Local SEO for Hotels – 10 Tips to Rank Higher Locally

By: Frank DePino | December 19, 2024

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of local SEO for hotels, especially with the success of modern hospitality businesses tied directly to online visibility.

With more than 75% of consumers never scrolling past the first page of Google, it’s clear that a bulletproof local SEO strategy can help.

But why focus on a local strategy compared to a traditional one?

With local SEO for hotels, you focus on improving your website’s ranking in the SERP for location-specific keywords, rather than improving a site’s visibility on a global scale. By optimizing your local SEO, your hotel has a greater opportunity to outrank third-party travel agencies and drive more direct bookings, ultimately boosting your revenue and reducing reliance on intermediaries.

In this guide, we’ll uncover 10 strategies to help your hotel succeed with local SEO and drive more direct bookings.

Let’s dive in!

10 Essential Strategies for Local SEO for Hotels

To attract more guests and stand out in local search results, implementing a strong local SEO strategy is essential for any hotel. By focusing on proven tactics, you can improve your online visibility, drive direct bookings, and reduce reliance on third-party platforms.

1. Claim and Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is a powerful tool for improving local SEO for hotels. It acts as a digital storefront, helping your hotel appear in Google Search and Google Maps results.

• Claim Your Profile: If you haven’t already, claim your Google Business Profile to ensure control over your hotel’s online presence.
• Add Accurate Details: Provide consistent and up-to-date information, including your hotel’s name, address, phone number (NAP), website, and operating hours. This consistency improves your credibility and local rankings.
• Upload High-Quality Photos: Showcase professional images of your rooms, amenities, and nearby attractions to attract potential guests.
• Use Keywords in Your Profile: Include location-specific keywords in your GBP description to increase visibility in local searches.
• Encourage Reviews: Positive guest reviews play a significant role in boosting your profile’s visibility and attracting more bookings.

With over 81% of consumers checking Google reviews before choosing a business, responding to reviews—positive or negative—shows that you value guest feedback and hold your hotel to a higher standard.

2. Leverage Google Business Profile Insights for Better Results

Your Google Business Profile has exceptional back-end analytics that you can use to gauge your performance, whether weekly, monthly, or annually. Some of the data you can pull from these reports includes:

• Search terms your listing appeared for
• Number of profile interactions
• Bookings made through your GBP
• How many people discovered your business
• Website clicks made from your GBP

We’ve helped several luxury resorts and hotels realize the power of an effective local hotel SEO strategy, and if you’re looking for a team of experts to bolster your business, get in touch with us at Mediaboom today.

3. Optimize Your Hotel Website for Local Keywords

On-page local SEO is essential for helping your hotel website rank higher in organic search results. By strategically incorporating the right keywords, you can attract travelers searching for hotels in your specific area.

Focus on Keyword Research for the Hotel Industry

Effective keyword research is the foundation of local SEO. It involves identifying the search terms potential guests use to find hotels in your location. Understanding these keywords allows you to create targeted content that attracts qualified traffic and improves your search rankings.

Tools for Keyword Research:
To discover high-value keywords, use trusted SEO tools like:

• SEMrush
• Ahrefs
• Google Keyword Planner

Target Long-Tail, Location-Specific Keywords

For local SEO success, prioritize long-tail keywords with geographic intent. These keywords are less competitive and attract users who are closer to booking.

• Example: Instead of targeting the broad term “hotels in Los Angeles”, use a more specific phrase like “boutique hotels in Santa Monica.”

Integrate Keywords Naturally Across Your Website

Once you’ve identified your target keywords, integrate them seamlessly into critical elements of your website, such as:

• Page Titles and Meta Descriptions
• Header Tags (H1s and H2s)
• Body Content
• URLs

Optimizing your website for relevant local keywords will improve your hotel’s visibility in search results and drive more direct bookings from travelers actively searching in your area.

4. Create Engaging, Localized Content to Attract Travelers

Content marketing can also help hotels stand out in a competitive market.

With unique blog content, photos, videos, 3D tours, and more, you can showcase your hotel’s unique offerings and significantly increase your visibility.

Explore our in-depth guide on content marketing for hotels to learn more.

Optimizing Website Content for Local Search

With content optimization, the goal is to create content that aligns with the needs and desires of your target audience so you can rank better in the search engine.

