When can you expect to see SEO results? It’s a question on the mind of many hoteliers eager to see the benefits of their SEO investment. You likely know that SEO is an ongoing journey, but how long should the process take before you see results? And how do you know that you have the right people on the job as you wait?
Look to the Leaders
Google has long been respected as the leader of all things search, along with being the most desirable search engine for many hotel websites wanting to rank high and boost bookings.
According to the search engine giant, SEO progress isn’t something that happens overnight. Maile Ohye, Tech Lead at Google states, “In most cases, SEO needs four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.”
Do You Have the Right Team in Place?
It’s a fear shared by many hotels, what if I am paying for SEO services and it doesn’t work?
Businesses who offer SEO services are not magicians, but they do have expertise on how to put your hotel’s best foot forward on the web, so that it ranks appropriately.
To make sure your SEO provider is the right team to help you improve your hotel’s rank, consider whether they are providing these important SEO pieces. A good SEO should:
- Recommend best practices for a search-friendly site
- Provide a keyword strategy
- Implement improvements (for example, adding meta-data to web pages)
- Corroborate their recommendations with Google’s best practices
- Be able to explain their strategy and reasons for implementations
Learn more about how to be sure you have the right SEO team in place in this video by Google.
What Takes So Long?
We live in a world where you can order a car to pick you up using an app on your phone (and pay without your wallet!). While a lot of new technology in our digital world moves fast, some good things still take time!
SEO is a long term marketing tactic, not a quick fix for bookings. A great analogy from SEO Mechanic encourages businesses to think of SEO as a “401k approach”, rather than a game of roulette. Your efforts compound over time, and the results are greater when you stick with the process.
Search engine optimization includes a lot of moving parts and is constantly evolving. If you have the expertise of an experienced digital marketer on your side, like your Vizlly SEO Success Team, rest assured that they are staying on top of SEO best practices.
Google’s algorithm uses over 200 factors to determine what content will be displayed for a given search term. Some of the elements that require time to build your SEO results include:
- Establishing trust and website domain authority.
- Establishing your website from your competitors in the hospitality landscape.
- Securing authentic links from high authority websites in your space.
- Search engines recognizing and assessing the links you have secured.
- The volume of travel shoppers who are searching for your keywords.
- How much time website visitors spend on your site, and how often they return to it. The more relevant, quality content on your website, the better your visits, time on site, and bounce rate will be.
What You Can Do to Assist Your SEO Performance
There are many factors that determine the rate of your SEO results. Search engines crawl your website to determine it's rank, and this process takes time, especially for brand new sites.
In the meantime, there are ongoing practices you can maintain to ensure your SEO strategy is on track. Continue to pursue high quality link opportunities from local businesses or bloggers, and regularly check your site to ensure there are no broken links (which can negatively affect your search engine ranking). Continue to post engaging content on social media channels that points back to your website and update your special offers regularly to inspire travel shoppers to come back to your hotel website.
If you have any questions or need help putting an SEO action plan into place, reach out to your Success Coach, or email customersuccess@leonardoworldwide.com.