Whether you’re running a hotel, Guest House, Bed and Breakfast or Short stay rental accommodation, then it’s critical to make sure that you’re doing everything possible to attract guests. One of the most important aspects of achieving this online is conducting the right keyword research in your website content.
Specific Keyword research for hotels can help you figure out which keywords are most relevant to your business, and using further SEO techniques can help you make sure that your website appears at the top of search engine results pages for those keywords.
SEO is short for search engine optimization. It’s the process of making sure that your website appears at the top of search results pages when people search for keywords that are relevant to your business. SEO is vital because it can help you attract more website visitors, and those visitors are more likely to book rooms at your hotel.
In this article, we will explain how you can get started with keyword research for hotels and SEO for your property website.
Why is Keyword Research important?
Keyword research is important because it helps you figure out which keywords are most relevant to your business. If you’re not using the right keywords, then people might not be able to find your website when they search for those keywords.
For example, let’s say that you’re running a hotel in New York City. You might want to target the keyword “New York City hotel.” But if you don’t do any keyword research, you might not realize that more people are actually searching for the keyword “hotels in New York City.”
If you’re not using the right keywords, then you’re missing out on potential website visitors. And if you’re not attracting enough website visitors, then you’re not going to be able to book as many rooms.
Keywords Research Tools
There are a few different ways that you can get started with keyword research. One way is to use keyword research tools, such as Moz Keyword Explorer, Ahref’s, SemRush, UberSuggest.
These tools will allow you to enter a keyword and see how many people are searching for that keyword each month. They’ll also show you how much competition there is for each keyword.
Another way to do keyword research is to simply look at your website analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool that you can use to track your website traffic and Google Console shows you which keywords your site is already ranking for.
If you see that a lot of people are coming to your website after searching for a particular keyword, then that’s a good sign that you should be targeting that keyword.
Keyword Competition and Keyword Search Volume
When you’re doing keyword research, it’s important to look at both the competition for a particular keyword and the search volume for that keyword.
The competition is the number of other websites that are also trying to rank for the same keyword. The search volume is the number of people who are actually searching for that keyword.
Ideally, you want to target a keyword that has a high search volume and low competition. That way, you have a better chance of ranking at the top of the search results pages.
Of course, it’s not always possible to find a keyword with both high search volume and low competition. So you’ll need to strike a balance between the two.
Keywords & Searcher intent
Besides a Keywords Volume and Competition metric, there are a few things that you should keep in mind when you’re doing keyword research for a hotel website.
The first thing to keep in mind is that you need to match the keywords that you’re targeting to the searcher’s intent. In other words, you need to make sure that the keywords you’re targeting are the ones that people are actually searching for when they’re looking for a hotel.
For example, if someone is searching for “hotels London,” they’re probably looking for a list of hotels in London. On the other hand, if someone is searching for “Hotels in London with a spa,” they’re probably looking to book a room in one of those hotels.
So, If you were a Spa hotel in London, you need to make sure that you’re targeting the latter keyword because that’s the keyword with the most relevant searcher intent to book with your property.
That’s not to say that “Hotels London” is a keyword you shouldn’t be targeting, but the people searching for Hotels in London will generally be further back in the buying funnel than those searching for “Hotels in London with a spa”. Hotels London will also be a fearlessly competitive search term. Websites with more relevant content, such as those from the Online Travel Agencies, who list several hotels in London and whose sites have a greater domain authority in googles eyes than your website will dominate these types of search terms.
Types of Searcher Intent for Hotel Bookers
There are four main types of searcher intent when people are looking for hotels:
Research Intent: These are people who are just starting their research and are looking for general information about hotels. For example, they might search for “hotel rooms in Cambridge” or “Places to stay in Liverpool.”
Information Intent: These people know what they want and are now looking for specific information about hotels. For example, they might search for “hotels in London with a spa.” or “Hotels in Bath with car parking”.
Transactional Intent: These people are ready to book a hotel and are now looking for the best deal. For example, they might search for “cheap hotels in London.”
