Stop wasting time researching on Google and wading through useless pages. Efficient hotel marketers know how to properly tweak their marketing questions to get the most targeted and relevant results.
NB: This is an article from Tambourine
You know the drill.
You turn to trusty Google when you want to know something about pretty much anything. Especially how to get better marketing results for your hotel!
However, we have all squandered valuable time scanning irrelevant search results to find the answer we’re looking for. Don’t be fooled – not all Google searches are created equal. There are actually some brilliant shortcuts that only the savviest of internet searchers know about.
Here’s how to eliminate useless Google search results and search like a pro:
1. When You Want to Find the Origin of an Online Image
Stumbled across a wonderful destination image or even a photo of your own property that you’d like to use in future marketing materials? Do a reverse image search to track down the original photographer.
Go the ‘images’ tab on Google, click on the camera icon in the search bar, and either insert the photo’s URL or the image itself. Google will then show where else the image has shown up online.
2. When You Want to Search An Exact Phrase:
Place quotation marks around your query to search for exact words, such as marketing slogans or promotion names.
Example:
“hotel social media best practices”
3. When You Want to Search Related Words At The Same Time
Place a tilde before a word so that search results will also show the word’s synonyms or related words
Example:
Summer hotel ~promotions
Results will also show social media campaigns, strategies, marketing ideas, and tips.
4. When You Can’t Remember The Exact Phrase to Search
What if you wanted to look up Kalibri Labs latest report and could only remember part of the name? Place an asterisk in place of the unknown words and Google will even search for phrases that are often misquoted.
Example:
Demystifying digital * hotel
5. When You Want to Narrow a Search By Excluding a Word
Place a dash in front of the word you want to eliminate from the search results.
Example:
Clever winter marketing ideas -Christmas
How to gather marketing analytics –advertising
6. When You Want to Search Within a Particular Website
Recall a great article and post you read on an industry or marketing site? Instead of using the search function within the website itself, simply place the word ‘site’ in your Google query.
Example:
“abandoned reservations” site:tambourine.com
alexa in hotels site:lodgingmagazine.com
7. If You Want to Find Similar Websites and Resources
When looking for resources and tools that are similar to a specific site, use the word ‘related.’
Example:
Related:smartmeetings.com
Related:socialmediaexaminer.com
