Most hotels are focused on SEO, or are at least aware of the potential benefits of improving their search rankings. It allows them to stand out and ultimately generate more traffic (and direct bookings!). Content marketing is one way to improve search rankings, and travel reviews can play an important role in this content strategy. But that isn’t the only place where travel review data can help hotels to improve their search rankings…
Enter the rich snippet. Huh? What’s that, you ask?
Rich snippets are bits of extra info that appear on your site’s search result listing above your meta description. They can easily be added within your site’s HTML as microdata (and tested using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool). Rich snippets provide users with additional, engaging, relevant information about the contents of your webpage, which has been shown to increase click-through rates by up to 30%, and generate more qualified traffic to your site.
For hotels, these rich snippets can contain a snapshot of review data. Knowing that 95% of travelers rely on review data to make their booking decisions, adding this content into your site’s rich snippets can be incredibly powerful to increase click-through rates.
Meininger Hotel Amsterdam, for example, incorporated structured review data from TrustYou into its rich snippets, highlighting its excellent travel review ratings so that travelers searching for a hotel in Amsterdam are more likely to click through to book the hotel.
Take a look:
What’s more, this hotel has improved its search rankings so that it now ranks #1 in its organic search results, ahead of OTAs and other review sites, making it much more likely for travelers to click through to the hotel’s own site to book their room.
When you are approaching your SEO strategy, don’t forget about rich snippets. They are quick and easy to implement, plus, by adding review content to your rich snippets, you can improve rankings and ultimately generate more direct bookings.
