News for the Hospitality Executive |
by Max Starkov
March 2013 For years now hotel marketers have claimed that search engines are on the way out as a viable marketing and distribution channel in hospitality. These claims, of course, have been followed with boasts of “the next big thing” to save hotel distribution – from social media to retargeting to the mobile channel. Some search engine skeptics point to the “declining” number of hotel and travel searches, supposedly evident from Google Trends, as the ultimate proof of the demise of the search engines. Regardless of what some in the industry say, the search engines are still alive and well. There is a reason why the search engines are travel consumers’ favorite travel research and planning tool. Google in particular dominates hotel search; results provide deep and relevant information, the best mapping and directions, extensive customer reviews via Zagat’s acquisition and now provide real-time hotel availability and pricing via Google Hotel Finder. No other meta search or travel site comes even close to match the richness and relevancy of hotel information provided by Google. HeBS Digital’s own experience categorically shows that more than half of website booking revenue across our client portfolio comes as direct referral from the search engines, including organic and paid search. Case Study: Hotel Search Engine Revenues In spite of all the new and trendy digital marketing initiatives and formats that overwhelm hoteliers nowadays, the reliable old search engines generated over 55.6% of website revenue for HeBS Digital’s client portfolio consisting of thousands of hotel properties. Here is the search engine (Google, Bing and Yahoo) year-to-date contribution as percentage from the total website revenues, as of November 30, 2012:
The Misinterpretation of Google Trends Google Trends is a public web facility of Google Inc. based on Google Search, which shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. I believe that the search engine skeptics are seriously misreading the data and misinterpreting the graphs from Google Trends. To begin with, Google Trends merely depicts the searches for hotels as percentage from TOTAL searches on Google. The horizontal axis of the main graph represents time (starting from 2004), and the vertical is how often a term is searched for, relative to the total number of searches, globally. If there is any drop in the horizontal axis, it is due only to the fact that hotel searches now constitute a smaller percentage from the total queries on Google, compared to 2004. This is it! The main reason for travel searches to have smaller share is the rise of other categories of interest to the increasingly Internet-savvy users. Google’s own comment on such claims is as follows: “The assertion that hotel searches are down is not true. The numbers on the Google Trends tool are not absolute growth numbers. Rather, interest level in particular keywords is indexed against the growth of overall search volume. One keyword does not represent an entire category, nor does it represent a fair assessment of hotel search demand on Google as compared to any other search tool. To put it simply, growth in hotel searches may just be lower than that for other high-growth categories. Our internal data shows growth in search interest for hotels.” Overall Hotel Searches on Google Have Never Stopped Growing So what is the real situation as far as growth or decline in the number of hotel searches on Google? The following graph clearly shows that total hotel-related queries on Google have never stopped growing, but there is a well-defined re-distribution of queries across the “three screens”: desktop, mobile, tablet: According to Google’s data, 7% of all searches already come from tablets vs. 14% from mobile devices and 79% via desktops (2012). Google Dominates Search on the Three Screens For all practical purposes, the desktop, mobile device and tablet address different user needs at different times of the day and week. This is why Internet users exhibit different behavioral patterns when browsing the Internet. According to Google, users searching Google utilize:
Google has reported different search dynamics across the three screens: desktop, mobile and tablet for some time now, but there was a noticeable and dramatic increase in hotel queries in the mobile and tablet channels in 2012:
Technology has enabled travel consumers to become increasingly mobile and desktop-independent. In contrast, tablet users have no issues booking a hotel via their device. A well structured, highly visual tablet-optimized hotel website can generate conversion rates several times higher than those of mobile devices. Across HeBS Digital’s hotel client portfolio, tablets generate 200% more room nights and 430% more revenue than the “pure” mobile devices:
Sources of
Traffic and Bookings by Device Category January-November 2012:
Apple’s iPad rules the tablet world: Over 91% of tablet visitors, 96% of tablet bookings and 98% of tablet revenue come from iPad devices. HeBS Digital’s Top Ten
Recommendations for Maximizing Your Search Engine Presence: 1. Redesign your
website. “Fixing” the hotel website remains of paramount
importance to
hoteliers. Anything you do online today – from social media to banner
advertising to email marketing – leads back to the hotel website. The
ongoing
Google Panda updates (Panda 3.9 just launched) have made many hotel
websites
obsolete and have raised the bar for hotel websites, demanding not only
deep
and relevant, but unique and engaging copy. Redesigning
your site allows you, with the help of
analytics, to develop
an intuitive site structure that organizes relevant content.
