When it comes to hospitality content marketing most businesses will have a variety of KPIs they want to hit that are specific to their brand. However, they should all have some basic same goals. They should want to convert their audience with it, causing them to become consumers. They should align well with their brand and their mission. They should want to increase brand awareness, build trust, and drive loyalty. And finally, they should want their content to rank well.
High ranking content is what ensures reach – not just for your content, but for your brand. It helps you achieve all your other goals.
In the world of SEO, long-form content has been known for decades as a tool to ensure your website claims those highly coveted top spots on the search results first page. But with social first SEO becoming increasingly important, a flooded market, and tough times for hospitality recently, it’s time to get serious about creating high-ranking content for your hospitality businesses.
High ranking content will differ, and your topic will vary, but the techniques and skills needed can easily translate across sectors and businesses.
Location, location, location for hospitality marketing
For the hospitality sector, the areas of focus and the way your keywords are constructed are going to differ from a general eCommerce site. That’s because oftentimes, hospitality businesses are location specific.
If you’re searching specifically for a hotel in London, you don’t want results to pull through a hotel in Leeds. If you want to market your restaurant in Manchester, you want to rank higher than your competitors in Manchester.
Address your location in your SEO strategy
Look at what local competitors that are performing well are doing. There are plenty of tools available online for competitor analysis including SE Ranking, or you can install tools like SEO Meta in 1 Click that will allow you to quickly see at a glance the H tag information and meta information of any site you use it on. This information can help you inform your own SEO strategy to make sure you’re interweaving your location well within your content.
Use blog content that’s location specific to your hospitality business
One simple way to do this is to create content that involves your location. Think perhaps blogs with titles like ‘what to do in x’ or ‘where to eat in x’.
Not only will it help solidify your keyword strategy by offering you the opportunity to weave it through your content, but it will help your brand show up across more searches – especially within travel and tourism where these kinds of searches are common compared to other industries. Content like this is aligned with genuine user queries, which is favoured by Google’s algorithm. So, make sure your content is centred around what people are searching for.
Make sure you’re using links if you mention other attractions or businesses in these articles. It’s an easy win for link building and provides the opportunity for you to also feature on other social media accounts if the article is shared by those mentioned.
Offering this extra information to your guests will also help form a loyal community by providing extra support.
Create location-specific landing pages with a digital strategy agency
Recent data from Google shows that 88% of people who conduct a local search on their smartphone will visit a related store within that week. When we put ourselves in the heads of the consumer, we have to consider logically how they’ll plan their trip to help drive them towards our sites.
In the 12 weeks leading up to a trip there are 3x more experience searchesthan hotel searches. So, if you want to drive visitors to your hotel, creating content around experiences in the area is a successful tactic.
For example, if your hotel is close to a racecourse, a landing page specifically around the racecourse – activities that take place there, upcoming events, dress code, distance from major transportation hubs – would be a good choice. You can tie it back to your hospitality business by using this page to advertise how close your venue is and link to other interior pages of your site.
Update your hospitality website
While you can structure your content well, involve important keywords, and optimise your meta information, one of the aspects to consistent high-ranking content is posting consistently.
One of the factors considered by search engines when ranking your content is the freshness. That means for the best chances of success, you need to be updating your website regularly. Creating content such as blogs once a month (at least) is a great way to ensure this.
Plus, it shows customers you’re active, in business, and up to date – making them more likely to book with you!
Think about search intent
The best content marketers are considering search intent when creating content. This is the reason behind users searching. It’s become more and more important over the years to Google’s ranking system. There are four main types of search intent:
- Navigational intent
- Informational intent
- Commercial intent
- Transactional intent
For hospitality businesses, however, the most important ones to consider when building content are informational searches (e.g. ‘Best hotels near Tower Bridge’), navigation searches (e.g. when people search a specific hotel to find the website), and transactional intent (e.g. ‘hotels near me’). Keeping these in mind when creating your content will help your brand rank higher in searches.
Social first SEO for hospitality marketing
With 40% of millennials getting inspiration for hotel booking decisions from social media and 80% of Instagram users stating the app comes in handy when making buying decisions, social media content marketing is crucial. It may not affect your rankings on search engines directly but with its ability to boost brand awareness and reach, it could be a contributing factor to the success of your digital presence, driving consumers to your website.
SEO in social media marketing is becoming more important. Ensure you’re carrying through your keywords to your social media captions optimising your profile to clearly display your keywords and location.
Get your hospitality business ranking highly with a hospitality marketing agency
High ranking content is good content. Search engines are now designed to dismiss content that’s been created purely to rank or fill websites. Keyword stuffing has a negative impact so you want to invest time creating content that customers will want to read. If you’re just throwing out blogs and pages for the sake of having them, it won’t lead to actual conversions in the long run.
If you’re looking for advice on your SEO content or hospitality marketing strategy, get in touch with the team at Punch today. We have experts in optimisation and copywriting who can help you secure that top spot for your hospitality business. Head to our contact page now.