Local SEO for hotels is a process for optimizing hotel websites for greater visibility in local search results. Done well, it will propel you to the top of Google rankings and boost your direct bookings.

A good implementation of a hotel’s local SEO will include everything from optimizing for Google Business Listings and UNAP to online reviews.

In this article, we’ll examine all the above tactics and more. But first, let’s look at why local SEO works for hotels.

Why Is Local SEO for Hotels So Important?

We can probably pen down layers and layers of paragraphs about why you should be doing local SEO for your hotel, but it essentially boils down to one thing: when it comes to marketing, you can’t compete with OTAs and chain hotels with their behemoth budgets. 

As we explained in our guide on hotel SEO, the top spots for most generic high-volume keywords like “hotel in new york” or “hotel in dubai” will almost always be occupied by top OTAs like Booking.com, Expedia, or EaseMyTrip.

In fact, as research from O’Rourke has shown, in 2021 alone, Booking.com and Expedia alone spent a combined $5 billion on their marketing spend. There’s no winning against this without a significant marketing budget of your own. 

Setting up local SEO hotel strategies is, among other tactics, a way to even the online marketing field and help you tap into such traffic (and bookings) missed by OTAs, etc.

Among other things, it will help you:

1. Direct your marketing efforts to places not dominated by OTAs and big chain hotels.
2. Maintain a solid digital PR execution.

There are other things, but the above two are essentially what your local SEO for hotels will revolve around. Let’s look at how to boost your bookings.

5 Local SEO Tactics for Hotels to Dominate Online Search

Always keep this in mind: your hotel’s local SEO is about smart work, not hard work. 

Through it, your goal is to win small, individual battles by ranking highly for specific local keywords rather than trying to dominate for every keyword related to your hotel in an all-out online marketing war.

With this in mind, here are five different local SEO tactics for your hotel to achieve this:

1. Optimize Your Google Business Profiles

Google Business Listings, now known as Google Business Profile, plays a crucial role in boosting local SEO by enhancing a business's online visibility and increasing the chances of appearing in top search results. 

Here’s how you can set up GBP for your hotel:

1. Head to Google Business Profile and select Manage Now.
2. Sign into your Google account.
3. Enter the name of your hotel and choose Continue.

4. Select the Local Store checkbox and click on Next.
5. Enter the business category as Hotel and click on Next. 

6. Enter your hotel’s address.
7. Put in your contact details, such as number, website, etc., and click Next.
8. For verification purposes, create a video of your business as instructed (you can skip this step for a later time as well).

That’s it do this, and your hotel’s Google Business Profile will be created.

Getting your profile up and running is just one of the steps; it’s also crucial to optimize it to get the most out of your marketing efforts. So make sure you:

1. Add high-quality photos and videos.
2. Have tons of positive reviews. 
3. Instantly reply to each guest's review.
4. Have an option of instant chat for all your guests and interested travelers.

While you do all of the above, make sure you keep the focus on showing the highest quality material—only then will you get the most out of this local SEO tactic. 

2. Partner with Local Directories

Local directories like Just Dial and Yellow Pages are online platforms that list a wide variety of businesses in their online database. 

They provide essential information such as emails, phone numbers, ratings, etc., and so help companies improve their visibility and reach in their local areas. 

Although the effectiveness of local directories as an effective marketing tool has massively tanked since the last decade, they can still offer some juice for your hotel’s local SEO efforts: 

1. You can gain multiple backlinks to your hotel’s website by enlisting in different directories.
2. For particularly low-volume keywords, you can even beat many keywords to come out on top of the search results.
3. Through its categories and tags, local directories can help you contextualize your business for local searches. 
4. Customer reviews left on them can also add another layer to your digital PR efforts. 

So make sure you enlist your hotel into all the popular local directories. Only then will you get the most out of your hotel’s local SEO tactic.  

3. Get Your Specific Local Keywords Right

While optimizing for popular, high-volume keywords is a lost cause, another way exists: optimizing for long-tail specific keywords.

These highly specific keywords are not covered by most OTAs and are, therefore, much easier for hoteliers to rank for. For example, “hotel with conference hall in Delhi” is much easier to come out on top of than something like “hotel in Delhi.”

Other combinations can include optimizing your keywords by the pool, room types, exceptional amenities, and so on. 

Basically, optimize your hotel’s local SEO with a combination of specific features or amenities that you believe a traveler might be searching for, and you will be good to go.  

4. NAP Consistency

You try to buy something online, but all you see are inconsistent prices. It says $50 on Google search, but it's much higher in the store, and by the time you reach checkout, it's again changed to something else. 

Think of how you’d feel. It’d be pretty confusing, right?

NAP consistency ensures this doesn’t happen with your hotel’s local SEO. In short, NAP consistency is about keeping your hotel’s name, address, phone, prices, amenities, etc., the same across different websites and online platforms. 

As someone once rightly said, you can think of NAP consistency as table stakes for your local SEO.

Since Google is big on providing the most relevant and best information to its users, it employs hundreds of different ranking actors. Consistency information is an essential factor, among others, that can make or break your online ranking. 

5. Local SEO Audit 

As its name suggests, a local SEO audit is the process of reviewing your existing local SEO tactics and improving them to increase visibility and bookings for your hotel.

Among other things, your hotel’s local SEO audit will include:

1. Evaluating and boosting your GMB profile. It will include optimizing your online reviews, photos and videos, information about essential amenities, etc.
2. Paying specicial focus on online reviews on Google, so as to devise to tactics and strategies to increase positive reviews—and counter negaive ones. 
3. Check which keywords are performing, do on-page optimizations, build relevant backlinks, and so on.

Your hotel’s local SEO audit is a once-in-a-while practice, so make sure you do it properly to maximize the benefits of your SEO efforts. 

Boosting Your Hotel Bookings With Local SEO

This concludes our discussion of local SEO for hotels. Now that you know how important your hotel’s local SEO is and all the tactics you can implement, ensure that it is always part of your hotel’s digital marketing plan.

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