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The Smart Hotelier’s Guide to 2013 Digital Marketing Budget Planning

Tuesday, July 31st, 2012

By Max Starkov & Mariana Mechoso Safer

Having just passed the mid-year mark, now is a good time to reflect on how events in 2012 have made a significant impact on hoteliers and how they should plan their digital marketing budgets for next year. The emergence of SoLoMo (the convergence of social, local and mobile); tablets as a distinct marketing and distribution category; new social media platforms such as Google+ and Pinterest; and ongoing Google algorithm updates that have made many hotel websites obsolete are just some of the topics that have made headlines so far this year.

This is also the perfect time to review your business goals and objectives. What did you achieve in 2012 that you would like to continue and even improve upon next year? What business goals did you not achieve? Were you often distracted by the ‘next big thing’ and, as a result, did you lose sight of hotel digital marketing fundamentals such as keeping your property’s SEO strategy up to date?

This article provides guidance on how to structure your budget in 2013. Next year’s digital marketing budget should focus on driving direct online bookings and achieving serious ROIs via structuring your initiatives in three main categories: “Core” Digital Marketing Initiatives; “Business-Need” Digital Marketing Initiatives; and Capital Investments, Strategy and Operations, including website re-designs and enhancements, day-to-day website operations, campaign management and professional development.

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The New Google Venice Update – Is Your Hotel Website Optimized for Hyper-Local SEO?

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

by Sue Wiker & Eric Rattner

 

What’s the Issue?

In February of this year, Google quietly rolled out the Venice update, which has a heavy impact on the localization of search. The description from Google:

Improvements to ranking for local search results. [launch codename “Venice”] This improvement improves the triggering of Local Universal results by relying more on the ranking of our main search results as a signal.

In short, it means that Google will try its best to serve you localized results based on your location, regardless of if your search query is geo-targeted. For example, if your location on the left-hand side of the SERP is New York, you will receive different results for “hotel” than if your location was set to Chicago.

Compare these results for New York City:

to the results for Chicago, IL:

To get these localized results previously, you would have had to search “New York hotel” or “Chicago hotel.” Now Google parses your results based on your location – for location-dependent queries. If you search “The Beatles,” your results are the same whether you are in Chicago, New York, or San Francisco.

 

What Does it Mean for Hoteliers?

Hotels are inherently location-based, and therefore this update has heavy implications for hoteliers. Users now have the ability to search for “downtown hotels” and receive results that are more relevant than they have been in the past. While many hoteliers already have a geo-targeted SEO strategy targeting long-tail keywords addressing the location, nearby attractions, etc., it is important to cover all your other SEO bases to ensure the best results. The new update also places more emphasis on local listings, often times serving the “map pack” at the top of the page.

 

What is the Solution?

Explore all your options for hyper-local SEO. As HeBS Digital has always recommended, your on-page SEO strategy should focus on geo-targeted keywords. Why target “hotels” when you can target “downtown Miami hotels” and achieve a better conversion rate? Once your own content is geo-targeted, you can move on to updating content that lives elsewhere on the Internet.

The next and perhaps most comprehensive step is to make sure that all your local listings are standardized and optimized across the board. You want all mentions of your hotel across the Internet to provide as much accurate and engaging information as possible. This includes not just your Google Places page, but also directories like Yellow Pages, Manta, Merchant Circle and more. Note that at the end of the local results, there is an option for users to further narrow down their search based on popular filters:

For this reason it is important to make sure your property has not just the correct location information, but also an original description optimized for the type of property and area attractions.

Once you have your local listings and directories up to date, move on to your link profile. Whenever possible, the anchor text for inbound links should include your location. If an article is written about your property, having the link read “Manhattan hotel” is much more beneficial to your local performance than “click here.” Keep in mind that this can be an arduous process that may take weeks or months to get even a few webmasters to change your anchor text.

 

What do HeBS Digital Marketing Experts Recommend?

