How to Promote A Hotel on Google

Marketing a hotel on Google takes knowledge, flair and a great deal of work…

If you manage or own a hotel, you know that it’s more important than ever for hotels to have a strong online presence and to promote a hotel on Google. After all, what good is a beautiful hotel if potential guests can’t find it when they’re searching for accommodations? 

That’s where Google comes in. Google is the most popular search engine in the world, handling over 3.5 billion searches per day.The vast competition of the hotel industry means that you need to have a strong online presence – and that means having a website that’s optimised for search engines like Google.

In this article, we’ll cover all things Google-related when it comes to hotels. For things such as social media strategies for hotels, rate plans and preventing hotel brandjacking, you’ll need to follow the links to discover more.

So let’s explore how to improve your hotel SEO and promote a hotel on Google like a pro.

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Why Should You Promote A Hotel on Google?

Unless you already have an overfull collection of returning guests that keep your revenue topped up throughout the year, you need new guests to find your hotel.

Long gone are the days of placards in the town square, business cards or other low-tech hotel promotional methods. Now is the age of online booking. Guests can search, review and book multiple hotels from thousands of miles away in the comfort of their own sofa.

We need to make your hotel visible.

The market is fierce in the hotel industry. Whether you are one of the massive hotel chains struggling to outperform each other, or a boutique hotel attempting to carve out a unique guest base, you still need to market your hotel.

Google is a hotelier’s best friend

Work with Google, and your hotel will appear at the top of guest searches. If you don’t, well then you’ll be on page 57 below travel blogger reviews of your hotel.

So let’s get you at the top.

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6 Tips to Promote A Hotel on Google

While there are hundreds of possible ways to market your hotel’s unique personality and cater to your particular guest type, there are a few ways to promote a hotel on Google that are necessary for every hotel.

Let’s take a look.

Hotel Keywords

Use keywords strategically. When potential guests are searching for hotels, they’re going to use certain keywords or phrases. Make sure your website is optimized for these keywords by including them in your content, titles, and tags. But beware of keyword stuffing, which is when you include too many keywords in your content and it becomes difficult to read. 

You should also consider keyword difficulty.

For example: “hotels in London” is a high-ranking keyword. It’s used by thousands of potential guests, and therefore also by hotel websites. A more specific keyword such as “boutique hotels near Trafalgar Square” would be more selective, or even “romantic getaway in the centre of London” would class as a secondary or tertiary keyword.

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t include “hotels in London” as Google reads your website keywords as a whole and decides where you should be in those listings. However, you should consider your hotel keyword strategy carefully.

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SEO

One of the most important things you can do to ensure your hotel is ranking high in Google searches is to make sure your website is optimised for SEO. This includes your Keyword strategy, but encompasses many other things too.

That means using relevant keywords throughout your site, as well as making sure your site loads quickly, is mobile-friendly and is a cohesive, healthy site. The more bugs, glitches and dead ends that you have – the worse Google will see your website!

Content

Create quality content. 

Have you ever visited a website and been so put off by it that you instantly leave? It works the same way for hotel websites.

In addition to using keywords, you need to create quality content that’s relevant and engaging. You need to not just demonstrate your facilities, but paint a picture of the idealistic getaway that your guests are looking for.

Potential guests should be able to come to your website and easily find the information they’re looking for. Your content should also be well-written and free of errors.

Backlinks

Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website. Having backlinks from high-quality websites helps improve your SEO because it shows Google that your site is credible and authoritative. You can build backlinks by guest blogging on other sites, writing press releases, or adding your website to directories and listings.

Be careful though. There are a huge number of services offering “cheap backlinks” where you pay a set amount and receive an amount of backlinks to your website. 

These are worthless.

Backlinks are valued because of their connections. You have a connection with a good-standing website? Then you gain a share of that reputation. These backlink purchasing sites are very much from pages that are barely sites and only exist as part of this money making scheme. More often than not, many of these backlinks sites will even be blacklisted by Google so it will actually harm your efforts to promote a hotel on Google!

Google Business Profile

If it sounds unfamiliar today, you may know it by its old name: Google My Business Listing.

To promote a hotel on Google searches, it is essential to claim your Google Business Profile (GMB listing). This is a free profile that allows you to control how your hotel appears in Google Maps and local search results. 

Address, images, information etc. Your Google Business Profile is yet another channel where guests can discover your hotel. This is especially prevalent for last-minute guests, as it helps attract travellers who are in the area and need a last-minute place to stay that’s geographically convenient!

Advertise on Google

You can also use paid advertising to improve your hotel’s ranking in Google searches. Google Ads allows you to place ads on Google Search and other partner sites, so potential guests will see your ad when they’re searching for hotels in your area. 

However, it should be noted that you’ll face stiff competition if you bid on keywords. Metasearch engines and OTAs also frequently engage in keyword bidding on Google Ads in order to maintain priority positions on Google searches. If you aren’t careful, the amount required to compete with their resources and bidding strategies could vastly increase your bottom line.

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Start to Promote A Hotel on Google

Get started with these 6 tips to promote a hotel on Google!

Marketing a hotel is a full time job, and it’s easy to not know where to start – especially when you are trying to run the hotel on a day-to-day basis at the same time! 

If that’s the case, request a free hotel marketing audit from us! We’ll get back to you within 48 hours of your request and schedule a 15 minute long call with you to discuss your hotel marketing report (again, it’s free) and after that meeting we will email the completed report.

If your profit margins are tight, it’s a great way to start promoting your hotel on Google. If you’re looking for a professional hotel marketing agency, then you’ve already learned about our experience and knowledge firsthand!

So get in touch with one of our hotel marketing specialists today, and remember to check out our hotel marketing guides and blogs released every week. They make great reading material over the weekend!