Some of the best ways to optimize your current content include:

• Strategically incorporating keywords found during your research
• Optimizing your header tags for scannability
• Creating a concise and descriptive URL structure
• Implementing a strong internal linking strategy
• Backing up any factual claims with data and citations

5. Use Schema Markup and Landing Pages to Boost Local SEO

Schema markup is structured data that helps search engines better understand your hotel’s website content. 

For hotels, the local business markup is especially important as it highlights essential information such as your business name, address, phone number (NAP), and operating hours.

To further boost your local search results, you can pair schema markup with location-specific landing pages. By crafting informative and engaging pages optimized with relevant keywords, you can:

• Improve local search rankings: Optimize pages with location-specific keywords to rank higher in search results for relevant queries.
• Enhance user experience: Provide visitors with location-specific information, such as hours, contact details, and directions, making it easier for them to find and engage with your business.
• Increase conversions: Tailor your messaging and calls to action to the specific needs and interests of your local audience.
• Build local authority: Demonstrate your commitment to the community and establish your business as a trusted local resource.

Together, schema markup and targeted landing pages improve search rankings, enhance user experience, and drive more direct bookings.

6. Ensure Your Website is Fully Optimized for Mobile Users

Google’s main mission is to create a top-notch search experience for consumers. When around 58% of people surf the web on mobile, it’s clear why having an optimized mobile site is key.

If your site isn’t intuitive or easy to navigate via mobile devices, it’ll likely drop in search rankings.

We recommend finding ways to embed mobile-friendly multi-media content on each local page to increase your site’s emphasis on multi-source results and visual engagement, as it increases your chances of showing up on Google’s ever-changing result displays.

Building a local on-page SEO strategy can be a complex process with a lot of moving pieces.

Rather than leaving your efforts up to chance, let our team here at Mediaboom pave the way for success with our years of local SEO experience in the hospitality industry. Get in touch today.

7. Build Quality Local Backlinks to Increase Credibility

Local SEO for hotels isn’t limited to optimizing your own website.

In many cases, having a local link-building strategy can be your ticket to credibility and relevancy.

While internal linking can be helpful for creating a relevant, navigational spiderweb for your website, for local SEO, it’s important to focus on backlinks.

Backlinks are made to take your site’s visitors to other external sites. The key here is obtaining backlinks from trusted sites to increase your hotel’s credibility and referral traffic.

More importantly, local backlinks from prominent local businesses can be used as an endorsement for your hotel.

There are many ways to generate high-quality backlinks, including:

• Link-building campaigns
• Social media campaigns
• Guest blogging
• Directory listings
• Content syndication

Let our team here at Mediaboom help you develop a custom backlink strategy and increase your leads. Get in touch with us today to learn more.

8. Build and Maintain Consistent Local Citations

Local citations are the online mentions of your hotel’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) across the web.

They are a fundamental component of local SEO, acting as digital breadcrumbs that guide search engines to your business.

• Consistency is key. Ensuring your NAP information is identical across all online platforms is crucial. Inconsistent NAP data can confuse search engines and negatively impact your local rankings.
• High-quality citations on authoritative websites can significantly boost your hotel’s credibility and local search visibility. Aim to build citations on platforms relevant to your industry, such as travel directories, review sites, and local business listings.
• Regular monitoring is essential to identify and correct any citation errors. Tools and services can help streamline this process, ensuring your NAP information remains accurate and consistent.

By investing time and effort in building a robust local citation profile, you can enhance your hotel’s online reputation, improve search engine rankings, and attract more local guests.

9. Encourage and Manage Guest Reviews

Over 70% of consumers read reviews before making a purchase decision. However, even beyond having a positive influence on guest decisions, they can also greatly influence your search rankings.

Encourage your guests to leave reviews by requesting feedback after their stay.

Regardless of the reviews they leave, both positive and negative, respond to each one personally to show others who are browsing your reviews that you value feedback and are committed to improvement.

If you don’t have the bandwidth or resources to manage your local reviews, consider using some of the many excellent hotel review management tools to stay on track.

10. Track Local SEO Performance and Adjust Your Strategy

To ensure your local SEO efforts deliver results, it’s crucial to track key metrics and refine your approach based on data.

Key Metrics to Monitor

Focus on these essential metrics to measure success:

• Local Search Rankings: Where your hotel ranks for targeted keywords.
• Organic Traffic: How many visitors find your website through search engines.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): How often users click your site in search results.
• Bounce Rate: The percentage of visitors leaving without interaction.
• Conversion Rates: How many visitors complete actions, like booking a room.