Additionally, this
is the time to button up things on the back end: XML site maps,
canonical tags,
robot.txts on minor pages, site load speed, and so on. Install a
state-of-the-art content management system (CMS) on the website. Another
important reason for the
hotel website re-design is the growing need for centralized website
content and
digital marketing asset management technology. Hotel marketers are
challenged
to create and manage fresh content; store
and distribute the hotel digital marketing assets; and circulate
special offers
and packages as well as events and happenings, all through several
distinct
channels. Managing a desktop website, mobile and tablet websites, and
social
media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ can become overwhelming
without a
content management system. Obviously,
hoteliers need more than just a simple website CMS capable
of adding and editing textual and visual content. For example, HeBS
Digital’s CMS
Premium offers all of the above
capabilities and was specifically developed to
accommodate
the Google Panda and Freshness updates by allowing hotel marketers to
maintain
fresh content on the hotel website with no programming knowledge
required. 2. Create engaging
content on the hotel website. The ongoing Google Panda updates
mandate that
website content be not only deep and relevant, but also unique and
engaging. Search
engines are now looking for strong editorial content. Web content has
always
been the king of SEO – the recent Google Panda algorithm updates turned
website
content into the emperor. Each of
the updates that punished poor practices ultimately underscored one
thing:
unique and engaging content is here to stay. Quality content has taken
center
stage over the past 18 months, making it imperative to have strong copy
supported by a focused SEO strategy. Any hotel website without sufficient depth
of content and without
unique and engaging content, would have hard time with search engine
rankings.
HeBS Digital recommends a minimum of 25-40 content pages for a select
service
property, and 35-50 pages of content for a full-service property
website. A big
full-service hotel or resort’s website should start with 75-100 pages
of
content. Utilizing the website’s CMS platform, create landing pages for
each
hotel special offer, package or promotion, as well as for events and
happenings
at the property or in the destination. 3. Use professional
copywriting. You get what you pay for – cheap copywriters
typically provide
thin, lifeless content that does little more than take up space on a
page. Take
the time to find professional copywriters with both SEO and hospitality
experience that can be called “travel writers” in their own right.
These
writers will be able to not only generate unique, engaging and quality
content,
but also help you brainstorm ideas and provide guidance on how to best
present
the hotel product online. Money spent on lasting content is money well
spent. Now that you have done all this work on your
website and its
off-site extensions, set aside some money to maintain it. Having the
flexibility to tweak your SEO strategy throughout the year is a great
thing.
Anticipate minor content changes, new landing pages, linking incentives
and
other recommendations your SEO team may have. 6. Create a blog on
the hotel website. The Google Freshness update values – you
guessed it –
fresh content. This can sometimes be difficult to do for a static
product such
as a hotel, which is where a blog comes in handy. A branded blog can
keep
followers up to date on the latest happenings at the property as well
as area
events and, for strong brands, include a lifestyle element. Keep in
mind that a
stale blog is worse than no blog it all. 7. Bring local search
listings up to date. Since the Google Venice update, local
presence has
become more of a focus. Over the past year or so, the SERPs have
changed to
allow for more local results, meaning that it is even more important to
have
strong local search listings. Be sure that you have uploaded quality
photos,
included accurate information and written an optimized description. All
of this
information will help you build a strong local presence and increase
your
performance in mobile searches, which are increasing annually. Creating and maintaining a Google+ page is a
vital component
of any hotel’s SEO strategy. While Google+ may not be the sensation
that
Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are, it is the most important social
medium
when it comes to SEO. Google+ essentially gives Google direct access to
your
browsing habits, what results you find useful and what sites you give
your seal
of approval to. Once you create a page, put relevant users in your
circle and
interact with them. This will give you an opportunity to take up more
real
estate on the SERPs and show up more often in “personal results.” 8. Devise a
quality inbound linking and
citation strategy. The Google Webspam update further penalized link
farms
and purchased links. Generally speaking, paid links have very little
SEO value.
