In most cases, travelers will first encounter hotel options through an online search. Hotel websites that rank high on search engines have an immediate advantage since guests will see those first.
Creating a well-designed website is just the first step in creating a successful hotel business. In fact, using SEO is what really boosts your search engine ranking and attracts guests. In this article, I’ll explain the importance of SEO and how it can improve your hotel operations.
Importance of SEO in the Hotel Business
Travelers heavily rely on online searches to discover potential hotels and other booking options. For search engines like Google, the ranking determines whether users will see and reach your website.
The thought behind SEO is that users pay more attention to the first 3 to 5 websites that appear on search results. The likelihood of a website being accessed decreases as its search ranking becomes lower. While outranking numerous hotel businesses seems difficult, incorporating SEO drastically improves the search result placement of your website.
Aside from high search rankings, SEO brings multiple benefits to your business. Some examples are:
- Draws in organic traffic to your website
- Long-Term ROI for Advertisement and Sales
- Develops Brand Awareness and Credibility
How does SEO work?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. The main goal of SEO is to increase a website’s organic traffic. It also results in additional benefits like search ranking boost and bigger audience visibility. Then, businesses can convert these benefits into profit through product and services promotion.
Any business will generally benefit from audience visibility. Nevertheless, using SEO is incredibly effective for location-specific businesses like hotels.
Let’s say your new advertisement for a hotel in Udaipur draws the attention of online audiences. You won’t profit from the online traction if your audience has no plans to visit the hotel. However, when you incorporate hotel SEO Udaipur to your content, you’re actively drawing in travelers that want to book for a hotel.
SEO Practices for Hotel Businesses
There are numerous SEO practices available for maximizing visibility. To keep things simple, here is a rundown of the basic SEO process for a hotel business.
Specify the Target Audience
The foundation of any good SEO is optimizing website content according to the customer’s needs. For this, you need to define the target audience, their preferred accommodation type, and booking habits.
For example, resort-type accommodations are extremely popular among families and large groups. Meanwhile, you may have trouble convincing solo travelers to avail your services due to budget restrictions. In this case, it’s more effective to use SEO for attracting families and groups to book your hotel.
Use SEO Keywords
Now that you defined the target audience, next is to figure out what terms they use in searching for accommodations. Some examples of terms are:
- Best Hotels in Udaipur
- Cheap Hotels near Udaipur
- Resorts in Udaipur
These are called SEO keywords. They’re phrases or terms that people frequently use to search for websites. Using the right combination of keywords and the frequency they appear is the key behind boosting your search rankings.
An SEO expert who likes to help hobby bloggers and small businesses grow their digital presence on search engines like Google.
I have worked for a variety of companies and most prominent of them being an Australian tech startup called Simple Technology Corporation.