Business owners (and other key decision-makers) in all industries typically understand SEO is important. With the right SEO strategy, you’ll attract more attention to your site. Simple as that.
That said, it’s a mistake to assume SEO best practices remain consistent across all industries. For instance, if you work in hospitality, you need to understand how hotel website SEO is unique when compared to other niches.
The following are key differences to be aware of:
Local SEO is Essential to Hotel Website SEO
Local SEO refers to strategies which serve to promote a business to customers in a specific area. It’s also not applicable to all industries. For instance, if your business offers consulting services to clients throughout the world, you don’t need to include keywords on your site letting people know where your business is located (or, rather, you don’t need to prioritize those keywords).
Businesses that do rely on local SEO tend to be the kind that serve local customers. For instance, a plumber’s website should be optimized for local SEO because plumbers serve people in their regions.
This makes the hospitality industry unique. Local SEO is essential because your website needs to “tell” search engine algorithms where a given property is located. You want your site showing up in search results when people Google “hotels in [your hotel’s city].” Even though you’re not serving local customers, your SEO should still be tailored as if you were.
Not sure how to do this? Coordinating with SEO and digital marketing experts can help you develop the proper strategy.
Images & Video Are Even More Important
Including images, video, and other forms of multimedia in website content has become increasingly crucial from an SEO perspective. In many situations, users tend to engage more with content that doesn’t consist solely of text.
That said, including these elements in your website content is even more important when you work in the hospitality industry. After all, your website is meant to show off your properties. Merely explaining why a potential guest should stay at them is less effective than visually illustrating it.
Don’t assume that means you should dismiss text-based content. On the contrary, a strong blog can also be an essential component of your SEO strategy. You simply need to make sure you’re also leveraging images and video when it’s relevant to do so.
‘Topics’ Are More Important
Again, local SEO is very important in the hospitality industry. However, it is worth noting that searches for generic hotels in a given region often yield, well, generic results. Instead of your hotel’s site showing up on top every time someone performs a relevant search, it’s more likely that search results will also include ads and online travel agency sites.
Thus, your content strategy should also focus on the kinds of topics people traveling to your area would be interested in. For example, if you run a hotel based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, posting content about the best things to do when visiting that area can help you attract more website visitors.
The main point to remember is that hotel website SEO is not the same as website SEO in other industries. It requires unique strategies and tactics to deliver a strong return-on-investment.
