The Complete Guide to Hotel SEO

Over 50% of hotel reservations are done online. That’s the power of hotel SEO! It’s no hidden fact that hotels without a robust online presence go unnoticed by potential customers, resulting in lost business and growth opportunities. 

Consider increasing your hotel’s online visibility, and you’ll claim a fair market share. Buckle up as we take you through the ins and outs of SEO, why you should tap into its potential, and how it can profit your business.

What is SEO for the Hotel Industry?

SEO  is an indispensable tool for hotels seeking more visibility in the modern business world. By implementing local SEO, your hotel’s website will appear higher in search results, increasing foot traffic.

Think of it as the master key to your online visibility—what you need to stand out in an already crowded online space. If used well, it can earn you more bookings and increase your chances of attracting more clicks and guests to your website.

What Makes SEO Important for Hotels

If you’re a tech-savvy hotelier, you must have noticed that most travelers make their travel plans based on the information on the internet. SEO is a vital tool in turning those site visits into bookings. It generates tons of quality organic traffic to your website, and you need it to:

1. Boost Brand Visibility

Over 74.6% of travelers start their search on the internet. By optimizing your website, you increase your online visibility. You’ll be noticeable to anyone using search queries relevant to your brand name, services, or products. As a result, many will perceive you as a credible and trustworthy provider in the industry.

2. Increase Conversion Rate

SEO is an effective tool when it comes to increasing website conversion rates. It focuses on reaching your target market more effectively by ensuring that all aspects of the website are optimized, including the structure, user experience, and content. Other than having everyone click on your website, it helps attract only guests whose search intent aligns with what you do or offer. This increases the chances of nurturing them into long-lasting customers.

3. Stand Out in a Crowd

Ideally, SEO aims to give your business a significant advantage in the digital sphere by ensuring you appear at the top page of search results. When travelers search for hotels, your brand will pop up; with time, they’ll become familiar with it. You can top this up by consistently sharing content showing your in-depth industry knowledge. That way, you present yourself as an authoritative brand in the industry, and many will consider you the go-to provider.

4. Improve User Experience

SEO helps give customers a positive experience as they interact with your website. This leads to loyal customers who, if nurtured well, will become your brand advocates.

How Do You Set Up SEO on a Hotel Website?

Here are simple steps to help you optimize your hotel’s website.

1. Identify Your Audience

Every successful search engine optimization starts with understanding your audience. Therefore, identify your ideal client, their habits, beliefs, values, and the challenges they face in the hotel industry. Understanding all these aspects will ensure your SEO strategy is tailored to speak to them and match their search intent.

2. Discover Relevant Keywords

If you want to attract the right audience to your website, your SEO strategy has to focus on the right keywords. Users are likely to focus their search on these short words or long tail phrases when hunting for hotels in your location.

• List the specific terms your target audience will likely use in their search.
• Use keyword planner tools like SEMRush, Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest to find highly valuable keywords and long-tail phrases likely to drive more traffic and increase conversions and sales.

Note that these tools will show the search volume of targeted keywords and related keywords. However, avoid keywords and phrases with extremely high and extremely low competition, which can harm your site’s ranking results. Aim to maintain a balance between search volume and relevance.

3. Update Title Tags, Header Tags, Meta Description, and URL Structure

These elements are integral in SEO ranking.

• Title tags: They provide hints to users and search engines about the details of your website. Your title tags should have the keyword at the beginning (if possible), describe the page content, and be brief, not more than 60 characters. They are also referred to as meta or page tags.
• Header Tags: These are headlines on your content (H1, H2, H3). Search engines use these headlines to better understand the type of content on your website/webpage and what the site should rank for. If you want your site to show up in the SERP, focus on including keywords in the headers.
• Meta Descriptions: Also known as description tags, meta descriptions summarize the content on a webpage and can lead to more clicks. However, some search engines don’t use meta descriptions in their ranking algorithms, they use click-through rate (CTR) to move you up the rankings. A good meta description should describe your hotel, contain your focus keyword, and be 155 characters long.
• URL Slugs: A URL slug is the last section of a URL address (the words that come after the slash sign). It helps search engines locate and display specific pages based on the relevant keyword. To boost your hotel’s website rankings and user experience, ensure your slug contains your focus keyword and is short, descriptive, and easy to read.