Go for unique “organic” links with relevant anchor text, such as
editorial
links and mentions of the property, listings on local CVB websites,
local colleges,
and nearby convention centers, theme parks and attractions. Remember:
bloggers
are your friend, so work with local bloggers to have your hotel
mentioned and
linked to in their blog postings. 9. Utilize online press
releases to promote special offers. Press releases in the form of
travel
consumer deal alerts are an important tool for increasing traffic,
awareness,
and quality inbound links and citations. Use a distribution system that
allows
you to target specific geographic areas for the most impact, and don’t
forget
to include a few links back to your site. However, keep in mind that
press
releases should still be “newsworthy” items – announcing that your
hotel is
great for group travel does not warrant a press release. 10. Implement
high-powered analytics and search ranking technology. Search
engine result
page (SERP) rankings are just one measure of success. Organic
performance can
also be measured by revenue, bookings initiated, time on site, and
other
metrics. Platforms such as Adobe Omniture can give detailed metrics on
each
keyword such as pages viewed, entry points, and revenue to help you
make tweaks
to your SEO strategy. Revenue attribution SEO analysis, complemented
with
search ranking and recommendation technology such as BrightEdge,
provides
hoteliers with a concrete action plan to improve SEO results. When
possible,
analytics should be implemented prior to SEO work so you have a
baseline to
judge success against. Conclusion There are certain digital marketing
initiatives which are proven
winners, no matter what the state of the industry is or what the latest
trends
are. The good old search engines Google, Bing, Yahoo are an example of
these
fundamentals. Contrary to what some hotel marketers may be saying,
search
engines are not dead and are still the key driver of direct online
hotel
distribution. Hotel marketers should not dismiss search engine
marketing since
it generates more 56% of the hotel website revenue today. With
the search engines maintaining such an important role in the direct
online
channel, marketing on the search engines: paid search (SEM), search
engine
optimization (SEO), mobile SEO, etc. continues to be the most efficient
means
of delivering a targeted marketing message via the online channel, in
terms of
both traffic generation and revenue production. Search
engines
continue to dominate the desktop channel, as well as the new emerging
mobile
and tablet channels where the growth of hotel queries is staggering. About the Author and HeBS Digital: Max Starkov is President & CEO of HeBS Digital, the hospitality industry’s leading full-service digital marketing, hotel website design and online channel strategy firm, based in New York City (www.HeBSdigital.com). HeBS Digital has pioneered many of the best practices in hotel Internet marketing, social and mobile marketing, and direct online channel distribution. The firm has won over 230 prestigious industry awards for its digital marketing and website design services, including numerous Adrian Awards, Davey Awards, W3 Awards, WebAwards, Magellan Awards, Summit International Awards, Interactive Media Awards, IAC Awards, etc. A diverse client portfolio of top-tier major hotel brands, luxury and boutique hotel brands, resorts and casinos, hotel management companies, franchisees and independents, and CVBs are benefiting from HeBS Digital’s direct online channel strategy and digital marketing expertise. Contact HeBS Digital’s consultants at (212) 752-8186 or [email protected]. |
Editorial Contact: Mariana Mechoso Safer HeBS Digital Phone: 702-463-1857 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.hebsdigital.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/hebsdigital Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeBS_NYC LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/hebs-digital Google+: https://plus.google.com/107562536911518066194/posts |
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