Search Engine Optimization Andrew Steward Matthew Golling

Scenario  90-room, limited-service boutique hotel  Performing at a 98.5 percent RevPAR index against its competitive set  Noticed that only 20% of their bookings were coming from their online website when the industry average for brand websites is over 39% [1] [1] statisticbrain.com/internet-travel-hotel-booking-statistics/

Search Engine Optimization  The process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page to the point of maximizing the number of visitors  Main Goal: -Creating success for a website through focusing on what is best and most convenient for visitors  All visitors are potential guests

Best Practices: Google Analytics  Service through Google to follow the traffic visiting a website  Many companies ask whether or not social media or Internet marketing is efficient. -58% of business marketers said social media creates leads [1] -To have 42 percent of business marketers declare that social media is not an effective tool to generate leads for the sales process of their products or services make half of the businesses unable to effectively use Facebook [2] [2] Social Media Examiner’s 4 th annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report

How Effective is Google Analytics? Golling Fiat Michael Golling (Studio Director)  The use of Google Analytics has quantified the increased traffic to Golling Fiat’s website traffic from 80 visits per day to150 visits per day -Increase in traffic to his website by 87% -Better allocating his marketing budget due to knowing where his website user is coming from -Year over year sales has increased 70%  E-purchases are a very small portion of his business. Using analytics in an industry where 57% of room sales occur from online bookings [3], the return on Analytics should improve exponentially [3] statisticbrain.com/internet-travel-hotel-booking-statistics/

Sources of Clicks Golling Fiat

Geography of Website Users Golling Fiat

Best Practices: Google Adwords  Google’s main advertising product  An advertisement from your business or hotel will be positioned at the top of the search results based on key words  Displays statistics relating to: -The amount of time certain phrases have been searched -Amount of times someone has then clicked on your advertisement from that search

Adwords Advertising Cost  The cost of Adwords is on a per click basis  You can set a ceiling or an upper limit to the amount of money Google will charge you in a given day.  Based on certain sales patterns or trends seen throughout the week, one can control costs by shifting the amount of money they are willing to spend on a daily basis.

Shortcomings  Privacy Concerns -Growing unrest from Internet users about this storage of data -Could be used against individuals if it were sold or released to public domain  Spiders -Problem with unwanted word association  Bounce Rate -Counted accidental webpage browsing

Additional Suggestions  Create easy to remember URL -Get people through the E-Door  Create an easy to navigate webpage -Properly titled webpages -Make it easy for visitors to filter through and obtain the content they seek  Make best use of "description" meta tag -The brief summary that appears under the title on search engine pages, it can range anywhere from a sentence to a short paragraph long  Contain quality content and services -What content or amenities does the hotel offer that can be extend to online browsers to deliver a new online experience?