Adventurous travelers are always looking for a new experience, and 2015 will bring some exciting opportunities to the travel scene. Check out some of the hottest trends in the travel industry below: Cruises in the Far East Most cruisers have thoroughly explored destinations like coastal Europe, the Caribbean and America's Pacific Coast. Now, many cruise lines are expanding...
Once you decide it is time to set off for your dream destination, begin making plans for your arrangements. Find out about the current travel trends to see if they fit in with how you envision for your vacation. Treat yourself to luxury during your time away from home. Maybe you always choose the more budget-conscious...
SEMPDX was started as a way to educate local Portland businesses on the importance of SEO and online marketing - it has grown into a 500+ person community focused on education and building connections. Each year SEMPDX holds a conference called SearchFest that brings in speakers from around the world, giving the local community access to...
This concept is sure to spur debate among anyone that is savvy – but its worth discussing. Often times hotels feel that they have such a strong brand that they do not need to bid on their own brand keywords in Google AdWords or other paid search markets. I agree that in some cases a brand may be so strong or so small that a branded paid search campaign is not needed. However, consider this: If a 3rd party site, such as an OTA is making 10% on a $300 booking, is it worth spending $.15 to potentially capture that visitor and not have to pay commissions?
First hand accounts of a stay at a hotel are gold. They can tell consumers exactly what they can expect if they were to stay at your hotel. Now, that’s if they’re good reviews. Bad reviews can have a huge negative effect, especially if they’re in popular review website locations such as TripAdvisor and Google. My final mistake is last for a reason – its probably the last thing that people want to think about or deal with. Who wants to deal with a bad review? Especially, when there’s really not much that you CAN do to deal with it online.
Google Analytics is free. It’s simple to install and simple to use. You can even set up dashboards that pull all of the complex metrics together into one spot for ease of use. Not using Google Analytics or another analytics program to understand how visitors are reaching your website is a big mistake. In most cases Hotels receive 80-90% of their ‘new visitors’ from search engines.
How many hotel websites have you visited that have a beautiful website with all the bells and whistles, but then you went to the reservations page and it simply did not even come close to matching that experience. This is not a search marketing issue – it’s a conversion and branding issue. I’ve worked with hotel clients in the past 12 years that have a conversion problem when they send visitors to 3rd party sites, like booking engines. When fixed and that experience is seamless, conversion rates can go up 40-60%. If you’re working with one of the larger booking engines, they tend to do a good job of giving you the tools for a branded booking experience, so you should take full advantage. If you’re working with a one-off booking solution that doesn’t offer these tools, it might be time switch.