Many hoteliers have to pay commissions to OTA Platforms. OTAs have now emerged as a major distribution channel for hotels due to the advantages it offers. It readily lists the property on its platform based on location and property type, and hence, saves some effort in marketing for the hoteliers. Another alternative is to optimize your hotel website content.
Optimizing hotel website content is a tedious task; time-consuming and resource-consuming. However, there are many hoteliers who want to save on commission and gain more control over their marketing.
A hotel website is the best source for direct bookings. Direct bookings give the hotel more control over marketing and save on commission. This is where great hotel website content comes into play. A website represents your hotel in the digital sphere. If your website isn’t available for the customer in the digital sphere, then it does not exist for all practical purposes.
In order to get your hotel website ranked, one needs to optimise it. Search Engine Optimization, also known as SEO means optimizing a website in order to rank higher in google search results. One of the ways to optimize your hotel website is by creating great content. We have listed 8 tips for creating engaging and high-quality hotel website content.
1. Understand Your Customer
Before you start writing content for the hotel website, you need to understand what they should write and why they should write it. Before that, one needs to also understand for whom they are writing - the customer. Before you create your hotel website content, you need to understand your customers, their needs, desires, and what attracts them to the product or service. One also needs to understand how to convince the customers to be attracted to your product in the first place.
In this case, the product/service is your hotel, and the website is the medium through which the customer will be attracted to your hotel. To make great website content, you need to understand your demographics - what service they like, how they like the service, and what else they want. This way, you will be able to formulate and optimize your hotel website.
2. Focused And Organized Hotel Website Content
A hotel website content needs to be divided properly into various web pages focusing on the various aspects of the hotel. Within a home page, each focus point needs to be properly titled to make the reading experience easier for the website visitor. It should also have keywords to make the focus much clearer and for hotel SEO.
The first page is the home page. It gives a generalized view of the hotel. It is the first step for the website visitor. It should have all the aspects of the hotel - introduction, rooms, amenities and food options, highlighted and divided properly with headers, sub-headers and bullet points.
The other web pages should focus on each aspect with keywords and headers within each page. For example, if a webpage is dedicated to rooms, divide the webpage with headers according to room types. This way, you can optimize your hotel website.
Along with it, use relevant images to make the website more attractive and enhance the focus of the webpage.
3. Use All The Page Elements The Hotel Website Needs
The layout and structure of the website will determine whether or not the customer will want to engage with it. Everyone wants organized content, and with the advent of the internet - a lower attention span has reduced the tolerance for disorganized content. Breaking down the hotel website content into organized parts will make your website more appealing, including well-organized images and videos. Page elements are one of the important determinants in optimizing your hotel website.
Headings are also essential for SEO since Websites will look for them and check whether they have the relevant keywords or not. The mean page elements are the main heading, headers, content, and call to action or CTA. One needs to understand that the customers do not read, they scan the website and look out for the most important details. These important details need to be highlighted when writing website content for hotels.
4. Write An Impactful Call To Action
The most important element of a hotel website is the call to action. A call to action is a message that calls upon the customer to take an action. Your website should encourage the customers to take the following actions:
Make a booking on your hotel website. It is a great source of direct bookings and saves commissions.
Fill out an enquiry form. You can reach out to the customer afterwards and build a relationship.
Purchasing a voucher. It means that your promotions are attracting customers.
Subscribing to newsletters. You can make the customers aware of the various schemes.
5. Promote Your USPs - Your Unique Selling Points
Your Unique selling points or USPs make all the difference to your potential customers. What does your hotel offer that other hotels can’t? This is the main question one needs to answer. There are many hotels in the industry, and you need to grab their attention by giving them something which others don’t. Customers have limited time and attention spans. Your hotel website is the best way of highlighting the hotel's USP.
For example, your hotel offers top-quality Mediterranean gourmet cuisine. Focus on it on your homepage, along with dedicating a webpage for it. You can do the same for other unique services as well. Include all of them in your hotel website content.
6. Make Use Of Visual Content - Photos And Videos
More than the written medium, the visual medium is what effectively grabs the attention of the customer. Make use of high-quality photos and videos for your hotel website content. Video content has increased in popularity. You can use video content to highlight the USPs of your hotels, along with rooms, amenities and restaurants.
However, both need to work in tandem because one without the other is incomplete. Use images and videos within the header. Disorganized use of images and videos will backfire because only proper content and organization provide the context.
One needs to describe the images properly to give meaning to them. For example, when you are posting an image or video of a restaurant, adding descriptions enhances the visual content. Use words to attract them.
7. Use Upselling And Cross-Selling On Your Hotel Website
The best way to encourage more customers is by upselling. Upselling means offering a higher version of your service at a discounted rate or even without any additional charge. For example, if you are selling a standard room, you can give an upgrade to the deluxe room without additional charge or at only an additional 10% of the price of standard rooms. Your hotel website content needs to encourage them to purchase the services.
You can encourage more traffic and direct bookings on your hotel website by adding upselling offers on the forefront. You can make use of your homepage to add the offers on the top sliders. You can also make a separate offers webpage to make it more noticeable to the customers.
You can also use cross-selling on your website as well! Cross-Selling involves selling additional products along with the main product. You can offer a standard room with breakfast.
8. Add Social Proof On The Website
Customers online are demanding social proof to know the quality of the hotel service. Hoteliers should include a few reviews on their hotel website that paints a positive image of their hotel. To facilitate direct bookings, one should allow customers to review their hotels on their website itself. You should also have a page for feedback to encourage them to write what they feel the hotel should do better.
With these 8 tips, you will be able to great website content. Your hotel website is the engine for direct bookings and a well-made hotel website will help your brand shine. Bigfoot Hospitality is here to help you to optimize your hotel website content! Check out our blogs to know more about the hospitality sector.