Why it's important for a hotel to have its website optimized

Earlier this year, we read in an article in La Vanguardia that, during 2019 and early 2020, hotel websites had become the second largest online booking channel, relegating Expedia to third place.

Some of the reasons for this increase in bookings were related to the user experience and the incentives offered by hotels to their future customers.

According to a study conducted by Fuel Travel, he stated that 87% of users visited a hotel's website before making a reservation. And in addition, according to Google, these same consumers visited on average about 18 pages across multiple devices over 8 sessions before making a reservation.

Currently, as a result of the Coronavirus Pandemic, we can see how the tourism sector has been one of the most affected. It is important to remember that tourism in Spain accounts for more than 14% of GDP and is the second economic engine behind trade.

During the months of March, April and May, the hotel sector has been one of the most affected by COVID-19, and will continue to suffer its effects for a few more months due to restrictions on international tourism.

People will no longer book as early as they used to, but will wait until they have some security, and According to statistics, it will bet more on national and local tourism.

That is why, now more than ever, it is very It is important to have a professional website, and have a good digital marketing strategy that is focused on the user, this way you will have a greater chance of standing out from the competition.

From now on, you must adapt to the current situation quickly, try to be more competitive and have a very well optimized website. Your hotel website will be the best tool for increasing direct bookings. Nowadays, you don't need to be a big chain to have a good site, you just have to take into account some considerations when creating or optimizing your website.

How to Optimize a Hotel Website?

Choosing a good CMS

To define which content manager to use, not only must we take into account which booking engine the website is going to use, a key element of a hotel's website, but we must also take into account the security of the CMS and whether we will need to customize content according to the behavior of the users who visit us. Integrating a booking engine API is essential, as is having a site with few vulnerabilities. At Novicell we recommend Umbraco or Sitecore for this type of project, depending on the needs of the business.

UX/UI design

On average, guests spend 6 minutes on hotel websites, which is a great opportunity to attract your future guests with bold images, easy-to-read room descriptions, and attractive offers to make the decision to book in a simple and consistent way. It's important to show what guests will experience when they arrive at their destination. If you make sure that video is part of your web strategy, you will mesmerize your guests.

El The design of any website must be attractive, since it has been amply demonstrated in studies that beauty is a factor that conditions our mind when it comes to trusting and choosing. And beauty is directly related to simplicity and balance. Therefore, usability and interface design experts believe that for a digital product to be usable it must meet certain standards: Minimalism, visual balance and hierarchy, and visual coherence.

Thus, a hotel website must be usable but it must also be created taking into account the users it is aimed at. That is to say, must be designed with the user at the center of decisions but without forgetting the needs of the business: seeking a balance between the needs of the user and those of the business. For this reason, it is essential to have UX designers who incorporate user research and user testing methodologies into the development, to verify that design decisions are validated by users.

It goes without saying that any site, whatever the business, must be designed for mobile devices, either a different version (recommended from a user experience point of view) or an adaptive design, that is, responsive.

Optimized booking engine

It's also very It is important to get the most out of the booking engine, this way you will get more direct bookings.

The booking engine has to be designed and designed to offer a good user experience, good usability and security must be enhanced, in this way a greater conversion will be achieved.

A hotel's booking engine must be able to be implemented with travel metasearchers. This way you ensure that it can be booked from your website and from the metasearch portals.

Another aspect that we cannot forget is that the booking engine is optimized for mobile devices, the content has to be viewed correctly and must work from all existing devices.

SEO Positioning (Local and International)

A key point in the optimization of websites in the hotel sector is organic positioning. For users to visit our website, it will be necessary for them to find us, and search engine searches represent an important source of traffic. Positioning a hotel is not an easy task, it requires optimizing both on-page and off-page in order to achieve results and be able to have visibility.

In the hotel sector, the International SEO it is essential, since the customers who visit the hotels come from different countries and the site must be optimized for all those markets that are of interest to us. Depending on each country, it will be necessary to optimize the site for specific search engines, just as the texts on the web must be focused on specific searches depending on the country.

In addition, it is just as important to work on the international positioning as the local one. Local results allow users to find products or services that are close to them or to a specific location. Thus, generate a strategy of Local SEO it is also mandatory for hotels.

Social Media Strategy

Las social networks are a great way to send business communications. Thus, it will be essential to have brand ambassadors who promote our company as well as social media influencers or bloggers who generate reviews and articles on their blogs.

We can't forget to have a presence on travel platforms such as TripAdvisor, and take advantage of Instagram to share inspiring images both inside and around our hotel.

In the case of hotels, reviews are a very valuable source for users: Nobody books a hotel nowadays if they haven't read positive reviews from other users. For this reason, platforms such as Booking, TripAdvisor, Google My Business, reviews on Facebook or Agoda are very important. That's why an online reputation is essential to convince our potential customers that our hotel is the best option for them. Monitor what is being said about your brand and make sure that your online reputation is the best it can be. And that will mean offering not only a good experience on the web but also a good service during all phases of the experience, from the reservation to the experience inside the hotel.

Google Ads and Social Ads campaigns

If your competition invests in ads, you can't be left behind and lose visibility.

Making search ads for relevant keywords is important and effective, but don't forget the potential of displaying on strategic websites. It should be noted that Google ads It is the largest pay-per-click platform in the world, advertising on Google gives potential access to more than 3.5 billion daily searches.

Social media advertisements are a marketing channel where you should also invest, they are essential to attract potential customers to your hotel page. Social ads are the optimal way for your investment to obtain a higher ROI, thanks to the segmentation capacity offered by these channels.

Now more than ever it is very important to invest in Digital Marketing, in this way you can segment your target audience.

If you want more information about the website optimization and digital strategy for hotels you just have to provide us with an email and the URL of your website.

How can we help you?

If you need more information do not hesitate to contact us.