Gaining a prominent position on a search engine is no easy feat these days. The dominance of OTAs and the sheer number of properties has created an intensely competitive space where rising through the rankings presents an undeniable challenge.
But with a committed and well-executed SEO policy, your hotel can gain a prominent position in the organic listings. And one of the most effective ways of improving your SEO is with a quality, regularly maintained blog.
How does blogging help with SEO?
When travelers are looking for a hotel or information on your destination, Google’s algorithm delivers what it considers to be the most helpful and relevant content to their search. So if your blog features quality information that Google deems relevant, your hotel will rank higher in its search results.
Building a successful blog requires certain key ingredients, including a solid content strategy, audience awareness, an authentic voice, and plenty of marketing savvy. The following post explains how to implement some of the latest SEO principles to create a blog that grabs the attention of the search engines as well as your readers.
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SEO blogging is not about keywords
There’s still a misconception that blog posts need to be packed with keywords to boost SEO. Years ago, Google did give weight to the number of keywords in the race for rankings, but things have changed.
In 2011, Google released its Panda algorithm, which began penalizing businesses that were keyword stuffing and gave ranking priority to those producing original, helpful, and quality content.
Used as a guiding principle, your own posts should include an informative, entertaining, or insightful element. See each one as an opportunity to offer your readers a valuable message or tip that can’t just be dug up anywhere else online.
By striving for an original approach, you’ll automatically be noticed by Google—and by your readers. Along with boosting your SEO, providing useful content will also show that you genuinely care about helping potential guests, giving them a compelling reason to book with you.