While the full effects of the Venice update are still being sorted out, we are confident that the methods listed above will help you maintain and even increase your organic and local performance. Targeting local keywords in your content, standardizing local listings & directories, and optimizing your link landscape can help boost your site’s performance in the face of the Venice update.

There are also technical updates that can help your local performance; the most beneficial of these is adding semantic markups to certain pages on your site. Using the language developed by Schema.org, you can insert information similar to extended meta data on the backend of your site including location, price, upcoming events, restaurant hours and more. While this alone will not propel you to the top of the rankings, when combined with the methods previous discussed schema can give you that boost you need to rule the SERPs.

Work with your digital marketing partner to ensure that your SEO strategy is truly hyper-local. For information about HeBS Digital’s products that focus on local SEO, contact us at (212) 752-8186 or success@hebsdigital.com.

 

About the Authors and HeBS Digital

Sue Wiker is Manager, SEO Dept. and Eric Rattner is Account Executive at HeBS Digital, the hospitality industry’s leading full-service digital marketing and direct online channel strategy firm, based in New York City (www.HeBSdigital.com).

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How Google+ Affects the Hotelier’s SEO Strategy

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

By Sue Wiker

What’s the Issue?

Google recently rolled out “Search Plus Your World,” a layout that includes social recommendations made by users in your Google+ circles.  When logged into your Google account, not only do you see results with recommendations…:

…if there is enough interest, there is a separate sidebar dedicated to relevant Google+ pages:

 

You can also toggle between showing and hiding “personal” results in the upper right-hand corner. Showing these results displays relevant articles/posts/shares on friends in your circles:

This hyper-personalized results page lets you see what your friends are saying about a topic. Since users are much more likely to rely on friends’ recommendations, this is a powerful search tool.

The other effect “Google Search Plus Your World” has on search is how you collect data. When logged in, users’ search terms are encrypted, meaning they show up in analytics tools as “unknown.” With more benefits available to logged-in users, the number of encrypted searches is bound to rise.

Ostensibly the goal behind this new offering is to provide users with a more personalized search; however, the social benefits tend to heavily favor Google.

 

What Does it Mean for Hoteliers?

With such a large market share, Google is somewhat able to dictate what businesses must do to be successful. With a greater emphasis on social relevancy and personalization comes the expectation that businesses will catch up – sooner rather than later.

As Google seems to be favoring its own social networks, it is imperative that hotels develop a Google+ page. While some hotels have already created pages, the adoption rate is not as quick as Facebook and there is still room to be an “early adopter” in this channel. In no uncertain terms, the more you interact with other Google+ users in your circles, the greater the likelihood that your content & activity will show up in personalized search results.

 

What is the Solution?

First, create a Google+ business page. Add a quality photo and fill out the ‘About’ section to get started. Good examples to follow here are Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Company, and the HeBS Digital client, Sorrel River Ranch (screenshot below). This will make it easier for people to find your page and add it to one of their circles.

Second, maintain your Google+ page. Think of it as an extension of your Facebook page or a blog – it needs to be updated regularly to avoid becoming stale. Nothing is worse than having a social media presence where the last activity was months ago. Share interesting articles, comment on activity within your page, and actively reach out to users you find interesting or engaging. The more circles you are in, the higher your chances of showing up in their personalized results. Posts will show up on a main “feed” where users can interact with your posts: comment, share, or +1.

Once you get in a rhythm of sharing, commenting, and expanding your circles, you will be eligible to show up on the right-hand side of search results. The more quality content you create, the more prominent your Google+ page will become.

 

What Do the HeBS Digital Marketing Experts Recommend?

At HeBS Digital, we stand behind all of the best practices above; simply, create and maintain a Google+ page! Your digital marketing agency should be able to offer you setup and optimization services, as well as ongoing management.

