Local SEO is quite distinctly different from its broader SEO counterpart. Optimising your hotel for an SEO-friendly landscape can seem a tricky task to undertake, particularly when handling multiple or distinct hotel locations. However, there are lots of compelling arguments which make the case for investing time and resources to dominate local search. Not least of these for hotel and travel businesses is the promise of appearing on Google at the exact moment a potential customer is searching for a hotel in your particular zip code.

The advent of mobile search has made local SEO ever more competitive and, with more and more travellers making the shift to researching, browsing and booking on a mobile device, there’s a clear need to be present.

Those searching locally are also likely to conduct more time sensitive searches, meaning there is an instant demand to be satisfied. In fact, research cited by BrightLocal says that local SEO is the highest converting of any local advertising channel and offers a great return on investment.

The reality is that no hotel can afford not to invest in a serious bid to conquer the local SERPs. To help you succeed, here are a few of the most important things to consider incorporating into your SEO-strategy when hoping to rank locally…

Acquiring local reviews can be a lengthy process, but it’s worth encouraging your customers past and present to leave you a review to share their experiences with other potential guests. Google reviews are the best for notching up your local-SEO – Yelp and TripAdvisor are also incredibly useful for giving your hotel some traction. This will not only solidify the location of your hotel, but good reviews will attract more customers given the high trust factor online shoppers exhibit in online reviews when shopping for a product or service provider.

Take a look at your website copy. Does it mention your hotel’s location? Try to ensure the location of your hotel is key among your concerns when writing copy and considering keywords – and add the City/Region in your landing page tags, content and ALT attributes.

This helps stamp your location on both your webpage and search engine results. It is also a very useful tool for customers visiting your site to plan their journey in a visually appealing way.

This can be done by generating inbound links from other websites – the more credible and organic, the better. Tourism websites for your region and tourist attractions are ideal. Offer to trade links and build relationships which are mutually beneficial.

Nine out of ten people are estimated to conduct local searches on a smartphone or mobile device, so slow loading times or unclear navigation on mobile will just encourage them to stay elsewhere.

Is the location of your hotel in your webpage title? It’s a quick fix which can have a very large impact on your rankings on Google. The key to success with local SEO is to make sure you’re clear, upfront and unambiguous about your location – and this is one of the simplest ways to go about that.

Unsure how to improve your local SEO rankings? Digital Hotelier are experts in hotel digital marketing and hotel search optimisation. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you optimise your local online presence.