It is always interesting to talk about the importance of maintaining a strong local SEO strategy for hotel websites. What makes it so interesting is that local SEO is much more crucial to businesses in the hospitality industry than it is to most other industries.
For hotels, a robust local SEO strategy can result in a major difference in both foot traffic and online bookings.
Being found at the top of a search for “hotels near me” widens the net considerably and gets the hotel in front of a much wider audience that is already on the hunt for a place to stay while in the area.
But, how do you measure the effectiveness of your local SEO strategy?
Understanding Local SEO for Hotels
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your hotels online presence in an effort to rank better in the SERPs for local queries.
When someone searches for something like “best hotels near me”, this is a local query.
Much like with SEO in general, local SEO involves a variety practices. This includes optimizing for Google Business Profile, Google Local Pack, Google Maps, location-based keywords, and so on.
Key Metrics Used to Measure Local SEO Success
There are a few ways to measure the success of your local SEO strategy.
However, if you want to get the fullest picture possible of what your strategy is doing for your website traffic, you really need to make use of a handful of these methods in conjunction with one another.
SEO Tools
SEO tools are the backbone of any solid SEO strategy. Regardless of whether you are doing organic, paid or a mixture of both… you are going to need a set of tools to help you get the job done.
There are many different SEO tools available but there are a few that you will likely encounter more than the others.
At the core of any good SEO strategy is Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Then you have the more competitive analytics focused tools like ahrefs and SEMrush.
Lastly, you want to round everything out and really dig into the local SEO side of things. For this, you will want to use something like BrightLocal.
Website Traffic from Local Searches
Analyzing website traffic that originates from local searches can provide insights into the effectiveness of your SEO strategy.
Google Analytics can help you track the number of visitors coming to your site via local search queries. Look for increases in traffic after implementing local SEO tactics.
Conversion Rates
SEO for hotels isn’t just about driving website traffic. Ultimately, the point is to convert that traffic into hotel room bookings.
Moreover, your conversion rates can tell you a lot. Monitoring your conversion rates from the first time a visitor interacted with the website right to the point that they book a room.
You want to pay attention to visitors who landed on your site from a local search.
- What keywords or phrases did they search for?
- If it was an ad, which version of the ad performed better and why?
- Did they make a booking, reservation or sign up for the newsletter?
- How long did they stay on the page?
- What page did they exit from?
All of these things together begin to paint a picture of how well your overall local targeting is working as well as some potential gaps that need to be filled.
Online Reviews and Ratings
Monitoring online reviews for your hotel can provide you with some extra insight as to how your online presence is looking.
Are reviewers commenting about difficulties making a booking online? Maybe they have commented that they chose your hotel over another for a specific reason?
There are bits of information in reviews of your hotel that you can help you gauge the effects of your local strategy as well as give you ideas for how to further optimize it.
Don’t just stop there, though. Respond to your reviewers! The quality, quantity and recency of comments account for 16% of Google’s Local 3 Pack ranking factors. This does include your responses to them, so the more you respond, the more you improve your local ranking.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) from Local Search Results
A Click-Through Rate (CTR) is the percentage of people who click on your website after seeing your hotel listed in their search results.
A higher CTR indicates that your listing is appealing and relevant to what your visitors were searching for. If you are noticing an increasing CTR for page visits from local searches, you are on the right path.
While CTR is not a ranking factor for Google, monitoring it can tell you a lot about what content is working and what you may need to revisit.
Social Media Engagement
While it is not a direct ranking factor, social media engagement can indirectly impact your local SEO while simultaneously gathering helpful information about your social followers and website visitors, allowing you to not only see how well your strategy is performing but also further optimize content for your demographic.
Increased engagement across social platforms can lead to more shares, which may result in higher website traffic.
Backlink Profile
Backlinks are essentially signals to the search engines that your website is viewed by others as being an authority in your industry. Not all backlinks are positive things to have, however.
So while backlinks are good signals that you are are gaining the right attention on your content, that is only true if those backlinks are coming from other reputable sources.
When taking a look at your backlink profile, ideally, you want to see other authorities in your industry (especially those in your local area) linking to your content. If this is the case, your strategy is headed in the right direction.
Utilizing SEO Tools and Analytics
Effectively measuring the success of your local SEO efforts involves leveraging various tools.
Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Business Profile, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and BrightLocal are just a few of the tools that can provide comprehensive data on your SEO performance.
Conclusion
Measuring the effects of local SEO for hotels involves a combination of analyzing search rankings, website traffic, online reviews, social media engagement, and more.
By regularly monitoring these key metrics, hotels can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of their local SEO strategies and make informed decisions to improve their online visibility and attract more guests.
A strong local SEO strategy is no longer just a nice-to-have thing but a necessity for hotels (and really any business) aiming to stand out in a crowded marketplace.
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