Unlocking Success with Powerful SEO Strategies for Hotels

Seeking to boost your hotel's online presence and draw more guests among web searchers? You've landed in the perfect spot! We’re going to discuss SEO tips for hotels that will earn your website higher rankings and more bookings. 

Stay with us to learn more about what SEO for hotels is and why it is a must for your hotel businesses.

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What Makes SEO Crucial for Hotels

Search Engine Optimization for hotels refers to the process of optimizing a hotel's website to make more people stumble upon it across search engine results pages (SERPs). This involves using targeted keywords related to the hospitality industry, improving website performance, creating useful and engaging content, and finding a way to encourage other websites and platforms to link to your website. The goal is to attract more unpaid traffic from potential guests actively searching for accommodation, thereby increasing bookings and profits.

Across all sectors, organic(unpaid) search drives around 53.3% of total web traffic. The vast majority of digital marketers find SEO to be more efficient in generating sales compared to pay-per-click (PPC) advertising strategies.

SEO is crucial for hotels because it significantly enhances online presence, making it easier for potential guests to find the hotel online. Targeting users actively searching for accommodation options is key to reaching a broader audience, improving brand awareness, and driving direct sales, bypassing third-party booking sites and their associated fees.

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Effective SEO Strategies for Hotels

How to do SEO for hotels? Now, while SEO is a complex thing with tons of nuances only known to professional marketers, you can focus on the following aspects of it for starters:

🔑 Keyword Optimization

📈 Website Performance

📝 Quality Content Creation

📍 Local SEO

🔗 Link Building

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1. Learn About Keywords And How To Target Them

Imagine how people might search online for a hotel, typing specific words and phrases in the search bar. Your website’s written content should contain these exact words in order for Google to recognize it as relevant to the query. Keywords are among the top most important things search engines use to rank a website. Adding these keywords to your site, such as in titles, blogs, FAQ pages and meta tags, and conducting thorough research to identify all relevant terms used by potential guests, are essential steps. 

Here are a few beginner tips on how to find the right keywords:

• Think like your guest: Consider what words someone would use to find a hotel like yours.
• Check the competition: See what keywords other hotels are using, but don't copy them exactly.
• Use keyword tools: Tools like Google Keyword Planner can suggest keywords and show how often they're searched.
• Be specific: Include keywords that match your hotel's unique features (like "pet-friendly hotel in downtown").
• Keep it local: Use keywords that describe your location and nearby attractions to attract guests looking for a hotel in your area.

Once you’ve found your keywords, start to incorporate them in meta titles and descriptions and all the written content on your website. However, pay attention to not overuse keywords. Google algorithms detect websites that use too many keywords and rank them down. Choose quality(how frequently a keyword is searched)  over quantity. 

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2. Check Your Website’s Technical Characteristics 

Hotel search engine optimization is directly influenced by how well the website performs. A swift, responsive site that is easy to use and navigate, encourages visitors to stay longer and explore more, which search engines like Google reward with higher rankings. 

Keep your eye on:

1. Loading speed.

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 If a site can load in less than 2.2 seconds, it's in the top 20% in the search engine result page, and less than 1.7 seconds puts it in the top 10%.

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2. User Experience(UX). Your website should be so easy and fun to navigate that it will only take a couple of clicks to make a reservation. 
3. Website security. Ensure your website is secure (using HTTPS) and accessible to both users and search engine crawlers. This includes having a clear site structure and a robots.txt file that allows search engines to crawl your site more effectively.

Also, mobile optimization is no longer optional; it's a necessity. With a substantial number of searches coming from mobile devices, hotels must ensure their websites are responsive and accessible across all platforms. Not only does mobile responsiveness show that you care about your customers. It is a must for SEO, as search engines recently switched to mobile-first approach.

This is especially relevant for SEO for hospitality industry:

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In the travel industry, 60% of the traffic comes from mobile devices.

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To keep track of website performance, regular audits are essential. Our experts insist that you should conduct an audit before you even start to work on SEO. Why? Learn from this article. 

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3. Fill Your Website With Good Content

As we previously mentioned, organically including keywords into your content is how you’re going to be noticed in the search engines. But it would be a mistake to treat content as merely a keyword placeholder. 

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Write with people in mind, not the algorithms.

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A thought-through content strategy will help you achieve the following goals:

1. Provide all the necessary information connected with your hotel and booking. Your potential customers should find the answers for all the possible questions there might occur. Such as how to get there from the airport, what is the cancellation policy, parking situation etc.
2. Sell and upsell. While SEO efforts aim at navigating traffic to your website, the quality of the website copy will directly influence the number of conversions. The conversion rates in the hospitality industry usually go from 0.2% to 4%. If you’re not meeting the threshold, reconsider your CTA’s and the placement of your special offers.
3. Bring value. Write a blog that will enrich or ease people’s lives. Articles like “Top 10 Must-Visit Attractions Near Our Hotel", "The Ultimate Guide to Local Cuisine" or "Eco-Friendly Travel Tips for the Conscious Traveler" will attract more traffic, help incorporate relevant keywords naturally and build trust. Bonus points for tapping into article ideas that are unique to your local area. If you find a useful topic nobody else is covering, your website will automatically get on the top of the SERP’s. 

Another reason to write truly engaging and insightful content is because people tend to share good stuff. By having other websites link to yours, you get wider outreach and increase the website’s authority in the eyes of the search engines. Which brings us to the next point.

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4. Work On Your Backlink Profile

The previous SEO tips for hotels we've shared are pretty basic. But, this next one is more advanced, aimed at hotels in areas with lots of competition.

One key thing Google looks at when ranking websites is how many other sites link to it. If a website has links from many other sites, it signals to the algorithms that you are trustworthy and your content is helpful. The idea is, the more people talk about your site, the higher Google might rank it. 

This has led to something called link building. Link building is all that you do in order to get other websites link to yours. This can be done in several ways, like asking for links, writing guest posts on other blogs, but the most effective way is, again, making content that naturally gets a lot of links because people want to share it.

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For hotel sites, which don't have a lot of their own content or a blog, link building can be tough. However, one strategy is to do something that gets attention and tell the press about it. This could be hosting an event, updating rooms, or expanding the hotel.

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5. Learn About Local SEO

Local SEO for hotels is a way to make your hotel show up when people search for places to stay in your area. Think of it as telling Google, "Hey, my hotel is here, and it's a great place for visitors!" When someone searches for a hotel near them, you want your hotel to pop up on the list. Local SEO helps with this by focusing on searches that are specific to the location of your hotel.

To use local SEO for your hotel, start by making sure your hotel's details are listed accurately on online maps and directories, like Google Maps. This includes your hotel’s name, address, phone number, and website. It's like putting up a signpost online that guides people to your hotel. Also, encourage happy guests to leave positive reviews on these sites. Good reviews can make your hotel stand out in search results.

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Attaining a 4.0 Google Business rating results in a 99% year-over-year increase in search queries.

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Another important step is to use local keywords on your website. For example, if your hotel is in New York, you might include phrases like "hotels in New York" or "stay in New York" on your website. This helps search engines understand where your hotel is and what you offer, making it more likely for your hotel to show up in search results when someone is looking for a place to stay in your area.

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How Promodo Can Help You Get More Bookings

Using good SEO for your hotel website is key to doing well in the hotel business. By using the tips in this article, you can improve where you show up in search results or get help from SEO experts at Promodo for great results. 

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For now, see how well your website is doing by using our free SEO health checker:

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