2024 Hotel SEO Guide: Rank Higher & Attract More Guests

Key Insights

• Importance of Hotel SEO: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps hotels increase their online visibility in search engine results, targeting travelers searching for accommodations in specific locations.
• Local SEO for Hotels: Local SEO is crucial for hotels, as it helps your property appear in local search results and the map pack, which is where many travelers start their search for accommodations.
• On-Page Optimization: Ensure your website is optimized with clear navigation, engaging content, and direct booking options, focusing on user experience and mobile-friendliness.
• SEO Software for Efficiency: Use SEO software to automate and streamline tasks like review management, keyword research, and content optimization, making it easier to manage your SEO strategy effectively.
• The best hotel SEO software:

1. Google Analytics
2. Google Search Console
3. Keyword Research Tool (Semrush, Google Keyword Planner)
4. Google Trends
5. Google Business Profile
6. Obenan to automate and streamline local SEO tasks

What is Hotel SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) involves various strategies aimed at enhancing a business's online visibility in search engine results. The higher a company ranks, the greater the potential for increased traffic and conversions. Hotel SEO specifically addresses the unique ranking factors that determine whether a hotel appears in search results for prospective travelers. Incorporating SEO into your hotel's marketing strategy is essential, as it helps target the right audience—travelers searching for accommodations in your geographic area. Hotel SEO is closely linked to local SEO, ensuring your hotel is prominently featured where it matters most.

What Is Local SEO for Hotels?

Local SEO is crucial for hotels, not just for businesses like restaurants that rely on nearby customers. Hotels also benefit significantly from local SEO, as it helps potential guests find and compare accommodations in a specific area. Many travelers begin their search by looking for "hotels in [city/region]," and they often use the map pack to compare locations and prices. To ensure your hotel is prominently displayed in search results and within the map pack, optimizing for local SEO is essential. This visibility can directly influence booking decisions and increase your hotel's chances of being chosen by travelers. This increased visibility drives more organic traffic to the hotel's website and Google Business Profile (GBP), reducing reliance on third-party booking platforms. As a result, hotels can secure reservations directly through their site or GBP, allowing them to retain the full amount of the booking rather than paying huge commissions to platforms like Booking or Expedia.

How to Do Hotel SEO?

In order to improve your Hotel’s (local) SEO score, you need to perform the following tasks:

1. Keyword research for localized and general keywords
2. On-page optimization and mobile-friendliness of your website
3. Direct and easy booking option
4. Local SEO optimization (Google Business profile, reviews, local citations, local content)
5. Acquire backlinks (general and local)
6. Use (local) SEO hotel software

SEO Keywords for Hotels

It's important that you optimize your entire online presence based on what your target audience actually searches for. The right SEO keywords send signals to the search engine and help it understand your business and content. Consequently, the search engine is able to match your business with the right search queries from potential guests.

How to Find the Right SEO Keywords for Hotels?

To find the right keywords for your hotel, you need to do strategic keyword research using an online keyword tool. Define Your Target Audience: Start by identifying your main target audience—whether it's families, business travelers, backpackers, or couples—and understand what they value most, such as luxury, amenities, or location.

1. List Seed Keywords: Seed keywords are broad topics that kickstart your research. List at least five seed keywords that describe what your hotel offers (e.g., "hotel with a pool," "beach hotel," "city hotel") and five keywords based on your target audience (e.g., "family vacation," "business trip," "backpacker accommodation").
2. Select the Right Search Filters: Choose the appropriate search filters like search intent - focusing on “commercial” or “transactional” intent - along with country and language. If your website is offered in different languages, search the database of the country of origin. For example, if your website is in Dutch, your guests will likely be searching from the Netherlands, so select the Dutch database. If your main guests are from a specific country, always select that country’s database. Otherwise, opt to see the global volume, particularly for languages like English that are spoken in many countries.
3. Curate a Keyword List: Compile all relevant keywords into a first-draft list. Next, compare keyword volume and keyword difficulty. Aim to target keywords with high search volume and relatively low difficulty to maximize your visibility.
4. Consider Long-Tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords, which are longer phrases or even sentences, are essential in 2024. People often search using phrases rather than single keywords. Tools like Answer the Public can help you understand the search intent of your target audience more deeply by providing valuable long-tail keywords.

Local SEO Keywords for Hotels

The type of hotel you operate will determine the right keywords to target. If your hotel primarily relies on bookings in advance, avoid focusing on keywords like “hotel near me,” as your target audience likely won't be searching for that. However, if your hotel attracts significant foot traffic, such as a hostel, you should include these discovery keywords. Take the keywords from your initial research and incorporate local intent.

