How to optimize the organic referencing (SEO) of my hotel website?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the technique to improve the position of a website on the search engine results pages (SERP) following the requests of Internet users.

It is about making sure to appear on the first page displayed by search engines, notably Google, when a user performs a search related to the hotel in question.

SEO is essential in your overall SEM (Search Engine Marketing) strategy and is complemented by a SEA (Search Engine Advertising) strategy. In this article, we look at the different ways to optimize the organic referencing of your hotel website.

Essential actions to optimize the organic referencing (SEO) of your hotel website

There are different techniques to optimize the natural referencing of your website, especially in its content and its technical settings. It is also necessary to master Google’s algorithms which seek to filter the results in order to propose to the Internet users only the answers which it considers relevant.

To help you figure this out, we give you several SEO tips that are easy to implement to improve your organic referencing. 

SEO settings for your hotel website

One of the most important settings for your website is the SEO setting. In order for your website to always appear in the first position of the search results page on your brand name.

For this you need to realize the following actions:

• Setting up title tags and meta description tags. The title tag is the name you give to your web page. This must not contain more than 60 characters to allow Google to display the full title of your hotel web pages. The meta description is the description of your pages presented under the blue links of a results page.
• Setting up pointers from the old domain name to the new website in order not to lose traffic and to keep your ranking on search engines. For example, it helps keep traffic sent to your hotel website from external links such as travel blogs.
• Choosing foreign languages to be inserted to cover the maximum of markets in adequacy with the clientele to offer relevant content to the search engines. We will come back to this in a dedicated section further down in this article.
• Translating your URLs: it is also essential to translate and perform a 301 redirection of your website’s URLs in the main languages spoken by your (future) customers to ensure that your hotel’s website appears in the first positions of the search results pages of the targeted market.

We recommend that you opt for a hosting service with a dedicated space to access the SQL manager (SQL language allows to define, manage and protect data in a simple and schematic way), used once the website is online. 

SEO optimization of your website content

Your website must also be frequently updated, both in terms of its content and its technical aspects. Here are four tips to optimize your content strategy :

• Keywords and tags: to optimize your content, use keywords and Hn title tags (set up beforehand) in the hierarchy of your content on your website. We will come back to the keyword strategy in the next part.
• Rich results: keep your hotel’s prices, availability and reviews up to date, especially on your Google Business Profile (previously named Google My Business), to feed the “rich snippet” (additional information that can appear in a search result under the meta title or the meta description).
• Optimized images: use SEO optimized images on your hotel website (light, with alternative text, well renamed).
• Backlinks: these are hyperlinks on anchors (or keywords) that you have defined according to their relevance to your business. Backlinks are present on third party websites and link back to your website. Ask your partners to place these backlinks on their website for example.

Moreover, in order for the search engines’ robots to easily understand the content of your pages, and for them to bring it up in their referencing, it is essential that the structure of your website is clear and well organized. 

How to Research Keywords for my SEO Strategy ?

You can follow the keyword research process below to develop and implement a strong keyword strategy.

Make a list of relevant topics related to your business 

Consider 5 to 10 topic categories related to general areas that are important to your hotel activity. Then use these categories to find some specific keywords ; put yourself in the shoes of your buyer persona. 

Fill in these topic categories with keywords

Identify a few keywords that fall into these categories: keyword phrases that you think are important for ranking in SERPs, since your target customers are likely to search for these specific terms. For example: hotels in Paris, spas & restaurants, beautiful 4-star hotels, deluxe double rooms, etc.

The point is to end with phrases that you think potential customers could use to search for something related to that particular topic category. You’ll narrow it down later on. 

Another way to find keywords is to use Google Analytics to find out which keywords your website has been found for. Look at your site’s traffic sources and search your organic search traffic categories to identify the keywords people are using to reach your website. 

Google also provides a free tool allowing you to monitor technical errors that may appear on your site: Google Search Console. Connected to your hotel site, Google Search Console will also allow you to analyze the keywords bringing you traffic.

If you’re having trouble finding relevant search terms, you can always reach out to your frontline staff and ask them what types of terms customers are using or common questions they have.

