SEO tips for hotel websites: Increase your visibility and bookings

In our digital age, a well-designed website is no longer enough to attract guests. After all, the majority of potential customers become aware of your hotel via search engines such as Google. On the search engine results pages (SERPs), however, you are competing with countless other accommodation providers.

This is where search engine optimisation (SEO) comes into play. It helps you to achieve a higher ranking on the SERPs with targeted measures and thus be found by your target group. Here are 5 tips to help you take your SEO to the next level.

The most important things in a nutshell:

• SEO is about taking measures to improve the ranking of your hotel website in the search engine results pages (SERP).
• An important SEO factor is the UX (user experience) of your website, which includes short loading times and easy navigation through your site. Many online searches are made from mobile devices, you need to optimize your website for use on smartphones and tablets.
• You can use free SEO tools to identify suitable keywords for your target group. These also determine the direction of your content.
• To offer potential guests added value, you should provide relevant content for their interests and needs in a blog. You can also improve your ranking with backlinks from renowned websites.

Search engine optimisation (SEO for short) is the process of optimising the ranking of a hotel website on the results pages (SERPs) of search engines such as Google and Bing. With the right SEO measures, you can strengthen your online presence, attract more visitors to your website and ultimately increase your booking rate. This makes SEO an indispensable part of digital hotel marketing.

When potential guests search for a hotel in a particular city, they are presented with a list of search results. They usually click on one of the first websites, as they expect the most relevant and trustworthy results there. Only very few people bother to scroll through the numerous entries and call up website no. 25.

SEO is an important factor for any hotel that wants to get more bookings - because the higher up your website appears in Google, the more likely it is that a potential guest will land on it. With the following SEO tips, you can catapult your hotel website to the top:

1. Increase the user experience of your website

Search engines such as Google take various ranking factors into account when deciding where to place your website in the search results pages. Great importance is attached to user-friendliness. This includes how easy it is for visitors to find their way around your website and complete bookings. With the right formatting and sub-page naming, you can already ensure better navigation.

Also ensure sufficient contrast and keep the fonts consistent. The loading time of your website is also important and, in the worst case, can cause visitors to leave your website. We recommend compressing images and videos.

2. Design your website to be mobile-friendly

Many online searches are carried out via mobile devices; your website must also be adapted for use with smartphones and tablets. 

Here are a few starting points on how to make your website more mobile-friendly:

• Enlarge your buttons so that they also work on mobile devices
• Make sure that the loading speed of your website is also guaranteed on other devices
• Use large font sizes
• Compress your images 
• Carry out regular mobile tests

3. Research and use relevant keywords

Keywords are search terms that users enter into search engines to find specific content. You should target your content based on these keywords. For example, if you know that your target group is looking for pet-friendly accommodation, you can publish a blog article on the topic to drive organic traffic to your website. You can use various SEO tools to find relevant keywords.

There is of course a whole range of keywords that apply to your hotel and your location. It is therefore important that you use keywords for which you have a realistic chance of ranking. However, remember that you are still writing for people and not for search engines. Therefore, keep an eye on readability and avoid keyword spamming, which has a negative effect on rankings anyway.

Also remember to include relevant keywords in the metadata of your website:

• Meta Title: This is the title that is displayed on SERPs and in browser tabs to indicate the topic of a page. Your meta title should be no longer than 60 characters and contain the main keyword at the beginning.
• Meta description: The meta description provides both search engines and searchers with comprehensive information about your page. It is displayed in the search results and has a decisive influence on whether someone clicks on your website. Your meta description should summarise the content of the page in a maximum of 155 characters and also contain keywords.

4. Create target group-orientated content

One of the goals of hotel SEO is to improve the visibility of your website in search engines and attract potential guests. To do this, you should regularly publish content that addresses the interests and problems of your target group.

A good way to do this is to have your own hotel blog where you publish travel tips, travel guides and behind-the-scenes insights. In this way, you position your hotel as a reliable source of information. Increasing blog traffic will also improve your ranking in the SERPs.

5. Build high quality links

Our last SEO tip for hotels requires a little more effort, but link building should not be missing from any SEO strategy. This is where you try to get other established websites to link to your site, which is known as a "backlink". Backlinks are one of the many signals that Google uses to determine whether your hotel website is trustworthy.

There are numerous ways to get backlinks:

• Create topic-relevant guest posts
• Unlinked mentions of your hotel
• Reach out to journalists and bloggers
• Publish detailed guides
• Manage to be mentioned in leaderboards
• Work together with influencers
• Publish studies or articles with statistics

In addition to backlinks, internal links also have a positive effect on your SEO. Internal links are hyperlinks that connect one page of your website with another subpage of the website. In order for the links to be recognised by Google crawlers, they must be meaningful. For example, avoid linking the phrase "read here". Instead, you should link to the actual topic that awaits the reader.