Example: If one of your initial keywords was “beach resort,” you can add local intent by expanding it to something like:

• Beach resort in [country]
• Beach resort in [city]
• Beach resort in [area]
• [Star] Beach resort in [city/area]
• Best beach resort in [city/area]
• Affordable beach resort in [city/area]

Repeat This Step for All Your Initial Keywords: Go through the process for each of your initial keywords, curating a new list as you go. Once you've gathered your updated list, compare the keywords to filter out the low-hanging fruit - those with high potential that are easier to rank for.

There is no one-size-fits-all list, as overly generic keywords can be very difficult to rank for. Keep in mind that our suggestions are just general examples and your actual keywords will need to be much more specific to your hotel's unique offerings and location. Thus, always do your own research!

Keyword research is too difficult for you? No problem, our SEO specialists at Obenan will do it for you!

On-Page Optimization for Your Hotel Website

Your website serves as a digital business card. Travelers need to be presented with all the important information that leads to a conversion. This includes:

• Quick and easy booking options
• Prominent contact form and option to call
• Information about the rooms, amenities, catering, etc.
• Customer reviews and testimonials are easily accessible
• Images about all facilities, rooms, catering, etc.
• Prices and special offers

User Experience and Mobile-Friendliness of Your Hotel Website

Potential guests are not yet convinced, so don't make it harder for them with a poorly performing website. Ensure your website is clear, well-structured, and easy to navigate with a straightforward menu. Important information should be prominently displayed, and critical actions should never take more than three clicks. If potential guests have to navigate through five pages to find the booking form, you've likely lost them along the way.

Mobile-friendly Hotel Website

Many guests search on their smartphones nowadays. You must optimize your website for mobile searches.

Ensure that:

• Your website has a quick loading speed
• Your website does not have too large images (nobody wants to waste their mobile data on large image files!)
• Your website is easy to navigate
• Your website’s text is easy to read
• Your website automatically adjusts to different screen sizes

Headings, Title Tag, Meta Description, Image Optimization

Your website needs a proper structure for search engines to understand its content and correctly match it with relevant search queries. A well-organized website also adds value for users. Ensure your website is optimized based on the following points:

• Headings: Ensure that every page has an H1 heading that summarizes the content of the entire page. H2 headings divide your content into smaller sections, while H3 and H4 serve as further sub-headings. Below you can see an example of a basic header structure.

• Title Tag: The title tag will be the title of your page in search results and will also appear on the browser tab. Make sure it clearly indicates what the page is about and keep it within 50-60 characters. For your homepage, include your main keyword.
• Meta Description: The meta description is a brief summary of your page and should not exceed 150-160 characters. Be sure to include your main keyword in the meta description. This description will be displayed under the title tag in search results. Ensure it captures the user’s attention, encouraging them to click through to your page.
• Image Optimization: Compress images and name them with relevant keywords before uploading them to your website. Ensure that every image on your website has descriptive alt-text. Alt-text should always combine your keyword with a description of the image, making it understandable for visually impaired users and helping search engines "see" the image.

SEO-Friendly Content for Your Hotel Website

Check the following points in order to create SEO-friendly content for your website. From blog articles to general text on your website, you want to make sure to target your main audience correctly and ensure relevant content.

Engaging and Relevant Content

Remember, you want to convince users at the “commercial” stage and make transactions smooth and easy for guests at the “transactional” stage. Write content tailored not only to your target audience but also to the stage they are in. For the commercial stage, highlight unique selling points, amenities, and nearby attractions. Provide detailed descriptions of rooms, services, and special offers. Ensure the content is informative, engaging, and aligned with what guests are looking for. Pay attention to using the correct structure for a blog post, just as you would for your general web pages.

Internal Links

Link to relevant pages on your website to simplify navigation even further. For example, if you provide an overview of your amenities, you can link to an image gallery for each amenity. Include a Call to Action wherever possible. For instance, at the end of a blog post, you can encourage guests to book a stay.

Highlight Special Offers

Use banners and pop-ups wisely to promote special offers. Make it easy for users to see the offers, but do not interrupt their experience on the webpage. Pop-ups should be easily dismissable; otherwise, users may get annoyed and leave your page.

Include FAQs

FAQs are a great way to add more information to your website. Include them at the bottom of relevant pages in a drop-down format. With this technique, your page will not look cluttered with text, but you can still offer relevant information to those interested. FAQ text is also an excellent opportunity to insert your keywords and provide the search engine with more information about your hotel. You can collect questions from “People also ask” and provide answers that have the chance to rank for this question box.

Important: Write all your content for the user and not the search engine. Nowadays, it is not necessary to stuff a page with keywords. In fact, this is rather counterproductive. Focus on helpful content that includes your target keyword and semantic keywords (related keywords) naturally. Keywords rather enrich your text instead of being the sole focus.

