1.  Duplicate website content: The search engines hate duplicate content. Why? Search engines work very hard to index and display pages with distinct information. For them, duplicate information is not beneficial to search engine users and inhibits the user experience; duplicate content is "spam." When two or more web pages are identified as "too similar," one or more of those web pages usually disappears from the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Hoteliers cannot avoid sharing content descriptions about their hotel with other sites such as OTAs, GDSs, booking engine vendors, etc., but hoteliers must be smart about it and avoid providing duplicate content to any third-party sites. Unfortunately, this has been a serious problem in the industry for many years because it is much easier to copy and paste existing content than to write significantly different descriptions. The inevitable result is that many of these third-party sites rank higher than the hotels' sites because they have larger domains and practice SEO techniques far better than the hotels do.

2.  Gap between official and unofficial content: Users today have more access than ever to both official and unofficial content. Official content is content created and sanctioned by the property - the hotel website, social media accounts, brand blog, etc. Unofficial content is user-generated content such as reviews on TripAdvisor or posts to a property's Facebook page. The bigger the discrepancy between official content and unofficial content, the less credible the property website. Less credibility results in less bookings and revenue.

This content alignment could be as simple as removing "luxury" from the description of     your rooms if users are openly questioning the luxury aspect of your accommodations, or removing "award-winning" from the description of your restaurant if it has generated a lot of negative reviews on Yelp.

1.  Brand discovery: It all starts with finding the right voice. As soon as a client is brought on board, an assigned copy + SEO specialist should have a discovery call with the client to discuss brand voice, tone, preferences, and approved language. This discussion sets the stage for perfectly-tailored website content as well as any copy-related initiatives in the future.

2.  Hotel questionnaire: The client should be asked to fill out a hotel questionnaire that covers their primary business needs and objectives, customer segments, occupancies, competitive set and more. The questionnaire should ask the client to submit room types, hotel amenities, area businesses, attractions and any other unique details that differentiate the client from its competitors.

3.  Keyword research: The marriage between editorial content and SEO begins with keyword research. How are prospective guests searching? Hotel searches are made based on geographical keywords. Thorough research into a hotel's specific location to find out what keywords users are plugging into their search engines to plan travel. These keywords are narrowed down to the ones with the highest search volume, determined by advanced technology in keyword research.

4.  Review official & professional content: Consistency is key. The copy + SEO specialist should review the hotel's official content to maintain a voice that is consistent online and offline. This includes brochures, pamphlets, videos and any other marketing materials the client has been using to promote their property. The team should also review the client's professional copy, which includes press releases and news coverage in print and online media.

5.  Review unofficial content: Unofficial content is just as important as official and professional content. Whereas the latter portrays the property in the way in which its marketers intended, the unofficial content portrays the property the way it is experienced by real guests. The copy + SEO specialist should carefully comb through real reviews on TripAdvisor, Google Zagat reviews, blogs and other social media sources to understand the hotel from a guest perspective.

6.  Write SEO-enhanced copy: When the research phase is complete, the copy + SEO specialist begins the writing process, producing copy that is simultaneously engaging and search engine optimized. This involves using the information gathered in the discovery call, the insight gained through unofficial content, and the facts from the questionnaire. On top of that, the team should include the researched keywords in an unobtrusive manner. This process requires a high level of skill and attention to detail.

7.  Client review of copy: Once the website copy is complete, a draft should be sent over to the client for review. Although significant research is done in advance, there are sometimes fine points that the hotelier wants to include that were missed in the initial information gathering phase. These edits would be incorporated by the copy + SEO specialist, ensuring that the edits did not affect any optimization efforts, and then a final draft is prepared for implementation.

8.  Copy & SEO integration into the website: Copy implementation is a rather quick and simple process. A member of the Copy + SEO Department would be responsible for entering the content into the website, giving it one final read-through while also ensuring the formatting stays intact and implementing all the internal links. Once the content is implemented, monitoring of search engine performance, revenue, and a variety of other key performance indicators to judge the success of the work and make any strategic tweaks necessary to keep SEO up to par.