HeBS Digital offers a Google+ Business Page product that includes page setup with a branded main image, optimized hotel description & tagline, and a verified connection to your hotel website to leverage search benefits and increase traffic to your Google+ page. For more information about setting up your Google+ Business Page with HeBS Digital, view our product description, or contact us at sales@hebsdigital.com.

Sue Wiker is Lead Copywriter, Copywriter & SEO Dept. at HeBS Digital

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Improving Local Search Rankings via Citation Listings

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

                By Will Jerome and Sue Wiker

What’s the Issue?

Unlocking the confusion behind local search rankings can be frustrating. Why are good local search rankings important for hoteliers? Over a third of all searches are local in character. Hoteliers have noticed that local search listings (e.g. Google Places) generate a lot of website visits and bookings – as many as 30% from the total website revenues often come from the property’s local listings.

Many hotel websites enjoy solid if not spectacular organic search rankings for keyword terms that they have strategically targeted site-wide, and yet they can’t seem to break into local search i.e. the Google map pack. That “map pack” – the bunched display of listings connected to Google Places pages and closely tied to the physical address and contact information – is formulated using a separate algorithm than general organic listings. It appears because of the intricate local search algorithm. In addition to local search listing optimizations (Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local), local link building and property profile optimizations on the main data providers, what else can hoteliers do to improve their local search rankings? Here we would like to offer some insight into how citation listings can enhance the property’s standing in local search, and provide tips to getting over the hump and getting your property to claim a pole position in your market.

 

What Does it Mean for Hoteliers?

Building links back to your website is still the most important task to undertake when attempting to improve keyword standing, but a local strategy requires a modified approach. This is where local citations come into play. GetListed.org explains them in the following way: “Citations are defined as “mentions” of your business name and address on other webpages, even if there is no link to your website.” You might be asking yourself, ‘No link? Where’s the value?’ The truth is, these link-free localized listings have immense value within the local algorithm, which directly affects your placement in the local search engine results. Without these listings the chances of gaining significant traction for those map-associated listings is much tougher. Their prioritization should be a focal point from the inception of an SEO campaign.

 

What is the Solution?

When your hotel is listed on Google Places you ensure that the address, phone number, email, URL, and official name of the property are all correctly listed. A citation is a place where that exact same information lives as well. There are countless citation sources out there, from local business listings, directories, blogs and newspapers to chambers of commerce, colleges, and regional CVBs. Oftentimes, these citation targets do offer links, but even if they don’t it is vital that your information be placed on another online source. Because hotel searches are so geographical in nature, the presence and strength of your local listing becomes paramount to a quality SEO campaign. Citation acquisition is sometimes an afterthought because claiming local listings may be seen as a source of only minimal traffic, and if no link is associated no site-boosting ability is assumed. In fact, every local listing, if you properly curate them, has immense value with or without links.

Spreading address-driven location information across a number of regionally-relevant sites has a direct impact on how your site fares within the map-pack. You can easily go from not appearing on the local listings on page one to rising up through the lettered ranks all the way up to A. Claiming listings that already exist is a key component of this process. There are countless business directories online, with a large number of them being legitimate directories that properly categorize websites as opposed to a link farm. Within many, if not most, of these directories are either placements for your property that are ready to claim or the opportunity to develop a new property listing. The best part about seeking citations is that webmasters are much more willing to provide them, since they don’t require adding a link on their end. This means no meal vouchers, discounted rooms, or any other form of material link bait that a hotel could offer is necessary. This makes the acquisition rate much higher than link-building.

 

What do the HeBS Digital Marketing Experts Recommend?

At HeBS Digital, we recommend the diligent practice of finding business listings about your property, claiming them, and standardizing their information. This will yield great returns in local search. By cornering all markets, from the main data providers to the localized directories, as well as using tools like WhiteSpark and GetListed to find citations that aren’t so obvious, is essential in boosting local standing. Beyond standard directories like YellowPage, Yelo, and Manta, there are countless online locations where your address and contact information are listed. We find that searching for a property’s phone number typically yields a generous amount of new citation leads. Shining out amongst your direct geographically-relevant competitors is a challenge and staying ahead of them by solidifying your property listings is vital. Citations are not the only component of the local search algorithm, but they are an oft-forgotten SEO element that frequently gets ignored or only lightly addressed in favor of link-only acquisition.

