We already know that holding real estate on the search engine results page (SERP) is super important, and Google’s constant algorithm updates play a prominent role.
NB: This is an article from Travelboom
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Whether you’re running a hotel or bed & breakfast, you can use a hotel’s Google Business Profile to promote your property and increase your presence in the local search results. A hotelier should include location and contact information, photos, and amenity features and highlights in the hotel’s Google Business Listing. To do this, you’ll need to correctly set up and populate the hotel’s business profile, which will help optimize it for search.
Here are the best ways to begin SEO for the hotel’s business profile, an increasingly important element of earning SERP real estate:
Claim and Verify Your Hotel’s Google Business Profile
To get a hotel to appear on Google Search, Maps, and other services, like the hotel finder, you’ll need to register for a Business Profile on Google. Once the profile is listed, you must claim and verify your account to manage your property’s listing and attributes necessary for improving the hotel’s SEO. To claim a listing:
- Enter the name of your business in the Google Maps search bar.
- Choose the correct business from the search results.
- Select Claim this business and Manage now.
- Select your preferred verification option.
If you’re opening a new hotel, see our breakdown of how to set your hotel up for success before it opens.
Typically, verification is accomplished by phone, text, email, or video.
If you’ve already verified your business’s website with Google Search Console, you may be able to verify your hotel instantly. Just make sure you’re using the same email account you used to verify your site with Google Search Console as you do for your Google Business Profile.
Choose Your Hotel’s Business Category
Once verified, you’ll also choose a primary category for your property. That could be Hotel, Resort, Bed & breakfast, etc. The category you select influences the information displayed to searchers. The Hotel Pack is a search feature that lists several hotels when someone makes a local search like “boutique hotels in san diego”, “pet friendly hotels in chattanooga”, or “hotels near me.”
Important Note: A Google Business Profile typically sits to the right of the SERP on desktop, and below search ads on mobile. On Maps, it will display to the left on desktop and at the bottom on mobile.
Update Your Your Business’s Profile Information
You may have heard that your Google Business Profile is like the front door to your business.
That’s because it’s true.
The hotel details summary on a Google Business Profile acts as a virtual storefront and communicates important information to searchers, similar to what you may see in a physical storefront. It can’t be stressed enough how important it is that this information is correct.