When travel shoppers start planning a trip, they will often begin on a search engine. According to Google’s 2014 Traveler’s Road to Decision study, 60% of leisure travelers and 55% of business travelers use search engines to plan their trips. Hotels, therefore, need to rank high in search engine results if they want to drive more direct bookings and increase revenue.
Leonardo was recently invited by the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) to speak about this subject in their webinar, “Smart SEO Techniques to Drive Consumers to Your Website.” Darlene Rondeau, our VP Best Practices, Online Merchandising, spoke about the importance of developing a targeted SEO strategy that complements your brand’s SEO efforts and focuses on long-tail keywords.
An SEO Strategy That Complements Your Brand
Every hotel wants to rank on the first page of Google. The problem is, there is limited space. Ranking for generic search terms, like “Hotels in New York,” is especially competitive, making it virtually impossible for individual properties to outrank Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), meta-search sites and review sites.
Luckily, if you are a branded property, your brand has the money and resources to compete for these search terms. Your Brand.com has a strong domain authority, which a standalone hotel website simply can’t match. Therefore, let them duke it out with third-party sites on generic search terms, while you adopt a strategy that targets long tail keywords.
Long-Tail Keyword SEO Strategy
Long-tail keywords are search terms that consist of 4 or more words. For example, “kid-friendly Miami hotel near the zoo.” These search terms are more specific in nature, less competitive to rank for, and can drive more qualified traffic to your website.
There are countless long-tail keywords you can target. In fact, 85% of all searches in the US are long-tail. And because long-tail keywords are more targeted, they convert 2.5x higher than generic search terms.