Research related search terms 

If you can’t think of more keywords, check out related search terms that come up when you type them into Google. As you type a phrase and scroll to the bottom of Google results, you’ll notice some search query suggestions related to what you originally typed. 

Look for combinations of head keywords and long-tail keywords 

Head terms are keyword phrases that are usually shorter and more generic. Long-tail terms are longer keyword phrases of three or more words. 

It is important to check that you are using a mix of head and long-term terms, as this will give you a keyword strategy that is balanced with long-term goals and short-term gains. This is because head keywords are typically searched for more frequently, making them generally more competitive and harder to rank for than long tail keywords.

See how your competitors are ranking for these keywords

Just because a keyword is important to your competitors doesn’t mean it’s important to you. However, if you understand the keywords your competitors are trying to rank for, you can re-evaluate your keyword list. 

If your competitors are also ranking for specific keywords on your listing, it definitely makes sense to work on improving your rankings for those keywords. However, don’t overlook those that your competitors don’t seem to care about. This could be an opportunity for you to gain market share on significant terms. 

In addition to manually searching for keywords in an incognito browser and seeing where your competitors are, you can use SEMrush to generate tons of free reports that show you the top keywords for the domain you entered.

Fine-tune your keyword list

Now that you have the right combination of keywords, it’s time to refine your lists with more data. You can use a mix of the Google AdWords Keyword Planner, and Google Trends.

In the Keyword Planner, you can estimate the search volume and traffic for the keywords you are considering. You can take the information you learn from Keyword Planner and use Google Trends to fill in some blanks.

Use the Keyword Planner to flag all of the keywords on your list that have too little or too much search volume, and view their trending history and their projections in Google Trends. You can see if low-volume terms might actually be something you should invest in now and reap the benefits for later.

The benefits of having a multilingual hotel website

Speaking the language of your customers allows you to increase your direct bookings in a simple and fast way. You can make a first selection of foreign languages according to the most represented nationalities among your hotel’s customers or your website’s visitors in order to be sure to capitalize on this potential. 

Indeed, having your website in several languages allows you to:

• Convert more travelers into customers: +27% conversion rate when a hotel website is translated into the traveler’s native language. They feel more comfortable booking a room on your website if it is written in their native language. User experience is a major factor in optimizing your direct booking rate. OTAs are already using this good practice!
• Optimize your search engine optimization (SEO): you will be better referenced in several markets if your website is in their language. Get better visibility and more ready-to-book visitors.

To go further, the best solution is that your website integrates an automatic language detection to guarantee an optimal SEO in all the languages present on your website. 

What are the KPIs to follow to know if my SEO strategy is working?

In order to track your SEO performance, we advise you to use a tool such as Semrush or Ahrefs. This type of tool, once connected to your website, will allow you to have a detailed overview of your website’s SEO reporting. 

On a weekly and monthly basis, you can start by monitoring the following KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in order to adjust your SEO strategy based on the results:

• Organic position by keywords: allows you to see at which position of the SERP) your website ranks for each keyword related to your business. To gain positions on a keyword, you must share or update quality content containing the word in question. This KPI also allows you to evaluate the organic traffic of your hotel website.
• Unique visitors: A unique visitor is a single internet user who visits your website one or more times during a given period. The number of unique visitors allows you to evaluate the traffic, the visitation of your hotel website.
• Bounce rate: corresponds to the percentage of visitors who have left your website after having seen only one page. The higher it is, the fewer visitors and therefore potential customers you retain on your website. Thus, the goal is to make your hotel website as attractive as possible.
• Authority score: Semrush’s proprietary KPI, this score informs you about the legitimacy, the weight of your website in your business sector. It is measured out of 100 and is based on backlinks, organic traffic, etc. For example, Apple has a score of 80/100, we can consider that a score between 30 and 40 is already very good to position yourself on highly competitive search terms.

Conclusion

Developing an efficient SEO strategy is essential to increase your visibility among qualified travelers. Therefore, SEO allows you to increase your direct revenues. 

Whether it’s via the settings, tracking or optimization of your website content, you can easily control several levers. Don’t hesitate to call on a webmarketing agency for the more technical aspects of organic search engine optimization. 

Our hotel digital marketing specialists are here to help you, contact us!