In the last 10 years, digitization has changed a lot for the tourism industry. While travel agencies and travel guides used to be in demand, today search engines such as Google are used to find the right hotel, for example.
It is all the more important for the hotelier to have an informative, attractive and at the same time sales-promoting website. However, this alone is often not enough. If the website is not even found in the most well-known search engines, very few potential bookers will find their way onto your hotel website. One thing is clear: search engine optimization leads to better rankings, greater organic visibility and ultimately more direct bookings. But is it still worth investing in hotel SEO in view of the increasing competition?
Extreme competition in hotel SEO – Basic adjustments are no longer enough
There is now extremely high competition in the German hotel market. Due to the increasing competitive pressure, significantly more hotels are looking for individual marketing levers that lead to more inquiries and direct bookings. Many hotels are already investing in SEO, making the market more difficult to access. Search engine optimization is now a lot more complex than it used to be and many of the simple tricks no longer work.
With a professional SEO strategy and hiring seo services Dubai company one can achieve tangible results and increased sales. With an SEO agency important keywords are clearly defined and all fundamental areas such as on-page SEO, content extensions and adjustments, off-page SEO, internal links and technical adjustments are taken into account. Professional hotel SEO is therefore significantly more expensive than making simple basic adjustments, but of course it is also far more promising and sustainable.
The advantages of a clear hotel SEO strategy
SEO for hotels brings numerous advantages and offers enormous opportunities for the hotel industry with the right use.
✓ Long-term at the top of the organic search results & better online visibility
✓ More direct bookings and thus higher occupancy
✓ better return on investment (ROI)
✓ Measurable success with the help of Google Analytics
✓ Pull marketing taps into an existing demand
✓ cost-effective marketing methods with a good cost-benefit ratio
Hotel SEO vs. Google Ads – A cost / benefit comparison
Google Ads is a good way to generate clicks in the short term. But especially for keywords with high competition, the click prices for paid ads can be very expensive. With the Google Ads tool “Keyword Planner” you can get forecasts about the competition of certain keywords. Consequently, we determine the search volume and the expected click price for three of the most competitive keywords for hotels in the Bavarian Forest (see Source 1).
Source 1: Google Keyword Planner
The search volume for these 3 keywords is an average of 34,700 searches per month. The average CPC for the top positions is €0.55. According to Sistrix, the average click rate (CTR) for the first Google ranking position is 28.5% (see source 2). Thus, with a first place ranking of these 34,700 monthly search queries, around 9,900 could be in the top SEO position. This would correspond to a monthly Google Ads budget of €5,400.
Source 2: Sistrix
Since we are assuming top rankings for very competitive keywords, the monthly click volume is significantly larger than for keywords such as “4-star hotel with pool in the Bavarian Forest”. By focusing on many niche keywords, a large search volume can still be achieved even with less competition. As a result, Hotel SEO can not only achieve high long-term rankings, but also reduce the monthly advertising budget for Google Ads.
It was also found that users are more likely to click on an organic listing than on a “paid ad”. As mentioned above, the average CTR for the first position on Google is 28.5%. On the other hand, 34.2% of searchers click on the first hit when the search results page consists entirely of organic hits (see Source 3). That is around 6 percentage points more than the average. The CTR is also above average in the other positions compared to paid ads.
Source 3: Sistrix
A lack of know-how often leads to problems
The importance of SEO is often underestimated. According to Statista, in 2019, 60 percent of the hoteliers surveyed from Germany stated that they needed more know-how about digitization.
Source 4: Statista
What you should definitely consider in Hotel SEO:
✗ Set clear goals right at the beginning of the SEO strategy
✗ SEO is not a one-off project that leads to success the next day, but rather a lengthy process that requires continuous controlling and monitoring
✗ Sufficient resources such as budget, know-how, time and personnel must be available and included in the strategy
✗ Google decides the ranking of websites based on over 200 different factors. It is not enough to consider just a few of these factors. Instead, it is essential to optimize as many as possible
✗ The wrong application of SEO can lead to fatal consequences. For example, your website could disappear completely from the search results due to a Google penalty
✗ SEO is not only worthwhile for large companies or hotels. On the contrary: It is recommended especially for small and medium-sized companies or hotels, as it is a good way to achieve a higher online presence without paying for expensive click prices from SEA ads
Will SEO still be worthwhile in the future?
SEO has changed in the past and will continue to do so in the future. It will become more and more important to apply a differentiated SEO strategy. As already mentioned above, it is already no longer enough just to make basic SEO adjustments and to enrich the texts with the most important keywords. It will remain so in the future.
Our conclusion: use the opportunity
SEO is an important part of optimizing the long-term, organic visibility of any website and is particularly worthwhile for small and medium-sized, owner-managed hotels.
The increased competition and increasing complexity make SEO more complicated, but by no means not worthwhile. That’s why it’s all the more important to be able to keep up with the competition. Take the chance and gain a clear advantage over those who are not yet optimizing. Many hotels have neglected their own SEO strategy in recent years, since the chances of top rankings were classified as very low anyway and investments were made in Google Ads. However, with increasing click prices, it can very quickly pay off, especially for hotels, to partially switch to SEO.
With the right SEO partner agency and a professional SEO strategy at your side, SEO is still one of the most important marketing levers in hotel marketing.
