Have you ever had a guest comment, “Your rooms are amazing, but your website is invisible.” If you have or you’ve heard anything close to similar, then that means all of your competitors are taking those guests away from you, and that is one of the reasons your occupancy levels are low.
If you aren’t visible online when someone is searching for accommodation in your area, then you might as well be invisible. With Airbnb and other websites allowing people to book various types of accommodations for their stay, there is increased competition (indirectly) affecting people’s choices. If you’re not front and centre, then you might miss out on those guests.
Maybe you use booking.com or Expedia, but at 30-40% commissions, it’s a bit of a cost, isn’t it? Learn how to take advantage of showing up in online search engines like Google and Bing to beat these aggregators for people searching for a hotel in your location.
Understand How Guests Search
If a guest is staying in a new location they’ve never visited before, then nine times out of ten they’ll head to Google to seek out hotels that best fit their needs, using a search term like, “Hotel in Leeds with parking”, for example. If they’re looking for a service, then they might search, “spa hotel in the cotswolds”.
This means search intent matters, and you need to ensure that when a search bot reads about your hotel, whether on your website, in reviews, in your Google Maps listing, or on other websites, it clearly understands what your hotel offers and where it’s located.
You’re probably thinking “well, of course”. But if a duck dish on your menu includes dauphinoise potatoes, do many of your guests know straight away what that is, are they heading to Google to find out, or will they order it because it sounds “fancy”?
Something to keep in mind when thinking about keyword intent and what search engines think about your hotel.
A note on AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Things are changing quite quickly in search, mainly due to how people are using AI models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and how Google Gemini is changing the summary of search results when someone searches keyword terms on Google.
Most of the best practices for search SEO are very similar to AI SEO, just that some structures require changes. The language will also change when a user uses an LLM (Large Language Model), with many choosing to have conversations with the AI to ensure they’re getting the answer they want. People are becoming a little more streamlined, wanting the dopamine hit of getting an answer quickly and not wanting to look through photos, reviews and descriptions of places to stay.
In the future, I’d expect this to intensify for the hospitality industry with AI highlighting places to stay that model similarly to the ones the individual has stayed at in the past.
SEO Basics You Can’t Ignore
Here is a list of SEO basics that must be included on your hotel website.
Responsive Design
You may have heard the term “mobile first!” in the past, which suggests moving your web assets to a mobile-first approach. My advice all along has been to go responsive. Lots of users go from phone to desktop to tablet to TV. So you need to ensure everything looks reasonable and offers a similar experience on all devices.
If it doesn’t, then a user will click or tap right back to the search results on Google: that’s a clear sign to the algorithm that they shouldn’t list you high in the search results.
Website speed
Ensure your pages load in under two seconds when testing from a distance using the Pingdom speed tool.
You could use Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool, but don’t get caught up in achieving 100%: it isn’t the be-all and end-all it’s sometimes touted to be. As long as you’re scoring 90 or more, then you should be fine.
Clear CTAs (Calls to Action)
Have clear points on the pages where people can book. Get into your potential guests’ minds, as if you were planning out your guest avatar, and think about how they would think. Is it clear where the “book now” button is or the “enquire now” form for them to talk through about having their wedding at your venue? If not, change it.
Clear CTAs make it simple and easy for potential guests to either hand over their card details to secure their reservation or complete a form to reach out to talk about their wedding, conference or event at your hotel. Without them, they’re left confused, and confused users exit and head to another website fairly quickly. The result? Lower occupancy rates, lower revenue, and you’re wondering why the P&L is down this year.
Local SEO
Having a Google Maps listing (Google Business Profile) is a must. Your competitors are using them, so you must too. It also helps that it’s an additional touch point for the percentage of users who like to search around to be definitive in their decision about the hotel they’re choosing to stay at. They want to read reviews, and this is more important if they’re looking for the services you offer rather than simply the accommodation.
This means it’s important to have your GBP setup properly: include quality photos, a detailed description, accurate services, and encourage guest reviews (and reply to them). Additionally, all contact information and learn more details should be correct and up-to-date.
Content That Converts
When potential guests come to your website, you want them to either reach out for more information or book their accommodation there and then. That means it’s important to convince them that you’re the right choice for them.
High-Quality Photos and Videos
You want to show high-quality photos of your bedrooms (all the different types), public areas/lobbies, bar(s), restaurant(s) (including some photos from breakfast and dinner service), and any amenities such as a pool or gym area. If you have outside grounds or fields, then these can be good photos too, as well as the front of the building.
On the pages you’re promoting conferences, weddings, or events, ensure you have photos of the rooms, either set out for these types of events or photos of events taking place (for weddings, if you have a wedding open day, then hire a photographer to take a few snaps).
