No matter the business, marketing is the best way to reach success. Consumers are who the business exists for, so it is important to draw their interest in through the best means.
While everyone stays at hotels at some point, there are so many to choose from that offer different commodities at different rates. They must market themselves to improve their image and gain the most customer interest.
Because of their focus on customer needs, hotels must take their appearance into account at all times.
They have to maintain a strong online presence to ensure that they will succeed.
More and more people are researching online before spending money on anything, including overnight stays in unknown locations. Hotels need to spend time optimizing their appearance online to gain more customers in the end.
SEO vs SEM: Which is Better for Your Hotel Business?
Using SEM and SEO
According to Digital Authority Partners, SEO and SEM are both useful marketing strategies that hotels and many other industries can use. But what are they, and how do they differ?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hotel’s best shot at free advertising. It refers to creating the hotel’s website and applying keywords in a way that gets search engines to rank the web page highly in comparison to others.
This is a natural way to get more online traffic through the use of quality backlinks as well as interesting and relevant, consistent content.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) aims to gain more visibility on search engines through paid or natural methods, so it can involve SEO.
Another strategy of SEM is pay per click (PPC) advertising, in which companies pay every time someone clicks on an advertisement. This pays off once a high amount of traffic is directed to the website for conversions.
With everything that both of these strategies offer, it is a difficult task to decide which offers the most for hotel marketing.
Online Appearance Matters
A hotel’s website is likely the first thing a customer sees when looking into booking a stay. It should be eye-catching and convey the best aspects of that particular hotel. Using vibrant images and detailed information is a great way to capture the attention of the audience.
Using SEO strategies on the hotel’s website will lead to more traffic and ultimately more paying customers. In terms of the content of the site, using popular and industry-related keywords along with backlinks to social media will help increase the number of viewers.
In this case, there is no need to pay for advertising. Using the hotel’s own website is the best way to show what it offers without seeming too much like a sales pitch. It is organic and natural, not forceful and bland.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
SEO is a great way to bring traffic to a website, but knowing how to use it adequately ensures success. Using keywords in content boosts a company’s optimization and gets it more customers.
Different words and phrases lead to varying results of SEO because of how they relate differently to the industry.
There is a need for long phrases that are keywords as well as a need for trending terms.
Long-tail keywords help the website appear sooner in a search result because they are more specific and detail-oriented.
They also have a lower search volume, and the guests who use those specific words are more serious customers that are likely to book the room
On the other hand, topics that are hot right now are also great keywords to use because more people will be using them in searches. Popular words are likely to appear in searches and will direct more people to the website. This helps you beat your competitors.
Words that are already ranking are a sure-fire way to more traffic because the target audience tends to use them in searches. If the words are already popular, use them to get returning viewers!
SEM Also Has Its Benefits
In today’s day and age, people use search engines to begin their hunt for vacations. Being one of the first to appear is important to gaining the customer because they will be inclined to click the top few options.
Pay per click advertising (PPC), an aspect of SEM, is great for the hotel industry. This allows companies to appear sooner in searches and get more customers on their pages.
Everybody loves their vacations, and if they enjoy their stay at a particular hotel, there is a good chance they will return.
The company will then make more money off of the PPC ad because the customer is in it for the future.
With more customers comes more profit, and a well structured PPC campaign will pay off in no time.
SEM and SEO Work Together For Your Hotel
Why use just one marketing strategy when you can use both of these at the same time? PPC advertisements can work hand in hand with SEO for the ultimate marketing blend.
When you produce online content, use keywords that work well in PPC advertising to combine the power of the two. If the words work to gain clicks for a PPC ad, the odds are those same words will help optimize the search.
A good rule of thumb is to use keywords in every place possible for the most optimized search results. If people are saying it, write it! It is a great way to appeal to the customers while maintaining a professional yet friendly reputation.
So What Do I Use?
The goal of a business, even a hotel business, is to provide to consumers and ultimately make money.
The people need to know what is out there, and using marketing strategies will help accomplish this.
SEM covers SEO, making it a more sensical choice for hotels.
There are many returning customers, so PPC ads will pay for themselves.
As for using keywords, that is important no matter what the industry.
Keep the best methods of marketing in mind when trying to sell your company.
It will only pay off to appeal to the masses and work extra hard to meet the success you desire.