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Press Releases
LODGING INTERACTIVE WHITE PAPER SERIES: 1 OF 7
THE VALUE OF SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)
PARSIPPANY, NJ, October 24, 2005 - Research indicates that there are over 68 million Americans online every day. These Internet users access search engines an average of 550 million times per day to find what they're looking for online. Whether it's looking for electronics, researching recipes or searching for that special hotel room, most of the searches happen on only a handful of search engines. Sure we all have our favorite search engines but most of us are searching on one or more of the five major search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL or Ask Jeeves. In fact, to put this into perspective, Google handled over two billion unique searches in July 2005, while Yahoo processed just over 1 billion unique searches.the numbers are staggering.
As a hotelier who "gets it", you've figured out that the more Internet traffic you can attract to your own website, the more online sales you'll produce and the end result is more sales at your highest return per sale. Whether yours is a branded or independent hotel, your website represents your lowest cost per reservations and is open 24/7. In this week's white paper, we are sharing some ways in which you can use the major search engines to attract and close more business.
First let's define the term "Search Engine Marketing". Search Engine Marketing, a.k.a SEM, is simply the deployment of marketing strategies via the search engines. These marketing strategies should be developed to leverage the sheer volume of searches and to drive customers to your hotel website, where you can, and hopefully convert them into reservations. I say "hopefully" because once they get to your site they need to find rates that fit their budget, easy navigation and web page content relevant to the SEM tactic that drove to your site, etc., but more on this later on.
For most clients we recommend a minimum of two SEM strategies. These are the deployment of an aggressive Search Engine Optimization strategy and a Pay-Per-Click marketing campaign. There are other strategies which can be used but these two strategies are a good place to start while working with a modest online marketing budget.
Let's start with an explanation of Pay-Per-Click marketing, a.k.a. PPC. Simply put, PPC is an online advertising campaign. PPC advertising is driven by the purchase of Keywords. You can purchase keywords on each of the search engines and when a search is conducted for your purchased keywords, your hotel's promotional message, along with your website link appears on the search results page under the heading of "sponsored links" or "sponsored results". And yes, you guessed it, when someone clicks on your advertisement and is directed to your website.your credit card gets charged, this is "pay-per-click". Now let me throw in some attributes you will need to know about in order to gain the most value from your PPC marketing.
First, you're not going to be the only hotelier who is purchasing your desired keywords. In fact your competitors may already have deployed their PPC campaigns ahead of you. In addition, PPC is a bidding game and the ranking results are often determined by the maximum cost per click that you're willing to pay, along with the highest click through rate amongst advertisers.
You see the search engines are not going to list your advertisement in the top search spots, if no one is clicking on the ad . translation, they only make money on clicked ads, not on providing your hotel with free exposure or impressions on their search engine. If you're interested in finding out how much your desired search terms might cost, Yahoo offers a neat bid tool where you can type in your keyword and it will return top paying bids and show you who else is bidding on the same keywords. You can find this tool at the following URL : http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/
TIP : Most people search by using 2-4 keywords strung together into a "keyword phrase" and attaching a destination. For example a common search would be: "boutique hotels in new york".
Now that we've covered the PPC basics' let's focus on Search Engine Optimization, a.k.a. SEO. SEO is often described as being part art and part science because of the unique combination of creative and technology skills required to deliver an effective SEO results. Unlike the advertising business model of PPC campaigns, SEO is the process of increasing your search engine rankings which appear in the main search results, a.k.a the "free results" and "organic listing" although there is nothing free about it. While the search engines currently do not charge website owners for clicks achieved through SEO efforts, the SEO effort in itself is not without cost.
Launching an SEO campaign requires your webmaster to make numerous "onsite" changes to your website. Changes such as naming your web page titles appropriately and ensuring your META Tags are setup correctly on each page is a good start. Additional onsite changes include developing unique content pages which are meant to highlight and promote the keyword campaign you are using. For example, if you're trying to achieve higher organic rankings on the search term "boutique hotels in new york", you will want to develop a few web pages which are relevant to the term "boutique hotels in new york". This requires the unique skill of not only copy writing, but optimized copy writing.
An effective SEO practice also requires that you perform certain "offsite" tactics as well. One of the major offsite tactics which will help to increase your organic search engine rankings is to establish relevant inbound links to your website. This means going out to your local CVB's, newspaper and other travel related websites and requesting links to your website from their sites. It's important that you stay within your vertical market, in this case travel related websites, as the search engines weight the relevancy of your inbound links.and you guessed it, the more relevant these links are the better your chances of higher link rankings.
There is no doubt that SEO is a long term SEM strategy when compared to the PPC marketing campaign. However, SEO is crucial if your goal is to generate more online business through your website over time. Let me explain why.
First, as an increasing number of hoteliers and travel companies begin to market their websites via PPC campaigns the PPC cost for popular search terms will continue to increase over time. In fact a recent study has shown that generic keywords within the travel and hospitality vertical cost 26% more to purchase on a per click basis in July 2005 than they did in September 2004.
Secondly, as web users become more sophisticated in the search process they become more aware of the difference between organic and paid search results. And this awareness is even more prevalent amongst the younger and more savvy Internet users who tend to use Google as their primary search engine versus AOL users who typically represent an older demographic. In a recent study it was reported that 45% of Internet searchers would stop using the search engines if the differences between PPC and organic listings were not clear.
TIP: The more effort you can invest in SEO now, the better off your website will be as it relates to your long term return on investment.
Finally I'd like to address a key factor related to PPC and SEO, one that relates to my earlier comment about "hoping" you can convert your website visitor to a reservation. Whether you are successful in getting someone to your website via a PPC or SEO strategy, it is critical that the landing page (the page they land on after clicking on your search engine result) is relevant to the keyword search that got them there. In other words, if you're promoting a special Valentines Day weekend package and you purchase PPC keywords or optimize your website for the term "new york hotel valentines day special" don't bring the user to your homepage and expect that they will look for your Valentines Day package. Simply make sure that the landing page listed on the search engines is the page which contains information about your Valentines Day weekend package.
In next week's continuing series of Building an Effective Internet Presence and Adding More Sales through Search Engine Marketing we will look at the Do's and Don'ts of SEM.
About Lodging Interactive
Lodging Interactive is a leading provider of Internet Marketing Services to the travel and lodging industries. The company provides a portfolio of effective Internet Marketing Services to hundreds of hotels, resorts, timeshares and bed and breakfasts worldwide. We also offer hotelBLAST.com, a self-service email marketing system and MyWebsitePromotions.com, a self-service online promotions marketing system.
Lodging Interactive clients include branded properties such as Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton, Radisson, Crowne Plaza Hotels, Doubletree Hotels, Candlewood Suites, Best Western, Wyndham Hotels plus numerous independent properties. The company is headquartered in Parsippany, NJ and can be reached at 973-402-4970 or by visiting its website at www.LodgingInteractive.com or www.MyWebsitePromotions.com
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