Local Guides/Blog Posts
If you read our article on whether you need a blog for your website, you’ll know that these are super important to create relevancy and trust with website visitors.
If there are great country walks near your hotel or some major attractions that people usually visit when they stay with you, you can create some content on your blog to highlight these. This will have a dual effect: you’ll be creating content-rich information for readers that will see you as an authority figure, and you’ll be creating informative and well-structured content for Google et al. that should positively affect your search engine rankings and bring in more visitors to your website.
FAQ Section
Over the years, you (and your team) will have had to answer a huge number of questions, both from potential guests and guests staying at the hotel. These might have been over the phone or by email before their stay, or in person, or messaging via an app during their stay.
It’s important to gather these questions and write out the answers to them. Share them on your hotel website on the relevant pages so that a visitor has their query answered before they book their stay.
Some topics you should include:
- Parking
- Breakfast
- Check-in/out times & extensions
- Booking, reservations & cancellations
- WiFi
Events & Seasons
The usual festive events like Christmas and Easter are probably going to have dedicated pages on your hotel website already, but take a moment or two to ensure the content on them is optimised for the page and it resonates well. You could also include an FAQ section on the page if you want to have more impact on the users when they land on the page.
If you have some great amenities at your hotel (such as a popular spa), then optimising for “summer spa retreat” and the like can have a massive impact for users who are interested in that type of service and package.
Weddings and conferences are also a must if you have them on offer. The different types of visitors looking for information are going to require different approaches to encourage them to reach out and either make an enquiry or book your venue.
Link Building
We can’t talk about SEO tips for hotel websites without mentioning link building. Yes, it should be “white hat” style links that don’t break search engines’ guidance and terms, but they must be established: it’s great having a lovely-looking website for guests to learn more about your hotel and complete a reservation, but if they can’t find you in the first place, then what’s the point?
Guest Posts, Bloggers & Influencers
Having your hotel included in a “Top places to stay in…” type of post will be beneficial to you, being chosen by guests who read it, but also by search engines and AI models that use it as a base of reference for you being mentioned alongside others.
You could also partner with bloggers or influencers by giving them a complimentary stay in exchange for a review/promotion. Be careful with Instagram and social media influencers, though: get a person who knows about influencers to review their accounts & followers before offering a deal. They could have a bunch of fake followers.
Partner With Local Tourism Boards/ Non-Competitors
Local tourism boards can be a wealth of information for visitors to the local area. Partner with them by offering a discount to people they refer, and also ensure that any information they have about your hotel is accurate and up-to-date. I’d also go one step further and hire someone to write unique content for your page or listing, with them as well.
Seek out other companies that offer goods and services in the local area. This could be indian restaurants, fine dining restaurants, children’s fun clubs, or high-end personal trainers and fitness coaches. These could refer people to you, and if they have a person to contact, it can be a steady stream of the right guests to stay with you. Just make sure you communicate the type of guests you’re looking for, your rates, and any discount you can offer for booking directly through you.
Online Reviews
Reviews of your hotel, which include the accommodation, bar, restaurant(s), spa, pool, amenities, and customer service, are extremely important for people deciding to stay with you.
Search Engines
Google & Bing love review content (where a guest mentions how the service was, how the rooms were, etc), guest photos, and recent reviews when it comes to hotels. More isn’t necessarily better; however, a consistent flow is key.
Guest Trust
Potential guests trust reviews by previous guests more than any other online content. Service is sometimes the most important to some guests, whereas a quiet hotel with no events might appeal to a business traveller arriving on a Thursday or Sunday evening during the summer (when some hotels discount an event or wedding). If you have external platforms with reviews embedded into your hotel website, then this can help with trust.
Ask Your Guests For a Review
Once you’ve decided on the platform(s) to collect and showcase your reviews on, ask hotel guests for a review. This could be a QR code in the room or on literature in your hotel, when they check out at reception, asking them in an email after their stay (follow up), or a week or two after they had their event/wedding/conference at the hotel. It’s important to ask all types of guests for a review, as you’ll be attracting different types of guests, and they’ll want to read about other people’s experiences.
Respond to Reviews Promptly
It’s important to respond to reviews, whether they’re positive or negative. Responding promptly and professionally to a negative review can turn what would seem like a completely bad thing into something positive: potential guests know that not every guest at your hotel will have an uneventful stay, but how you deal with issues (and then a negative review afterwards) can affect their intention to book or not.
Where To Get Reviews
Your Google Business Profile and TripAdvisor are going to be the two main external places to ask guests to write a review. They’re widely used and trusted by users, and both sites encourage users to review different aspects of their stay as well as upload photos and videos.