Monitoring these indicators will help you identify strengths and areas for improvement.

Use Google Tools for Insights

Leverage Google Analytics and Google Search Console to gain actionable data:

• Google Analytics tracks visitor behavior, traffic sources, and conversions.
• Google Search Console highlights search queries, impressions, and clicks.

These tools give you a clear picture of how your local SEO strategy performs.

Adjust Based on Data

With insights in hand, refine your strategy by identifying high-performing keywords and optimizing your content to target them. Focus on improving underperforming pages to reduce bounce rates and increase engagement while prioritizing pages that drive the most traffic to maximize conversions.

By consistently tracking performance and making data-driven adjustments, you’ll improve your local search rankings, attract more guests, and boost direct bookings.

Here at Mediaboom, we work tirelessly to refine our approach to local SEO for hotels using high-performance tracking strategies that evolve alongside the SERP. Contact us today to see how we can help your hotel with a competitive SEO strategy.

Our Success Story

Marina Inn at Grandes Dunes

Mediaboom partnered with Marina Inn at Grande Dunes to boost their local SEO strategy and strengthen their online visibility in the competitive Myrtle Beach hospitality market.

The Challenge:
Marina Inn faced difficulties standing out in a crowded market and needed to improve their local search presence to attract more potential guests and increase direct bookings.

Our Approach:
We developed a tailored local SEO strategy, focusing on:

• Targeting location-specific keywords to reach their ideal audience.
• Optimizing on-page website content to align with search intent.
• Enhancing their Google Business Profile to increase visibility in local searches.

The Results:
Our strategy delivered impressive results, including a significant increase in organic traffic, improved search rankings, and a surge in direct bookings. Marina Inn is now firmly established as a leading resort in Myrtle Beach, attracting more guests and reducing reliance on third-party booking platforms.

FAQs

I. Is local SEO profitable?

Yes, local SEO is highly profitable for businesses targeting a specific geographic area. By improving your local search visibility, you attract more relevant traffic, increase foot traffic to physical locations, and boost sales, resulting in a higher return on investment.

II. How can I do local SEO effectively?

To do local SEO effectively, start by optimizing your Google Business Profile, ensuring your NAP (Name, Address, Phone number) is consistent across all platforms. Use local keywords, gather and manage customer reviews, create localized content, and build local backlinks. Ensure your website is mobile-friendly and has fast loading times. For comprehensive local SEO strategies and execution, consider partnering with a marketing agency like Mediaboom. We can provide expert guidance, implement effective tactics, and help you achieve your local business goals.

III. Is doing a local SEO worth it?

Absolutely. Local SEO is worth the investment as it helps businesses appear in local search results, making it easier for potential customers to find you. It leads to increased brand visibility, higher website traffic, and more in-store visits, ultimately driving sales and growth.

IV. How long does it take to see results from local SEO?

Local SEO is a long-term strategy, and results typically take 3 to 6 months to become noticeable. Factors like competition, website quality, and the consistency of optimization efforts can influence timelines. Regular updates and monitoring will help improve rankings and sustain visibility over time.

V. Why are reviews important for local SEO?

Reviews play a critical role in local SEO as they influence rankings, credibility, and guest decisions. Positive reviews improve trust and signal to search engines that your business is relevant and reliable. Encourage guests to leave reviews and respond to them promptly to build strong engagement and boost visibility in local search results.

Do you have more questions?

Feel free to reach out to us if you have any more questions or need further assistance with your local SEO strategy. We’re here to help you optimize your online presence and achieve your business goals.

Partner with a Specialized Hotel Marketing Agency

In today’s competitive hospitality market, local SEO is essential for hotels looking to improve visibility and attract direct bookings. However, achieving long-term success requires a well-executed strategy and ongoing maintenance to stay relevant in local search results.

At Mediaboom, we specialize in creating tailored digital marketing solutions that drive results. Our team of experts can implement proven local SEO strategies to enhance your hotel’s visibility, increase organic traffic, and boost direct bookings. Contact us today to elevate your hotel’s online presence and achieve lasting success.

By: Frank DePino

Frank DePino is Principal and Founder of Mediaboom. Since 2002, Frank has led Mediaboom’s award-winning staff of creative and technical professionals, building the most effective marketing and advertising solutions for its clients.