Local Pages on Your Hotel Website

Whether you are managing a hotel chain or a single location, creating local pages for your hotel(s) is essential for local SEO. On these local pages, provide your NAP information as well as location-specific details about the hotel. Highlight what makes this hotel unique, and include an image gallery and customer testimonials. Ensure that the information is always consistent with other directories to maintain accuracy and build trust.

Direct and Easy Booking Option

A direct and easy booking option is crucial for hotels, as potential guests don't want to spend time clicking around to book a room. Make sure the booking option is prominently displayed on your website. If you work with booking websites like Booking.com, ensure your profile is completely and accurately filled out. The information on these platforms should always be consistent with what you share on your website. For example, if you don't offer Wi-Fi in your rooms, don't list it as an amenity on Booking.com. Consistency builds trust and prevents potential misunderstandings.

How to Do Local SEO for Hotels?

Next, we want to make sure that your online presence is also optimized in terms of local SEO.

The following steps will help you:

1. Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile
2. Review Management
3. Google Posts
4. Google Q&A
5. Build and Manage Local Citations In Suitable Directories
6. Ensure NAP Consistency Across the Web

Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Create a Google Business profile and fill in the correct information (name, address, phone number, website, etc.). Once you have created your profile it is time to optimize it.

1. Ensure that your NAP (name, address, phone number) are consistent with your website and all other directories where you are listed
2. Fill in your business primary category (Hotel) and additional categories (i.e Resort Hotel)
3. Fill in your attributes (wheelchair accessible, pets allowed, wifi, etc.)
4. Fill in your services (laundry service, personal trainer, massage therapist, etc.)
5. Connect your social media accounts
6. Add high-quality images (exterior, interior, rooms, pool, etc.)
7. Add a keyword-rich description using your keyword research results

Review Management

Did you know that 82% of respondents in a study by Tripadvisor mentioned that online reviews are highly important when deciding on accommodation? This is no surprise, as no one wants to face an unpleasant surprise upon arrival at a hotel that looks nothing like the photos online. Thus, gathering reviews is one of the most crucial aspects of your local SEO strategy.

Encouraging Reviews

Enable reviews on your Google Business profile and create a shareable review link. Encourage guests to leave reviews by sending follow-up emails and incentivizing your staff to ask for feedback. While offering guests benefits in exchange for positive reviews is not allowed, you can reward your staff with bonuses for successfully gathering reviews. With Obenan, you can create review campaigns through email or generate QR codes that can be printed on receipts, flyers placed in rooms, or stickers on doors. This allows you to collect new reviews while redirecting negative feedback to a private survey. This approach helps you manage your online ratings more effectively and ensures you receive constructive criticism to improve your services. Additionally, you can create separate campaigns for your staff and offer bonuses to top performers.

Respond to Reviews

Responding to reviews is vital as it demonstrates to search engines that your business is active and takes customer feedback seriously. Promptly addressing both positive and negative reviews shows your commitment to customer satisfaction. Responding within one hour of a review is especially important, as it is a significant local SEO ranking factor. Obenan’s mature AI can respond to reviews on your behalf, ensuring timely responses without requiring any effort from you. You can customize the AI’s responses to align with your brand’s tone of voice, maintaining a consistent and professional image.

Learn more about the Obenan Review Management Tool!

Google Posts

You can post images with engaging captions and Calls to Action on Google to inform potential guests about your hotel, showcase your rooms and amenities, and encourage them to visit your website, book directly, or contact you. We recommend scheduling a daily post, as this can increase your online visibility and drive traffic to specific pages or forms. Additionally, by regularly updating high-quality images on your Google Business profile, you maintain greater control over your hotel's visual presentation online, ensuring it consistently reflects your brand and appeals to your target audience.

Discover the Obenan Automatic Google Post Tool!

Google Q&A

Google Q&A is important for local SEO because it helps your hotel show up in more search results and provides quick answers to potential guests' questions. By actively managing this section, you make it easier for people to find the information they need, which can lead to more bookings. It also shows that your hotel is attentive and trustworthy, making guests feel more confident in choosing you. Plus, it lets you highlight the best aspects of your hotel, ensuring accurate and positive information is front and center. Overall, using Google Q&A well can boost your visibility and strengthen your online presence.

Build and Manage Local Citations in Relevant Directories

Get your hotel listed on as many relevant directories as possible. A presence on platforms like Tripadvisor can significantly boost your online visibility, signaling to search engines that your hotel is legitimate and well-established. Being listed on multiple directories increases the chances of interested travelers finding your hotel and can also drive referral traffic to your website.

