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- as appeared in MIle High HSMAI newsletter and website - from Eric von Starck, Web designer at Panetiere Marketing Advisors, web@panetieremarketing.com . . . . . . . . . Charlotte’s Web- a feature from the webyard SEO? It does not mean putting a list of key words or “search words” within things called “metatags” on your site. I know, that’s what most everyone tells you is “search engine optimization” and they would have been right five to seven years ago. But not now. Hotel website Search Engine Optimization now means the art/skill of juggling lots of elements and techniques so as to make your site visible - findable - on the web when folks type in a set of search words. Let’s say someone types in “denver hotel economy”, will the hotel that you represent come up on the first two pages of the search engine being used? Will it be your own site that comes up or a Third Party Portal Site on which you are listed? If it is your own site that comes up and it is on the second or lower page, then you are gong to want to discover ways to get your ranking on the search engine higher until you are on the first page and then as high as you can get on that page. |
How can you do that?
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The different search engines find things (you and other Denver economy hotels) differently and then rank those things in different ways. The ways that they do these two things change every couple of months. This is what makes it tough for your web designer to keep up. As of Yesterday So, let’s look at how (we think) Google does it as of yesterday. Who knows yet about today? - someone but I’m not enough of a geek to keep with the search engines day to day. Google’s going to look at its databases of pages and the COPY on those pages. It likes LOTS of copy, it wants to find pages with lots of substantial copy and the words denver . . .economy .... hotel repeated throughout the first couple of paragraphs of the copy, then it’s going to want to see a headline with the words in it ( Best Western’s Denver Hotel Offers Its Valued Guests Exceptional Economy), then it’s going to want to find a subhead with the same words in it (Economy Hotels in Denver Offer Mountain Biking and Trail Running), and then finally it will check back into its databases to see how many sites have links coming into the page of your site and if those links have the same words in them. |
Why do this? |
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Google has decided that the way to rank the “value” of your page can be predicated on how many people have linked to that page. Makes sense, doesn’t it? The killer for you and all of us representing hotels is that the portal site will win on the final set of criteria. How are we, on our single hotel site, going to be able to get 1000 links? We can’t. Therefore, for Google, the third party portal sites will regularly be ranked ahead of us. The same criteria do not apply to Yahoo, Inktomi and Teoma search engines as well as the results that you see on MSN search. With these search engines, incoming links are weighted lightly, so you will come up much better - even ahead of portal sites which may lose ranking because they are a list of links! No good, substantial copy, just commercial blah. See how the perception of “value” and “ranking” can be turned on its head? That is what the search engines do to differentiate themselves from their “comp set”. Tit for tat. |
What Can a Single Site Do?
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1) Rewrite your copy, add much more copy, reformat the copy, and add pages so that you are more visible. 2) Register a few related web domains like denvereconomyhotel.com (available), trailrundenver.org (available), and rockymountaineconomyhotel.net (also available). They only cost about $15 to $30 a year to register. Ask your web designer to write and conceive a useful site for you with good general information, giving the primary copy and Links to your own site. You win in two ways: incoming links and peripheral marketing. 3) Setup a blog with Internet access participation. Over time the blog will develop it’s own series of links. The nature of the copy and the fact that the copy changes will add value to your site. Yes, it takes work to maintain. But how many more folks will be able to book you through the web if they can find you. Further - is this not a great PR tool that reveals how your property and its staff see the world- without the soft focus of collateral. 4) Set up a Forum. All the same reasons apply as for a Blog. How valuable would this be as a resource in revealing the honest open communication of your property. What are the subliminal messages of a forum? And, yes, you can delete entries that are too problematic for you and the management. No, it won’t cost you a bundle. I can set one up in a few hours - one with all the bells and whistles. 5) Get links, get links, get links. 6) Add copy, add copy, add copy. The search engines cannot “see” a photo. The viewer gets to see your photos only after you’ve been found - through your copy! - from Eric von Starck, Hotel and Hospitality Web designer at Panetiere Marketing Advisors, web@panetieremarketing.com > read about how to bring sales to a hotel website through the use of staff personality > > see the Hotel Sales and Marketing reference articles at HSMAI Mile High Chapter |
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The hackneyed phrase, “Search Engine Optimization”, what does it really mean for hotel and resort Marketing?
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