Navigational Intent: These people are looking for a specific hotel and are trying to find the website for that hotel. For example, they might search for “Hilton London.”
As you can see, each type of searcher has a different intent and is at a different stage in the buying cycle. That’s why it’s so important to match your keywords to the searcher’s intent so you can try and rank with appropriate quality relevant content for that particular keyword searcher’s intent.
Long-Tail Keywords V Short-Tail Keywords
Another thing to keep in mind when you’re doing keyword research is the difference between long-tail keywords and short-tail keywords.
A short-tail keyword is a general, one- or two-word phrase, such as “hotels” or “hotels in London.” A long-tail keyword is a more specific, three- or four-word phrase, such as “cheap hotels in London” or “luxury hotels in London.”
Long-tail keywords are generally easier to rank for because they’re more specific.
That means that there’s less competition for long-tail keywords. The downside is that they usually have lower search volumes than short-tail keywords, therefore the trick is to find as many different types of long-tail keywords you can create pages for and write about on your website.
So when you’re starting out on keyword research you should focus on finding long-tail keywords.
Keyword Research Process for Hotels.
So now we have a broad understanding of what keyword research is and what we are looking for, let’s look at the actual process of finding keywords to use on your accommodation website.
Step 1: Use your guest persona as a base to find Keywords
When you’re starting your keyword research, it’s important to have a customer persona or an ideal customer in mind.
Who are you trying to attract to your hotel?
Are they business people, families, couples, solo travellers? What is their budget? What type of room are they looking for? Is your hotel pet-friendly? You will no doubt have a number of different types of guest personas you are trying to attract to your property. These different personas will have different needs from each other and so may well search for your property with different priorities in mind.
Personas of your guests can usually be tied into your market segments: Corporate Guests, Lesuire Guest, Conference Guests etc. Within each segment, you may want to drill down further and create personas for different types of guests each segment.
For example, a Corporate guest who is a travelling salesperson will have different needs from a Corporate guest who is a contractor staying overnight to work on a local project. The travelling salesperson may have a greater need for desk space in their room whereas the contractor may be more interested in secure off-road parking.
Guest Personas could comprise of many things but if you are getting started you should limit your profiling to the following: Purpose of stay, Market Segment, Demographic, Behaviours – Motivations & Frustrations and What’s important to them during their stay. Please feel free to use this simple guest persona template you can download.
Answering these questions will give you a good starting point for your keyword research and will provide you with greater clarity to enable you to match your keywords with each personas specific intent.
Step 2: Find Your ‘Seed’ Keywords
Now that you know who your target market is, it’s time to start finding some “seed” keywords. A seed keyword is a broad word or phrase that describes what you do or what you sell.
For our example, we’ll use the persona of a “business traveller” and we will split our keywords into the four different types of search intents: So, our seed keywords could be:
Research Intent:
- Business hotel in Cambridge
- Best Business Hotel in Cambridge
- Corporate hotel Cambridge
- Hotels with Gym facilities in Cambridge
- Business accommodation
- Business hotel rooms
Information Intent
- Business hotel in Cambridge
- Hotels with Wifi
- Hotels with secure parking
Transactional Intent
- Affordable Business hotel Cambridge
- Corporate hotels
Navigational Intent:
- Travelodxge Cambridge
- Milton Cambridge
- Hotel Christs College
Remember, we’re just looking for a starting point here. We’ll narrow down our keyword list later on. Type out as many keywords that you think your guest persona would use when searching for appropriate properties in your area.
Step 3 – Crank up the Keyword Research Tools
When looking for Keyword Research for hotels tools, you will find there are a number of keyword research tools available to help you expand on your existing list of seed keywords and find some new ones that you may not have thought of.
You can use Google’s Keyword Planner which is free to use if you have a Google Ads account, bear in mind this tool is geared for ranking Ads keywords, not those listed in the Search Engine Results, so may display slightly different results.
Other popular keyword research tools are Moz’s Keyword Explorer and Semrush. These are both paid tools but they do offer free trials so that you can try them out before committing to anything.