Ensure NAP Consistency Across the Web

NAP consistency means maintaining the same name, address, and phone number across all online platforms. This consistency should also extend to other details like opening hours and amenities. Ensuring that all your hotel’s information is uniform across directories, your website, and your Google Business profile signals to search engines that your business is credible and reliable. Consistent information also prevents potential guests from encountering conflicting details, helping to build trust and avoid confusion.

Keeping your information consistent across the web can be very time consuming. Discover Obenan’s Listing Technology that keeps all your business information synchronized across all available directories!

Acquire (Local) Backlinks to Your Website

Backlinks to your website are a crucial component of any (local) SEO strategy. When another website links to yours, it signals to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy enough to be used as a source. This boosts your website’s authority and can lead to improved rankings.

The key is to build credible backlinks and avoid spammy or low-quality links. Aim for backlinks from relevant sources like travel bloggers, travel magazines, or hotel industry publications—essentially, any site within your niche can be a valuable source.

It's important to avoid buying links in bulk from link-building agencies, as this can result in a penalty from Google if the links appear unnatural. Instead, focus on earning backlinks through seamless integration into relevant blog articles or informational content, using appropriate anchor text.

Further options to acquire links can be:

• Guest blogs
• Reaching out to local newspapers
• Sending out press releases
• Advertorials and branded content articles on relevant online magazines
• Collaborations with influencers or journalists

Efficient Hotel SEO Software

Local SEO and general hotel SEO activities can require significant time and effort. Whether you have one location or multiple, using SEO software can streamline many tasks and provide valuable insights into your hotel’s online performance and reputation. With Obenan, you can automate tasks like maintaining updated and consistent listing information, managing and automatically reply to reviews, posting content on Google, and running review campaigns. Keyword research tools within these platforms help you identify the most effective keywords for your content, keeping you ahead of the competition.

Free Hotel SEO Software

The following (local) SEO software is free of charge and can be used to enhance the performance and online visibility of your hotel's website and your visibility on the Google map pack.

1. Google Analytics: This free of charge tool by Google gives you insights in your website traffic. You can measure which pages get most traffic, where the traffic comes from (traffic sources such as organic, direct, referral), and measure your conversions and events. Google Analytics also gives you insights into the user behaviour on your website.
2. Google Search Console: This free tool by Google gives you insights into the organic impressions and clicks that your website and all your webpages are getting through the regular SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). You can identify keywords and improve your pages accordingly.
3. Google Keyword Planner: This free tool is a great alternative to all the paid keyword research tools and gives you the option to identify the matching keywords for your hotel.
4. Google Trends: This free tool by Google gives you the possibility to identify search trends per country to tailor your content to. It is a great addition to a keyword research tool and can also help you develop content for YouTube.
5. Google Business Profile: This is an absolute must-have for every physical business. We have discussed Google Business Profile extensively, so it goes without saying that optimizing it is one of the most crucial steps in your local SEO strategy. Doing so will help you gain more online visibility among guests searching for hotels in your area.

Affordable Hotel SEO Software

1. Obenan: As already mentioned, Obenan helps you to streamline and automate all essential steps of local SEO and help you to gain more online visibility among the right target audience. With already one guest that you attract with Obenan you can have your investement returned! And to be honest, you will probably gain way more than one guest with using Obenan!
2. Semrush: If you want a more advanced keyword research tool, you can opt for Semrush. It offers you additional features and insights into the search behavior of your target audience. You can easily explore many related keywords for a thorough content strategy development.
3. Answer the Public: This tool is also great for identifying the search behaviour and get to know exactly what people are searching for. This tool is especially great for identifying long-tail keywords which are on the rise in 2024. Since many short keywords are very competitive and hard to rank for, this year we are focussing on reaching guests that are using the more niche keywords!

Benefits of Hotel SEO Software

Hotel SEO software offers several benefits, including automating time-consuming tasks like managing online reviews, maintaining consistent business listings, and optimizing website content. Those tasks would require a great amount of time and resources if performed manually. Furthermore, (local) SEO activities always require a certain amount of knowledge and skills. (Local) SEO tools not only save you time and money but also allow you to improve your rankings without needing to be an SEO expert. They automate key tasks and provide insights that make it easier to enhance your online presence, helping you attract more guests and grow your business efficiently.

Recap

Hotel SEO is essential for improving online visibility and attracting potential guests through Google or Bing. Local SEO plays a key role by focusing on optimizing your hotel's presence in local search results and suitable online directories. Effective keyword research, combined with on-page and mobile optimization of your website, ensures that your hotel appeals to your target audience and converts visitors into bookings. Consistent information across the web and a well-structured website build trust and improve user experience. A constant flow of reviews and a high response rate signal to Google that your hotel is trustworthy and legitimate. Backlinks from credible sources boost your website's authority and search rankings. Using SEO software can save time, automate key tasks, and help you manage your online presence more efficiently, even without deep SEO knowledge.