24 October 2024

Hotel SEO: Effective Strategies to Boost Local Visibility

0 min read
Hotel SEO: Effective Strategies to Boost Local Visibility
Matt EvansWritten ByMatt Evans

Matt is our SEO Manager, and in his career spanning 14 years, he has worked across multiple forms of marketing & lead generation, using leading industry tools, cutting edge strategies and multiple teams.

If your hotel doesn’t utilise a consistent hotel SEO strategy, how do you expect potential guests to find it?

Launching a website for your hotel comes hand in hand with launching a hotel, if not beforehand. Since hotels depend on bookings from international travellers across the globe, ensuring your hotel sits firmly on the first page when holiday planners start searching Google for where to stay in your area must be the number one priority.

In this article, Propeller explores hotel SEO: what is it, why is it important and most importantly, how can you implement it for your website? Take on our SEO tips for hotels and see firsthand how improving your hotel SEO strategy will deliver an impressive return on investment. 

What is hotel SEO?

SEO is the process of optimising and improving the ranking of a hotel website on search engine result pages (SERP).  With a finessed hotel SEO strategy, you can improve your online presence, drive traffic to your website, and boost your hotel’s bookings. 

Developing a strong hotel SEO strategy is vital to the marketing of any hotel, and will make the difference in distancing yourself from your competitors. Key areas to focus on for hotels include:

Local SEO strategy 

Since your hotel is based in a fixed location(s), you should prioritise local SEO and improve on the following three areas:

Link building

Receiving backlinks from other local websites to your hotel’s website will improve your hotel’s position in local search results. Similarly, if broader websites like international travel and tourism guides backlink your hotel’s website, your search results position will improve beyond local searches.

The best way to build links is by contacting websites and offering to exchange links with them or by creating interesting content that other websites want to cite.

Content marketing

Publishing compelling and consistent content will establish your experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness (EEAT). For the hotel and travel industry, we recommend researching your target audience and understanding what content they are looking for before starting.

Developing content is an excellent way to build links to other local websites and put your venue in the forefront of the traveller’s mind when they research specific areas. 

Keyword research 

Using the right keywords can make or break your SEO strategy. Keyword research for hotels involves identifying and analysing the search terms that people use when looking for hotel accommodations.

By understanding the keywords that potential customers use, hotels can optimise their website and content to improve their search engine rankings and attract visitors that are more likely to convert.

Social media

Social media boosts your hotel’s visibility and establishes a deeper connection with your audience. Social media provides an excellent platform for brands to experiment with their digital offering and have a bit of fun with their audience. Encouraging participation and asking for audiences to vote on decisions also builds a stronger relationship with 

Ensure you create profiles on Instagram and TikTok to reach a broader and more diverse audience and post regular updates that include local keywords and hashtags.

Why is hotel SEO important?

Hotel SEO is vital for any hotel trying to succeed, whether its based in a competitive touristic area, or in a quiet area with less competition. Successful hotel SEO strategy will make your site visible to new potential guests that are researching where to stay. 

Strong SEO could also mean more people book rooms directly through your website rather than booking sites and travel agents like booking.com or Trivago.

Developing Your Hotel SEO Strategy

Building a successful SEO strategy for your hotel is essential to stand out. Here’s Propeller’s guide to help you craft an effective SEO plan for your hotel:

  1. Define your target audience

Understanding your target audience is an exercise any SEO Manager should take on before developing an SEO strategy. You need to identify who is most likely to stay at your hotel. 

Once you have created a few target audience profiles you can tailor content, keywords and marketing efforts towards their specific needs and preferences. Knowing your audience also helps in choosing keywords and topics for your content strategy, leading to better user engagement and higher conversion rates.

  1. Conduct keyword research

To work out which keywords to target, you should begin your research by finding out what your target audience are searching and what your direct competitors are using. Make use of tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find high-volume, relevant keywords related to your hotel.

  • Focus on both short-tail keywords (e.g. “hotels in London”) and long-tail keywords (e.g. “luxury riverfront hotels in London”) to capture different search intents.
  • Target local keywords like “best hotels near the Thames” or “boutique hotels in central London.”
  1. Optimise page titles, meta descriptions, and URLs

Search engines pay close attention to the structure of your page. Optimising the titles, meta descriptions, and URLs across pages ensures your content is indexed correctly, as a result, it should appear higher in search results.

  • Page Titles: Your page title should include the primary keyword and accurately reflect the content of the page. 
  • Meta Descriptions: Write compelling meta descriptions that entice users to click through. These should include secondary keywords and have a call-to-action.
  • URLs: Keep URLs clean and concise, using hyphens to separate words. Include your target keyword in the URL and avoid using connector words such as ‘and’, ‘to’, ‘the’…
  1. Improve your content structure with headings and subheadings

Structured content is essential for both user experience and search engines. Headings and subheadings break down content into manageable chunks and improve readability. Here is our recommendation on how to make the most of H-tags:

  • H1 Tag: Should be used for the main title of the page and include your primary keyword (e.g., “Luxury Hotel in London”).
  • H2 and H3 Tags: These subheadings should organise the content into sections and also include related keywords. This enhances user engagement by making it easier for visitors to skim and find relevant information.
  1. Enhance mobile optimisation and website speed

With the majority of searches and subsequent bookings now happening on mobile, mobile optimisation is a critical component of any hotel SEO strategy. Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it primarily evaluates the mobile version of your site when determining rankings.

With this in mind, consider the following:

  • Ensure your website is responsive, adapting to different screen sizes and devices without glitching.
  • Optimise images and other media for faster loading times. Compress files where possible and use modern formats like WebP for images.
  • Remove unnecessary code and use lazy loading to improve site speed. A fast website not only provides a better user experience but is also rewarded by Google with higher rankings.
  1. Implement ALT text for images

Images are a vital part of your hotel website, they showcase the rooms, amenities, and surroundings on offer. However, search engines can’t understand and process images unless you provide a descriptive ALT text.

To implement this successfully, include relevant keywords in your ALT text while describing the image accurately. Proper ALT text improves your image SEO and can drive traffic through Google Image Search.

How to measure your hotel SEO efforts 

Understanding your successes and shortcomings in SEO is essential to making progress and improving on your strategy. Starting with the essentials, have you set up your Google Analytics account?

To combine your search data with analytics, link your Google Analytics 4 property to Google Search Console. Need help with this? Contact us to learn more.

What metrics we recommend tracking 

  • Organic traffic
  • Google Search Console Query Performance
  • Landing page performance
  • Conversion tracking
  • User behaviour

In Summary… 

We hope you have taken enough from this article to implement an effective hotel SEO strategy for your hotel. If you need help getting started, or want to see unhesitating progress from your efforts, get in touch today to discuss your project. 

Caught your attention?

Let's see how we can partner to drive results for your business.

Read more