6 Simple Steps to improve your Hotel's Search Engine Ranking

In my previous post 'Hotel's Online Distribution Review' I've pointed out that in today's hyper completive environment, hoteliers must find ways to optimize their online distribution channels in order to compromise OTA's command over their properties. That is, search engines are still the major driver of direct online hotel distribution .

Search Engine Optimization is a comprehensive technique used by online marketers world-wide in all major industries.

I've put together a six simple steps that if properly implemented would undoubtedly lead to a better search engine's ranking of your brand.com website. Lets start!

1 - Broaden your online exposure:
While the international economy is still recovering, new markets are emerging. It would be therefore important for your hotel to explore new markets to expand your business. A Chinese tourist, for example would rather book through your brand.com website instead if you managed to make your website available in Chinese language!

2 - Implement Title Tags and Meta Tags:
Title and Meta tags are one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine ranking. In fact, they are definitely still the key to improving your website targeted search engine traffic.

3 - Re-design and make your website web 2.0 friendly:
To be successful on the web, you need to have a web 2.0 friendly website, that embraces innovation, open communication and user-generated content. In early 2011, Google has made a very important update to its algorithm; the update was dubbed Panda update. Google is now starting to view websites more like humans and its looking closer at new different metrics to see how engaging and user-friendly a website is - Google is making up over 65.3% of all search traffic on the net.

4 - Build manual links to your website:
Through links, search engines can not only analyze the popularity of a website based on the number and popularity of pages linking to it, but also will evaluate metrics like trust and authority. The more popular and important a site is, the more links from that site matter. That is, to earn trust and authority with search engines, you will need the help of other link partners. The more popular the sites that link to you, the better.

5 - Make Your Website Mobile Friendly:
By 2013 Mobile users is predicted to hit the 1.7 billion users. By building an accessible site to mobile phones you will make sure to get a share of this highly evolving market. Mobile is currently one of the fastest growing ways of getting your business in front of potential customers.

6 - Create and optimize SEM Campaigns on a Regular Basis:
According to Hebs Digital, it is necessary to periodically evaluate whether your Search Engine Marketing SEM campaigns are consistent with the property’s current marketing objectives. Important elements to consider are: 1. Leisure travelers versus business travelers. 2. Weekend stays versus weekday stays. 3. Specials/promotions. 4. Average length of stay. 5. Shift in the Average Daily Rate.


In today's fast changing digital landscape, it is important to stay ahead of the competition through innovative and strategic initiatives that will lead to considerable positive results.

Thursday, May 24, 2012 Comments

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Hotel's Online Distribution Review

Online distribution is now more important than ever for the hospitality industry. In fact, OTA's and review websites as well search engines and portals have incredibly evolved over the past few years. Customers have a vast variety of websites to book hotels from and a wide range of search engines to use.

Hoteliers on the other hand would consider themselves lucky if their brand.com website got listed on search engines first page.

Some OTA's, by advertising the hotel's brand on their website are not only trying to convert the hotel's customer into an OTA customer but they even will not hesitate a minute to re-direct that hotel's customer to another hotel. Conversely, some review websites are unlawfully driving traffic to their websites through 'Brand and domain' grabbing - search engines should ensure that the best organic fit to a hotel request is not disappearing in amounts of third parties - A review website through your hotel request will be listed first on Google's, Yahoo and Bing search results; Tripadvisor for example will then introduce you to 'business listing' - a service for a fee that allows you to display your hotel's contact details on your Tripadvisor page! it cost about 40 USD a month! - Meta search engines should crawl hotel websites and display them equally -

In my opinion, hoteliers have to find ways to take control over their online distribution channels by doing so, they do not only increase RevPar but they will also build stronger bonds with their customers.

PPC by Google is one of the most effective tools to use when it comes to online advertising; social media, paid search, link building, Email campaigns should be more frequently used by small and medium sized hotels.

In order to compromise OTA's command over hotels, hoteliers and revenue managers should raise their online rates as high as possible so that customers will be redirected to book through the brand's website instead, after all, generally the only reason that customers went to search for your hotel online is to find possible lower rates - As a reservations manager I usually receive calls from patrons inquiring about our hotel prices, sometimes after offering a price, they say that they've found more interesting prices on other websites (booking.com, venere.com, expedia.com) and they ask if I could match the price they found online.

Establishing a powerful online presence is a must for every hotel today, whether its through link building, PPC or paid search, hoteliers have to find the balance between direct booking and OTA's, between online rates and occupancy.


References 

How Hotels Can Beat the OTAs by Jim Burney
Why OTA hotel customers are not your customers
Do You Hate The OTAs? by Jean Francois Mourier
Hotel Brand Hijacking by OTA, it should be banned …
Benchmarks of Fair Practices in Online-Distribution

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 Comments

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Do not work for facebook; make it work for you!

I am sorry but I am going to use a less formal style writing this post ; the truth is during the past several months, I have witnessed a very strange and bizarre practice in TV commercials of some of the world’s top brands that made me question how these brands are embracing the social platform ‘facebook’. In fact, at the end of these commercials, spectators are asked to search for and ‘’like’’ the brand’s page on facebook. By doing so, the brand has indirectly through its ‘’million dollar’’ TV Ad contributed to increase facebook popularity and that’s a waste of time and money if you ask me!

Brands like ‘Nivea’, ‘Lacoste’, ‘Jaguar’ and many others are now involved in social media more than ever. Yet, from a strategic perspective, is advertising for the brand’s fan page at the expense of the brand’s website the right thing to do? Personally, I do not think facebook is likely to continue growing. Contrarily, I think it’s a trend that is on its way to fade gradually – the days where I was using facebook to ‘socialize’ are long gone and I have seen many of my friends leaving the platform for good – Not to mention the whole privacy issue, there are several factors that I think are decreasing facebook popularity; there is the fact that you can’t prevent or control any change in the platform especially the very annoying change in design. Another fact is the change in Google’s algorithm and the rise of the new fast growing social platform Google+.

In my opinion, brands need to focus more on driving traffic to their own websites instead of driving traffic to facebook or to whichever website. Everybody agrees that a website value is weighted by the number of its visitors. In this matter, I truly don’t get the point of driving valuable traffic to a social media website!

Monday, April 23, 2012 Comments

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Pricing: What you can learn from Ritz Carlton

Where your competitors may compete in a race to the bottom by lowering their prices, a great customer service organization can actually charge a premium for their goods or services. People are willing to pay more for the quality and the level of service they provide.

Better Equipped to Handle Customer Issues: Even the best of the best experience customer service issues once in awhile. Obviously we strive to eliminate all such issues prospectively by systemizing everything and training our employees on providing amazing customer service.

But despite our best efforts customer service challenges will arise. When they do, if your employees are trained well, they and your organization as a whole will be better equipped to deal with these issues to keep your clientele ecstatically satisfied with the services you provide.

Create a Marketing Buzz About Your Business: When is the last time you heard someone recommend something that was just okay? Great customer service creates a buzz about your business which is worth its marketing weight in gold. In essence, great customer service organizations know that as word spreads through their emphatically satisfied customers about the level of service they provide, it will be broadcasted to the relevant consuming public. Before long your business becomes synonymous with a level of service customers want. It creates its own marketing buzz for your goods or services which, in turn, helps you distinguish your business from your competitors.

Get the full story at Inc.com

Sunday, December 18, 2011 1 Comment

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