In today’s modern era, most people search for hotels online while seeking accommodation. Therefore , if your hotel does not appear on top ranking in SERPs, chances are high that people will opt for your competitor’s hotel. In this way, it is important to implement good hotel SEO strategies for a higher ranking in SERPs and to increase hotel bookings online.
Why is local SEO significant for hotels?
Local SEO is an SEO strategy that businesses use to increase their visibility online. This is important for hotels and restaurants for a number of reasons. Travelers are searching for hotels and restaurants using search engines like Google, Yahoo etc and local SEO helps hotels and restaurants to appear in these search results. For example, travelers use specific keywords such as ‘’Hotels in Delhi’ or ‘’cheap hotels in Mumbai’. In this way, it is evident that your hotel’s visibility is crucial for attracting more and more customers.
Also, if a hotel needs to show its specific services such as business meetings, conferences, exhibitions, restaurants, swimming pool, spa facilities. This is important for those travelers who are looking for such services during their hotel stay.
Hence, local SEO is beneficial for direct hotel bookings as your business has higher ranking on SERPs outranking famous travel agencies or companies such as Makemytrip, booking.com etc.
Hotel and restaurant SEO tips to boost online presence?
Getting a Google Business Profile (GBP) is a most important step in implementing local SEO. We need to fill in all essential fields for optimal performance. These details include selecting relevant categories, business details, writing a captivating description with the right keywords and linking them to your hotel’s website.
- Setting up a hotel’s key listing- It is important for a hotel to be listed on directories, not just only on GBP as search engines like Google do not just rely on information on GBP. This will also make it easier for potential guests to discover you. Semrush local listing tool is a well designed tool to help businesses manage their listing on different platforms.
- Satisfied customers boost local SEO for hotels and restaurants- Satisfied customers give good reviews and ratings to hotels and restaurants which strengthens hotel’s online presence. With the help of their reviews, potential guests get an understanding of the quality of rooms and service. According to a recent survey, “88% of potential customers look at online reviews of hotels and restaurants before visiting them.
- Optimize the hotel and restaurant’s website using long tail keywords- Long tail keywords are important for a Hotel SEO strategy as they are more specific and show that the traveler has a plan to make a hotel booking. For example, a keyword like “luxury beachfront hotel in Goa” is more targeted than “hotel in Goa”. Long tail keywords have low volume and less competition.
- Make a mobile friendly website- Nowadays, 90% of the people use smartphones to surf the internet and it is expected to grow further. Websites that are not mobile-friendly are less likely to appear on searches. So while building a website we need to confirm that the design is “responsive” so that the content of each page adjusts to the screen size of the visitor’s device.