4. Optimize Your Content

Hotel SEO ensures that your content is optimized to rank higher in SERPS. However, to get the desired results, the content published on your site must be of high quality and answer your audience’s queries. This could be blogs, articles, webpage texts, or newsletters discussing your hotel services, amenities, nearby local attractions, and other topics that may interest your target clientele.

5. Optimize Your Images

Go beyond text optimization. Use descriptive, keyword-rich titles when naming your image files. Ensure the images are authentic and the titles reflect the details/content of the file. They should also have an alt text to avoid errors while indexing on the search engines.

6. Build Authority With Links

This is where internal (inbound) and external links come in. Internal links entail linking the pages on your website. External links (also outbound links) point to a page on other websites. If you are green in this, work with a reputable SEO agency that can build high-quality backlinks to your website and help boost your authority on the search engine.

7. Improve Your Websites Use Experience

Unresponsive websites or pages tend to record the highest bounce rate. Focus on improving your hotel’s website responsiveness, and you’ll have many visitors hooked on your pages, resulting in more reservations. Compressing large images and video files on your site can improve the web load time. You want to ensure your hotel website is user-friendly, guests can navigate the site smoothly and instantly make bookings or inquiries.  

What is a Good Example of SEO for Hotels?

Glad you asked!

A good SEO for the hotel industry goes beyond keywords, page speed, user experience, and content. It eliminates the need to rely on online travel agents, reduces marketing expenses, and ensures you enjoy your hard-earned revenue in the long run.

One example of good SEO for hotels is The Standard Culture. The website constantly updates their audience on any new developments in the hotel, whether it’s upcoming events or promotions.  Not to mention, the engaging content they post regularly, which serves as an eye-opener of the business culture, voice, and style. The site is very user-friendly and easy to navigate.

Businesses that consistently share informative, educational, and compelling content using their website get to drive more foot traffic than their competitors who don’t engage with their audience online. Keeping your blog content up to date and ensuring your website is as user-friendly as possible is a great way to protect your business’s bottom line.

However, these privileges come easier if you work with SEO experts. Here’s why:

You Get the Lion’s Share of Traffic

This means you have acquired a solid online presence. Hence, you can leverage the internet to drive more bookings without using paid ads or third-party interventions (OTAs).

You Get to Attract the Right Clientele

A good SEO for your hotel website will appeal to the right site visitors. Buyers who browse the internet with the intent to make a purchase are usually specific about their search. Therefore, including details like your hotel’s location and niche market can attract many guests to your website, leading to increased bookings.

It’s Cost-Effective

SEO is an investment that, if done right, will offer high returns as long as you keep your strategies and website content up to date. According to a survey done by Statista Research Department, 59% of respondents reported an increase in ROI from SEO. No doubt that investing in good SEO for your hotel is worth the money and effort. It’s a cost-effective marketing strategy with long-term success.  

Why is Hotel SEO King?

Hotel SEO increases the brand’s visibility and drives quality traffic to the website. Not to mention, SEO traffic is free and consistent. If you rank high, you reach a wider audience you wouldn’t have access to otherwise. Besides, a good SEO strategy for your hotel can protect your business’s bottom line by reducing bounce rates and driving high-quality leads.

If you’re looking to optimize your website, please contact us. At BKA, we offer comprehensive hotel SEO services, including link-building and managed SEO services. We also offer SEO blog writing plans where we craft unique, accurate, engaging, and informative blogs with relevant keywords to drive more traffic to your site.