Your ideal guest is probably looking for you on the internet right now. Google reports that over 70% of travelers spend time on the internet searching and dreaming online while they do their travel research. More than 37% of them booked their travel online as a result of that research. So if you aren’t online, or you are online but not optimized for an internet search, your ideal guests are not finding you.
Why is content so important to your hotel? It all about the search engine that is part of your ideal guest’s time on the Internet. Most of your guests are using Google, Yahoo or Bing to do most of their travel planning. Where your hotel ends up or the position of your website on a search engine response page has a direct result to the amount of internet traffic you will receive… most likely your ideal guest is not going to consider your website if it doesn’t appear on the first page of a search. Getting on the first page is up to each search engine but with Google in the lead they have all placed much more relevance on the amount of content that is hosted on your site and their ability to assimilate that information through a well-constructed web design.
The benefit of proper SEO for hotels is that you are able to reach your ideal guest. Google notes in its 5 Stages of Travel, SEO captures your ideal guest when they are planning and booking. This means that if your guest is looking for a hotel in Greenville, NC because of an important college football game, you want to be right there, with your location and your related events, front and center so your guest will book with you and not the other guys.
Hotel internet marketing is reliant on a strong hotel content management system. A custom web design for hotels that allows you to make changes 24/7, to the content of your website, including specials, local events or updated photos that will convert that traveler from looking to booking. The content management system is the heart of the hotel internet marketing solution it allows you to have a centralized place to manage and leverage all of your hotel’s internet marketing essential content, like special offers that need to be shared through a variety of channel including social media. This simplifies what could be a very complex job for you and your staff… a one stop shop for communicating with your potential guests.
Don’t miss your ideal customer, the one that’s been dreaming of vacationing with you. Help them achieve their dream while you achieve occupancy and revenue.
