by which the visitors to your website navigate between different pages. There are two types of links:

• Internal Links: As the name suggests, the links present internally within your website. In other words, the links present on a page of your website that helps to land on other pages of your website.

A well-structured internal link pattern on your website makes it easy for the search engine to understand how different information on your website is interlinked with each other and thereby, it may be helpful to the people. In this way, your linking structure can help you rank better on the search queries.

• External Links: External links or Backlinks refer to the links generated by other websites to your website. The more backlinks your website has, you would be considered more credible by the search engines. Although it might be difficult for the hotel websites to generate strong backlinks, if you are able to do so, it would be paid off by Google by ranking you among the top search results for sure.

1. Be active on Social Media Platforms

This one’s quite simple. Be active on Social Media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, etc., every social media platform where you find your audience, you need to be actively involved.

Keep your profile updated, post regularly, follow hashtags, create campaigns, run ads, answer questions, do everything possible. Let the people know of your presence.

1. Content Marketing

You are writing great content and are being consistent as well yet you are not able to generate leads. This is often because you have not marketed your content enough. You need to do the marketing for your content like you would do for any physical product. You need to show the world what you have for them.

Secondly, write but write useful content. Don’t just write to rank higher on the search results. Often, it may happen, you rank well due to the SEO practices like keywords and other stuff. But if you don’t provide meaningful content to the people, you will not be able to succeed in the long run.

Conclusion

Due to the pandemic, one of the worst-hit industries has been the hotel and hospitality industry. This is the reason, you need to start working extremely hard to attract more traffic to your website and turning them into potential customers.

If you work hard you will be able to master all the points mentioned above. But don’t forget, Search Engine Optimization is a slow and gradual process. You cannot expect the fruits after a day’s work. However, if you are consistent in your efforts and keep upscaling, you are sure to achieve the desired results.

Don’t try to take shortcuts and buy traffic. Apart from this, let me tell you a fact, organic traffic is always honest and comes with the highest conversion rates.

Just remember, there are so many other points to level up your SEO apart from the ones mentioned here. Whatever you do, be consistent and you will surely see the results of your hard work.

Get in touch with us if you are looking for the #1 SEO Company in Scottsdale.