NB: This is an article from Little Hotelier
You know that the SEO strategy you implemented for your bed and breakfast needs to be analyzed and evaluated using specific and relevant data.
You also know that most of that data can be found in your Google Analytics account — but the sheer volume of data within that account can be overwhelming.
Here are the metrics you need to take a look at when you are checking your account, as these will help you increase your bookings and improve your presence online.
Traffic per Channel
With this metric, you will be able to see what channels your customers are using to find your hotel and book your rooms.
For example, you may discover that most people are getting to your hotel directly through your website, and you may decide to focus on improving your rankings on the search engine results page to drive more traffic.
The channels involved are:
- Direct (people who visit your website directly by entering the URL into the search bar)
- Organic Search (people who visit your website by searching for something on a search engine)
- Paid Search (people who visit your website by clicking on an advertisement on a search engine)
- Referral (people who visit your website by clicking on a link to your website from another website)
- Display (people who visit your website by clicking on a display advertisement – these are ads with images rather than text – on another website)
- Email (people who visit your website by clicking on a link in an email)
- Social (people who visit your website by clicking on a link on a social media site)
This metric allows you to better understand where you need to direct your marketing efforts and advertising dollars.
Conversion Rates per Device
This metric gives you the data you need to know about what devices your customers are using to book your rooms.
You may begin to see an increase in mobile bookings, especially in the coming months and years as people rely more heavily on their smartphones and tablets.
We wouldn’t be surprised! Have a look at the growth of mobile bookings as reported by TravelWeekly:
Make sure that your small hotel website is optimized for mobile use, and that customers can book directly with you on their mobile devices.
Conversion Rate per Country
With this metric, you will be able to better understand where the majority of your customers originate from throughout the world.
This allows you to focus your marketing efforts on the target audience that is most likely to book your rooms.
For example, if you find that most of the customers who book rooms at your bed and breakfast are from Germany, Switzerland and France, you can direct most of your marketing budget toward those countries.
One of the best ways to target customers from a specific area is through advertisements on the most popular social networking sites, such as Facebook.
Metrics contain important data about your business and provide you with insight into the success of your marketing efforts.
Make sure your system can track all the metrics that matter!
