These days travel is taking place a bit closer to home. Due to COVID-19, industry experts are predicting that most Americans will be staying local, only traveling within 50-150 miles of their hometowns. Now is the perfect time for smaller, local motels to remind potential guests that they’re here. Implementing local motel SEO is a highly effective (and budget-friendly) online marketing strategy that helps get you to the top of the search engine rankings. It’s a way to promote your motel to local customers at the exact time that they’re searching for it.
Local SEO strategies take away the guesswork from local marketing and allow you to reach the guests who are ready to book. Think of it as a digital billboard for folks who are cruising down the internet highway in search of a place to stay. Here are a few tips and practices you can use to help local travelers find your motel.
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Keyword Research & Optimization for Motel SEO
When you know exactly what your ideal guests are searching for, you can use specific keywords to generate website traffic and get bookings. Finding the highest ranking motel SEO keywords takes a little digging using research tools like Google AdWords, but there are a couple of standard guidelines.
The first step in ranking well locally is to include your city’s name and, if applicable, a more specific location within the city (e.g., Maggie Valley, NC motel). Long-tail keywords are helpful as well, since they allow you to be a little more specific about what guests may be searching for. You can include amenities, nearby local attractions, etc. to show up in search results (e.g., Atlanta motel with outdoor pool, motel near Folly Beach, Smoky Mountain motel with a view).
Avoid keyword stuffing by choosing only 2 to 3 keywords to target. And when you’re incorporating the keywords into your website copy, make sure it still reads naturally. (This is good for both humans and Google.)
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Title Tags & Meta Descriptions
In addition to the main pages on your website, be sure to include your motel’s SEO keywords in title tags and meta descriptions. Add the target keywords first, then your motel name second, and delete any duplicate titles and descriptions. Don’t forget to add keywords in your H1 and H2 heading tags as well.
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Make Sure Your Info Is Accurate Across All Platforms
Take a look at your business listings on your website, social media, directories, etc. Be sure your name, address, email and phone number are correct on any page where a potential guest might find you. And before you add your information in a directory, check out the page’s Google Analytics to see if that site will actually drive any traffic to yours.
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Link Building
Organic links from credible websites are one of the most important factors in reaching the top of search engine rankings. You can build quality links by building offline relationships with trustworthy and non-competitive companies that would be willing to link to your motel on their website. Relevant businesses or organizations like online directories, local clubs, festivals and tourism organizations are a great place to start.
The internal link structure on your website is important for motel SEO as well. Linking from page to page should be logical and make sense for potential guests who are visiting your website. You don’t want them to get confused and leave the site. The Google crawler also pays attention to this structure when it’s following and tracking the links on your website.
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Local Content is Key for Motel SEO
Now that you’ve got your keyword research and link building down, it’s time to create some local content that will highlight your motel’s connections with the local area. Try creating a page that’s dedicated to events or sights in your city, or you could highlight local shopping and restaurants. Adding local content educates potential guests, giving them tons of great information right there on your website, plus it places you as an expert on what’s going on in the community.
If your website needs help with local motel SEO strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic, we can help. As an award-winning SEO service provider, Galileo Tech Media is a trusted partner of businesses across the travel and hospitality industry. Our remote company structure allows us to provide on-demand expertise and innovative, flexible solutions. Reach out today to see how we can help.
