Hotels have a different set of SEO requirements than many other businesses. They were, in fact, the first types of companies to adopt SEO methods back in 2003. Things were certainly very different in those days when it was easier to rank a hotel and now these establishments should be working with RankBrain, which is Google’s artificial intelligence that determines how sites are ranked.
SEO Tips for Hotels
It is common practice in this day and age to attach a social media widget to the homepage so that potential customers can look at your social media site. This can be damaging on a hotel site, however, since you aren’t looking to brand your name on your website but rather want to give people an easy way to book their rooms. If people start heading to your social sites, they will get distracted and may end up booking a room somewhere else. While they are on your site give them exactly what they need – a quick way to book a room.
User-Friendly
No matter where your site is showing on the rankings, if it isn’t user-friendly viewers will leave it in a heartbeat. Your potential guests want a user-friendly experience and if they find that it’s too difficult to book a room on your site they will definitely look elsewhere. While many other companies can get away with a bit of complexity and confusion on their sites, people that are booking a hotel want to do it quickly. If you can’t offer that, no amount of SEO will do your site justice.
Internal Linking Structure
You are going to be offering viewers the chance to see your hotel, the rooms and the features it provides. At the same time, you must always have a prominent link available so that people can go back to the booking page in one click of the button. No matter how you structure your linking internally on your site, this is the most important component of the structure. While the structure can be funnelled in a variety of different ways, this one link must appear on every page.
Social Media Counts
With VRBO and Airbnb offering affordable options to travelers, hotels must maintain their branding efforts in order to remain in the game. It’s more important now than it ever has been to connect with potential guests with transparency. Hotels must also be genuine with their branding efforts on social sites and show people why they offer the best holiday experiences without any sales type.
At Qode Media we offer SEO and social media management for all types of businesses including hotels. If you’d like to speak to us more about your business and how it can be moved forward in this age of new technology, please contact us through our website at qodemedia.com or call us today at 416-208-0157 to receive a free website analysis.