What Makes Local SEO for Hotels Different?

Focusing on Local SEO is crucial to boost your hotel’s online visibility. Of course, when we talk about Local SEO, we are zeroing in on optimising a hotel’s visibility for a specific location. Most searchers include a location-based qualifier, such as a city in their keywords, for instance, “hotel in Dubai”. The triggered results are the so-called Google Hotel Packs, distinct from the typical local results. Understanding these differences is pivotal for crafting an effective marketing strategy tailored to hotel businesses. How do hotel businesses reach their target audience in the most cost-effective way possible?

To enhance visibility and reach your target audience in a cost-effective manner, adhere to these fundamental steps:

Step 1: If you Do not Have a Google Business Profile – Create One! 

If you’re opening a hotel now or sometime in the next few months, in addition to creating your website and arranging for photography, be sure to set up your Google Business profile. You will need to verify the business by requesting a PIN that is usually sent by postcard to your hotel’s location. Once you receive your PIN, you enter it in your dashboard and your hotel will be enabled to appear on Googlе. Quicker and increasingly popular methods to verify your business include a live video call or а video recording that has to meet Google’s specific requirements.

Step 2: Complete Your Profile by Adding Relevant Information

Ensure your profile includes accurate main details, such as your name, address, and phone number. Also, categorisation is crucial, make sure to select the category that best represents the character of your accommodation. Returning to the main details, let’s discuss NAP consistency and what it entails.  NAP stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. It is best that your NAP is uniform across all the online instances where your hotel is listed, including your website. Now, there have been reports that the importance of NAP consistency has declined in the past few years, but still, this could be a main starting point for your Local SEO campaign.

Step 3: Optimise Your Imagery Assets by Uploading Photos and Videos

Managing the photos associated with your business profile on Google is fundamental to building your digital footprint and effectively communicating your services and values. Always use high-quality media; if you have videos or 360-degree images, be sure to upload those as well. You can go through my comprehensive guide to managing your Google Gallery by clicking HERE.

Step 4: Manage Amenities and Attributes Information

Businesses categorised as “hotel” or another lodging category have a “Hotel details” section within the Google Business interface. This section aims to provide users with comprehensive information about your property, including hotel amenities and room-level attributes. Google groups these attributes into sections such as hotel policies, parking and transportation information, food and beverage options, pools, wellness facilities, and others. 

Completing the entire questionnaire is crucial because having certain amenities listed can significantly impact your hotel’s ranking. Let me explain why.

Google provides the option to filter local results using a range of criteria, including a list of amenities. This allows users to customise the displayed hotel results based on their preferences. Below, you can see these filters on Google Travel:

These filtering options are a game-changer. If you haven’t completed your information in the “Hotel details” menu, you risk falling out of certain filtered results, which means lost conversion opportunities. Additionally, this can help you rank for amenity-specific keyword searches as well.

Step 5: Manage Class Ratings

Also known as star ratings, these range from 1 to 5 stars, allowing users to filter their search results based on this as well. Google collects data for class ratings from various sources, including third-party partners, direct research, feedback from hoteliers, and machine-learning algorithms that analyze and evaluate hotel attributes such as price, location, room size, and amenities. Although hoteliers cannot directly add or update star ratings through the GBP dashboard, you can contact Google’s support providing trusted sources or official star rating certificates.

Step 6: Manage Google Reviews 

Reviews quantity, rating, and owner response rate, all correlate to higher search rankings and better visibility. Google is also using reviews’ content to better understand your business and what it provides. High-quality, positive reviews from your customers will improve your business’s visibility and increase the likelihood of building trust with potential customers. 

Talk to your hotel guests, invite them to share their experiences via Google reviews. Reply to them to build a relationship and surely, they will recognize that you value their feedback. Writing unique responses is beneficial, reference the guest feedback and avoid canned responses. Overusing templates can cause a business to be perceived as insensitive toward guests’ opinions and experiences. 

Negative reviews are not necessarily a sign of poor business practices. Instead, use them to identify areas for improvement and enhance the guest stay.

Bonus Tip: Create separate business profiles for your key hotel outlets – restaurant, bars or the spa area. Many hotels have in-house outlets like restaurants, bars, or spas accessible to non-guests. Consider creating separate business profiles for these outlets and connect them to your hotel profile via the ‘Located in’ feature. This allows you to actively manage and optimise each outlet individually, providing up-to-date information.

Conclusion

In conclusion, hoteliers should remain vigilant in their local SEO efforts, staying proactive and adapting to the latest changes in the Google Business interface, which includes utilizing the Google Posts feature as well to communicate with potential guests. Unlike other businesses that can mainly rely on social media, Google serves as the primary landing page for hotels.