SEO for Hotel Websites – Best Practices for (re)Starting Right

Photo by Rashley on Flickr

If you’re in the process of redesigning your hotel website, it’s important to do so with search marketing in mind. Search engines bring potential guests to your website for free, and play an important role in driving direct sales.

Why is search optimization so important?

3 statistics:

1. The top result on a search page gets clicked 42% of the time (compared to 3% for result #10)
2. The top 3 results get 79% of the total clicks
3. The top 5 get 88% of clicks

Alright, so how do you build a search-friendly website?

First, understand which keywords you need to target

Keywords are the words people use in web searches to find you. Which ones are most popular in your market? Which ones apply best to your hotel?

Keep in mind that phrasing is very important. Use keyword research tools to avoid getting mislead by industry terms. For example, according to Google…

• 37,200,000 searches where performed in January for cheap hotel vs. just 60,500 for budget hotel
• 11,100,000 people searched for luxury hotels vs. 74,000 for luxury resorts

Don’t rely on brainstorming a list of terms for “building your brand.” Use historical data for real insight on customer behavior.

Remember: Focus on the words your potential guests actually use, not what you want them to use.

Second, develop keyword themes for each page

Group your top keywords into sets of two or three related terms. Each page on your website should be focused around a different, unique set. As you structure your page, you’ll use these phrases extensively.

Remember: Search engines love pages with singular themes.

Third, place the terms in your keyword themes prominently throughout the page

1. Page title: 8-10 words, specific to general, with your brand name last
2. Description META tag: this is what people see in web searches, so sell specifics in 25-30 words
3. H1 and H2 headings:include the keywords as part of attention-grabbing headlines

Remember: Keyword position is far more important than keyword density.

Fourth, develop useful, content-rich pages

On each page, include relevant text content. Search engines only read words, so weave your keyword themes into the copy. But don’t overdo it. Of course, write for your customers first and speak to their needs.

Remember: On the web, people don’t read – they scan.

Fifth (and finally), understand structural best practices

The way your pages are built plays a part in your web rankings. This can be pretty technical, so you may want to ask your web designer to ensure this happens:

• Create a site map with text links to all pages
• Look into developing XML site maps as well
• Use a flat directory structure if possible (less sub-directories is better)
• Use keywords in the anchor text for internal links (not “click here”)
• Avoid flash & javascript navigation
• Place keywords in your file and directory names (You’ll notice this post is at /seo-for-hotel-websites – an important phrase for this article)

Remember: Your site architecture is important for your rankings.

Invest time now, receive ongoing benefits

Most studies show organic website search optimization provides the highest ROI of any marketing tactic. Spend some extra time now to make sure your site is built around search-friendly standards, and you’ll be repaid many times over in the future.