While local businesses were deemed as the main casualties of the ongoing internet evolution, it is, in fact, possible to use the same platform to grow your hotel. By grabbing the attention of local traveller online, it is possible to increase foot traffic through your door. At the core of your hotel’s local search, marketing campaign should be the creation of online local business listings.
A local business listing should not be done haphazardly but must include attributes that will help your target customers to find your hotel more easily. The idea is to leverage the popularity of internet usage among all segments of travellers to increase traffic to your hotel or restaurant.
How do you pull this off? It all starts with knowing what to include in your hotel local business listing. Here are some items that are most important:
Local Business Listing:
- Business Title This is the first thing local customers will identify you with. As such, make sure your hotel title is consistent with all data sources. This makes it easier for search engines to index your hotel as one entity. The title of your listing must reflect your real-world hotel name. A short descriptor indicating what the business is about can be added but must be in line with Google Quality Guidelines For Local Businesses.
- Links and Citations To find your hotel, search engines including Google, Yahoo and Bing will visit links pointing to your site and check out what those sources are about. They also track citations that are mentions of your hotel on other web pages that are not your own. Such citations will also have your hotel address and contacts. The more links and citations your hotel has in the area, the higher it will rank on local search. You have to proactively get your hotel name and contacts on many places as possible.
- Review and Ratings Reviews will help influence a potential customer’s decision to stay with you. As such, make sure you engage with your customer and inspire them to leave positive reviews on their preferred search engine. If you find bad reviews, make sure you talk to such a customer in order to change their opinion. You must know the rules on any review platform in order to avoid penalties.
- Categories Local search engines have different categories where you can fit your hotel and business. These describe the nature of your hotel and this information is crucial as it is used in bringing up local search engine results. Any uncategorized business will not be displayed for a set of keywords. Tools such as Moz Local Category Research Tool will help you find the right category for your hotel.
Also, consider photos and videos, social networks, and contact us page displaying hotel name, address, and phone number (NAP). Make sure you stay abreast of any changes in search engine rules on the local business listing.
Setting up Local Business Listing correctly and effectively is one of our SEO solutions that we offer to our client. Our online experience complements our experience within the Tourism, Hospitality and Travel industries, allowing us to accurately understand the goals of your hotel and the needs of your guests. Contact us here for consultations.
