The 15 Minute SEO Tuneup (Checklist for Hotel Websites)

Have 15 minutes to spare?

Since search engine optimization (SEO) brings you free traffic, giving your site a quick tuneup could be one of the best uses of your time. (Note: this requires basic knowledge of HTML editing, so if that’s not your thing, send this to your web designer.)

Without further ado, here is my SEO Checklist for hotel websites:

Keywords

• In the site URL?
• Density between 2-5%?
• In H1 and H2 headings?
• At the beginning and end of your page?
• In image ALT tags?
• In Meta tags?
• Avoid: keyword stuffing

Links

• Keywords in anchor text of links to your site?
• Quality sites (high pagerank) linking to you?
• Similar sites linking to you?
• Links from .edu and .gov sites?
• Avoid: too many outgoing links
• Avoid: linking to bad websites (low pagerank or link directories)

Meta tags

• Description tag created?
• Title tag – with a few top keywords?
• Keywords tag?
• Avoid: the Refresh tag

Content

• Is your content frequently updated?
• Is it unique?
• Is the code standards compliant?
• Avoid: old content
• Avoid: invisible text (keyword stuffing)
• Avoid: duplicate content
• Avoid: flash content

Some more resources to help you build a search-friendly website:

• SEO tools by SEO Chat
• SEO tools by SEO Book (great Firefox browser extension)
• Pagerank checking tool
• Web Standards
• Costly SEO mistakes you must avoid
• 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques
• 55 Quick SEO Tips Even Your Mother Would Love