Whatever your line of business, not having a good website and internet presence is like not having your business registered in the yellow pages.
This presence is especially important in the hotel trade and restaurant sector: according to a study carried out by the consultants Ipsos MediaCT for Google , between 74% and 77% of travellers look for information on the internet before planning their holidays or work trips. Today we wish to propose a three step strategy for improving the presence of your hotel on the internet.
First step: A technically impeccable website, optimised both for search engines and for your clients’ use
Before going on to other aspects that can improve the positioning of your hotel’s website on search engines, we have to focus on the basics. There is no point in making a great effort to direct potential clients to your hotel’s site if, once there, they cannot find the information they are looking for, carry out a booking or see it on their mobile phone. Moreover, search engines penalise websites with coding errors, slow download rates or difficult navigation.
Second step: Contents of interest to travellers
Here we are not only referring to the useful and essential content which any hotel should include on its website (location, information about installations, bookings, etc.), but also to other contents which may be of interest to your guests and which can help to improve the positioning of your website. One proven method for increasing traffic to a website is the periodical publication of a blog. Blogs provide new content to post on social networks and increase the number of links and traffic to your site, improving your online reputation and forging relationships with your potential clients. But don’t stop at blogs: presentations with images, videos and travel guides are other examples of useful content for your guests which can increase both traffic and bookings.
Third step: Social, local and mobile presence (SOLOMO)
SOLOMO is the acronym of a digital marketing strategy based on boosting results on social networks, local searches and on those carried out from mobile devices.
1. Social: Presence on social networks
• Conventional social networks: Search engines are taking what they call “”social signals”” more and more into account when establishing a website’s positioning. As well as in the specialised social networks which we mention below, it is important to make your presence known on the main social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, with links to your website, so as to improve its positioning and to help you establish a relationship with your clients
• Forums and specialised social websites: The hotel trade is perhaps one of the sectors most affected by clients’ opinions on forums and specialised websites. Travellers arrive en masse at sites like TripAdvisor in order to experience the characteristics and outlook of the places they intend to visit first hand. It is very important to identify yourself on these forums in order to be able to reply promptly and politely to both positive and negative comments about your business. It has been shown that travellers take an appropriate response from hotel management into consideration, especially in the case of negative criticism. As well as the big forums like TripAdvisor, don’t forget to be present on sites like MiNube, Toprural and on the review sections of the main search engines like Google or Bing.
2. Local: Geolocation on the main search engines
The main search engines like Google or Bing are able to pinpoint the place where searches are made and the location of your business in order to offer relevant information to potential users of your services. These search engines allow you to validate your business so that it appears on maps and searches, which will increase your internet presence exponentially. The accreditation process on the search engines is very simple and comes with the added benefit that, once registered, you will be able to respond immediately to the reviews that clients have written in the search engine’s reviews and information section.
3. Mobile: Optimisation for mobile users
Numerous studies confirm that a growing number of travellers use their smartphones or tablets to make bookings and to look for accommodation before and during the trip. In addition, the ability of your website to adapt to the displays of mobile internet devices is an important positioning factor for search engines. For these reasons, it is very important that the pages of your website have a responsive design that adapts to the different sizes of all screens and devices.
We hope that this basic strategy helps you to improve the internet presence of your hotel and, above all, increase your sales volume and the number of bookings. If you have found this article useful, share it on your social networks and remember to let us know your opinion.
Image: traveltechstrategies.com
Follow us