However, I know how hard it cost controls are for accommodation owners and you can quite quickly find you are spending £100’s a month on tools for keyword research for hotels that you are not sure of the value of. I’m the same so I have found a Free Keyword tool that will provide you with more than enough to get you started.
Remember there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:
– Look for keywords with a high monthly search volume but low competition. You can find this information in the Keyword Planner or other similar tools.
– Make sure that the keywords you choose are relevant to your property and guest persona. There’s no point in ranking for keywords that aren’t going to bring you the right kind of guests.
– Some keyword tools will also display the CPC value of each Keyword. The high value of CPC indicates strong commercial intent, but probably also means high competition.
– Try to vary your keyword list. Include singular and plural versions of words, different word orderings, etc. This will help you to capture as many searches as possible.
Record the keywords you find in an excel spreadsheet so you can decide which ones to use later. For ease, I have created a Keyword Research Template you can use.
Step 4 – Research using low tech keyword methods
The final way to find keywords is to use the Google search engine itself. This is probably the most low tech way but it can be very effective. Type your seed keyword into Google and have a look at the results that come up. You’ll notice that there are a number of different types of results that come up including:
– Paid Search Results
– local hotel Listings Map
– Organic Search Results
You can use all of these different types of results to help you expand your list of keywords. Let’s have a look at each one in turn:
Paid Search Results – These are the results that come up as sponsored ads at the top and bottom of the page. You can usually tell them because they have a little green “Ad” icon next to them.
Local hotel Listings Map – These are the results that come up with the name, picture and location on a local map.
Organic Search Results – These are the main results that come up when you do a search. They are generally the most relevant to what you are looking for.
You will also see a Frequently also asked section, which you can add to your keyword research list.
Finally at the bottom of the page Google actually also suggests other search terms which you may find useful
Whilst this method of keyword research does not provide you with any Volume or competition or CPC data, you won’t be able to judge these in the same light as the other keywords you have complied with. However, it is safe to say that if Google is displaying these search terms, then they will be highly relevant to you.
Keyword Extension Tools.
Step 5 – Use the “Keyword Everywhere” Extension tool
Another way that I find really useful to obtain keywords is by using a free keyword Extension tool.
Keywords Everywhere is a great Chrome extension that shows you a heap of data around the search term.
For Example: If I search “hotels with car parking in Cambridge” the tool shows me how difficult the SEO is for the search term.
The tool shows me a list of related keywords, which I can add to my list of keyword search terms. It displays a number terms people also searched for as well as further long-tail keyword phrases we could add to our list. The free tool gives you a shorter list but you can also load more metrics by using credits and you can buy further credits if you think they are worth it.
Step 6 – Spy on your Competitor Keywords
Who are your competitors?
You may well have completed a benchmarking process to identify where you sit in your local marketplace, but did you know you have two sets of competitors?
Your first competitor set is the set you have benchmarked your facilities and services against. The second set of competitors is those who are competing against for rankings in the SERPs. Very often you will find that they are two very different sets of competitors.
Use SEO Minion to list your SERP competitos
Another Google Chrome extension tool: SEO Minion allows you see how many Organic Results have been produced in the SERP as a result of your search.
If we identify that you want to compete for “Hotels with parking in Cambridge” then SEO Minion will help you list which pages/articles are ranking for this search term.
A cool thing about the tool is that it allows you to download the URLs of the pages in an excel spreadsheet, which is really handy so you have a nice clean excel spreadsheet list of the pages you are competing against.
You will find this list very helpful when you start writing your blog/pages to compete for this search term as you will find out in our next chapter about On-Page SEO.
Step 7 – Match Your Keyword Research for Hotels to Webpages and plan for future pages.
Now that you have a good list of keywords, you have completed your keyword research for hotels exercise and it’s time to decide to prioritize your keywords and start matching them up with the relevant pages on your website.
This will make your website be as relevant as possible to the searchers’ needs, which will help you rank better in the SERPs (Search Engine Results).
When you are ready and you have your list of keywords ready to go, move on to the next step of your SEO journey by learning how you go about optimising your “ON Page SEO” to help you rank in Google, BING and the other search engines!