If the guest has booked through an aggregator like booking.com, then it’s best for whoever is on reception at checkout to ask the guest to write a review on that platform: make it part of the SOP for checkout and test that it is actually being carried out as part of your usual checks on guest service satisfaction.
Paid Advertising
Margins aren’t high in hospitality, so when you’re thinking about using paid advertising through pay per click, it’s important to be smart about what you’re spending on and how you’re targeting.
Google Hotel Ads or Google Search Ads
Google Hotel Ads require direct access to your rates and booking systems, so they are likely only relevant to larger hotels.
Google Search Ads, anyone can set up and use. The main potholes to protect your ad spend against are the country of search (lock it down to the UK if that’s where most guests are coming from) and keeping your negative keyword list regularly updated.
You’re also best to concentrate on one aspect at once: start with “hotel in town/city” search and then move on to events and amenities. When you see conversions from certain ads/landing pages, then start to optimise those for better conversions and thus maximise ROAS (Return on Ad Spend).
Meta Channels
Meta (Facebook & Instagram) has a good amount of data and tracking pixels on many websites to help your ads deliver to the best audiences. They’re also good at displaying ads not only on Facebook and Instagram but across the Meta ad network delivery system, so your ad can appear on sites like TripAdvisor and Trivago, etc. Great to be placed on those sites as user intent is focused.
Retargetting Ads
Having tracking pixels installed on your hotel website is a must. You can then retarget potential guests with ads who didn’t follow through and book something on your website or make an enquiry (a conversion). These can be some of the least expensive types of adverts to display to users because they’ve already shown some interest/intent on booking a stay with you.
Budgeting Tips
As above, lock down your targetting of the users and search terms. I could write a whole book on best practices with online advertising for hotels and guest houses on what you should be doing to maximise returns.
Use your ad budget when it makes sense: weeks or months before a big event is on in town, or when people are searching to stay in your area etc. Ensure you’re not running ads all year round without reviewing them and optimising: after a month or so, they can likely go stale and need a refresh.
During peak season/occupancy times, ensure you have a cap on spending. You don’t want to be full and then still send users to your website. It really doesn’t make sense and will lower your ad quality score.
Tracking What Actually Works
It’s important to track key metrics for your internet marketing efforts. Just as you wouldn’t only track average rack rate and occupancy levels for how well your hotel is doing financially – GP & NP are a must, we all know chefs love overspending – you should track the right metrics.
Don’t just look at the amount of traffic you get to the site, how many people you reached with your ad (if you’re not doing a specific brand campaign, you’re not Hilton, Marriott or Accor so you won’t be), or how many “clicks” you got. They’re all good information, but not focused on the end goal: people through the door.
Direct Bookings Through SEO
These can be tracked through Google Analytics or another analytics program. You can see how much your efforts with on-page/off-page SEO are having, as well as any influence from your Google Business Profile. (Note: It’s recommended to use UTM links from your GBP listing so that the analytics program can clearly track those who come through from there.)
Cost Per Acquisition vs. OTAs
Considering all your sources of visitors and guests, and especially those who make a booking, it’s important to create a separation to ensure you know which offers the best value for your business. You might have direct search (SEO), Google Ads, social media, Meta ads, OTAs (Online Travel Agents like Booking.com, Tripadvisor, etc), phone, and the local tourist board.
It’s important to analyse which avenue brings you the best cost per booked guest because this may affect where you spend your advertising budget in the future (and help with return on marketing/advertising spend).
Seasonality Trends
Analyse what months of the year are better for you than others. Do you take deposits for stays months in advance that could help with cashflow? Are there any very quiet months where you have the busy season(s) to tide you over? It’s important to have access to this information as it can help you plan your digital strategy and where you’ll spend your marketing budget in the future.
Tools To Use
I like to use Google Analytics, Looker Studio (a really great suite), Google Search Console, and any stats from booking engines. It’s then important to bring them all together into a comprehensive report so that you’re actually measuring correctly and not just thinking that one source is better than another.
Concluding Thoughts
SEO and internet marketing for hotels isn’t about ranking for the word “hotel” or some broad term that people are searching for. It’s about targeted optimisations and promotions (marketing and advertising) that reach the right people searching for your hotel and the services you provide. It’s also ensuring your website and landing pages are properly configured and set out to convert those visitors into paying guests.
With a smart digital roadmap strategy for your hotel, you can maximise your ad spend, improve your SEO and rankings in Google & Bing, reduce your reliance on OTAs, and increase the amount of profit you make per guest.
It’s about spending some time, money and effort now to ensure your foundations are solid and you’re leaving yourself room to grow.
Reach out using the discovery form if you want to talk to a digital professional who actually understands hotels, hospitality and guest experience.