At HeBS Digital, local search is a priority in each and every one of our hotel SEO services and campaigns. Hotels serve localized areas and through a proper citation acquisition plan we seek to bring that local relevance to the forefront of your search engine listing. We’re all about finding those citations, locking them down, and watching your local search standing elevate. We do this by offering our clients the “Local Listing Optimization / Enhancement Package, including setting up/claiming/optimizing your listings on:

  • Main search engines (Google Places, Yahoo! Local Directory, Bing Local Directory
  • Main data providers
  • In-car navigation, telematics services, 411 operators, portable navigation units
  •  Main online Yellow Page directories

Contact us to learn more about the Local Listing Optimization / Enhancement Package.

 

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The HeBS Digital Marketing Experts Recommend: Schema

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

By Sue Wiker and Will Jerome

What is the issue?
Although Schema.org was introduced by all three major search engines in June, its importance in terms of impacting search has been vastly underestimated. Launched simultaneously by Google, Bing & Yahoo!, Schema.org is an initiative “to create and support a common set of schemas for structured data markup on web pages.” In plainer terms, you can consider Schema a generous extension of your meta data.

Schema allow you to describe, in depth, details about a given page, sale, or event that otherwise wouldn’t be included on the website. For every dining page, packages page, event page, and any other content-rich page on the site, these codes allow you to embed exact information such as geographical location, start and end date, author or host, sale paremeters, sources about a subject, and more. These back-end bits of code enhance each page from an informational standpoint, and allow search engines to better understand what a page is all about.

What does it mean for hoteliers?
This is monumental for hospitality sites. Previously, sites were limited to certain content restraints based on design, highlights of the property, and attention span of users. These Schema allow marketers to add a host of information that is visible only to the search engines, providing them will all the information they need to more accurately judge if a website answers a user’s query.

For example, on a home page, you could include a Schema that details when the property was built, when it was last renovated, how many stars it has, any positive reviews, and the like. This is all information that search engines would find useful, but users may not be interested in. On a promotional package, a Schema could be included that details the start and end dates of the promotion, special rates & discounts, the details & restrictions, and a link to the website for a nearby theater show, for which two tickets are included in the package.

What is the solution?
Whenever possible, a page should be given a dedicated Schema. Schema.org has compiled an extremely thorough database of available mock-ups covering everything from photographs to TV series to locksmith. Each page that you think has the propensity to rank should be given a Schema in order to provide search engines with more information.

Schemas give us the opportunity to include much more information and be much more specific when discussing any given topic. Similar to microdata, they are the basis for “rich snippets,” which are the snippets of text that are displayed in SERPs. Giving search engines clearly-labeled, accurate, helpful information from which to construct rich snippets will catapult a site upwards in search rankings.

What do the HeBS Digital Marketing Experts recommend?
Ask your digital marketing agency to implement Schema codes on all important content-rich and time-sensitive web pages.

One of the many innovative components of HeBS Digital’s proprietary website content management system (HeBS Digital CMS Plus) is its ability to incorporate Schema on all time-sensitive landing pages such as local promotions, special offers or events at the property and in the destination, as well as on a variety of pages site-wide such as dining, accommodations, hotel services and amenities, etc.

These expansions of information open up a whole new avenue for providing information about a property, restaurant, event, or promotion. In time, Schema will become standard and you will have to search for the new thing to give your website an edge – but for now, these markups are enough to give you a leg up on the competition.

 

Sue Wiker is Lead Copywriter and Will Jerome is SEO Specialist at HeBS Digital.

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