Ms. White

Website / Online Mechandising / SEO

Getting into the Zone: Widening Your Web Influence

By Kristi White, Director of Revenue Optimization, TravelCLICK, Inc.

The electronic age has arrived. For some hotels, the Internet has represented just another place to market. They’ve created a website, added a booking engine, and maybe done some rudimentary marketing. Yet for others, it’s a renaissance of opportunity—with a new generation of hotel professionals finding endless ways to capitalize and gain market share.

Where does your hotel fit on the spectrum? Are you in the game with a ho-hum website? Or have you put on your boardies, grabbed your board, and popped up to ride the next wave?

If you’re in the first category, you have a lot of catching up to do. If you’re in the second, you may already be implementing some of the initiatives that follow. Wherever you are in your Internet marketing, opportunities are rife to improve your Web Influence Zone (WIZ).

WIZ measures an individual’s or organization’s presence on the web. The easiest way to determine your hotel’s WIZ is to type in its name and see how many organic or non-sponsored sites show up; the more organic results, the greater your hotel’s web presence.

The example below shows results of a Google search for “JDV Hotels”:

The first 20 searches produce links to the JDV website and hotels affiliated with JDV. Not one yields an online travel agency. JDV is an excellent example of a group that has widened its WIZ and heightened its direct influence online.

To measure your hotel’s WIZ, use this simple rule of thumb:

Unhappy with your WIZ quotient? Here are five ways to improve your ranking.

1. Think brand. Whether you are affiliated with a chain or are an independent navigating alone, your hotel is your brand—with messaging developed and guided by your marketing team. Your brand should be reflected everywhere on your website. When consumers hit your site, they should get the answer to the following five questions:

• Who and where are you?
• What makes your hotel experience unique?
• Why should they spend their money at your hotel?
• When might be a good time to come?
• How can they book, and is there a deal?

If your website doesn’t answer all of these questions, then you need to consider a site revision.

2. Make keywords king. You can boost your organic placement through many avenues. One of the most effective is using the right keywords.

Find out which keywords will deliver traffic through user searches. Search engines work through a variety of collaborative software: spider software runs along the web collecting text; indexing software catches the spider data, makes sense of it, and applies relevance to it; and query software presents all of the findings to whoever is searching. To attract the spiders, your site must be rich in keywords. Without keywords, it won’t be found—regardless of how beautifully it’s been designed.

These simple steps can help you determine the best keywords for content development:

• a) Start with the words or phrases most commonly used in your industry. Keep in mind this is only the first step. You’ll need to go further, as your competitors are probably on the same keyword path and you’re unlikely to stand out with these words alone.
• b) Now that you have your common words, build words and phrases that are relevant to the common words and phrases and to your hotel, yet different. This will begin to open you to niche markets that probably fewer of your competitors are playing in.
• c) Repeat step b, only this time build on your relevant words. This drills you into an even deeper level that will likely distinguish you from your competitors and raise your WIZ quotient.

You should start this process with your management team and then collaborate with your service provider to broaden your reach. Sites like WordTracker can help.

One caveat: this is not a “one and done” process. You’ll need to continuously monitor and adjust accordingly. Keywords will fit into one of three categories:

• Buying keywords: These bring good traffic and high conversion
• Shopping keywords: These bring good traffic but lower conversion
• Niche keywords: These bring low traffic but great conversions

To widen your WIZ, your keyword strategy should include a mix of all three categories.

3. Join networking sites. From social sites such as Facebook to professional sites such as LinkedIn, networking sites draw millions of users who come together to make connections and build community. For some hotels these sites can be a valuable part of an overall web strategy that will help to grow business and broaden WIZ. They’re not for everybody, however. If your hotel doesn’t yet have a cohesive identity that can foster excitement and community, or the resources to manage these sites regularly, you should probably pass on this strategy.

However, if your hotel does have a strong identity and can keep up with these ever-changing sites, plunge ahead. When working this valuable resource, keep in mind these tips:

• a) Create your page with the mindset of “a passion for travel.”
• b) Develop internal programs to capture fans.
• c) Offer trip-planning tips for your city as well as your hotel.
• d) Focus on interaction, not transaction.
• e) Keep the “what’s in it for me” principle first and foremost,

Networking sites are cost-effective marketing tools that build brand and also drive business to your hotel—but only if you keep your focus on building community.

4. Tap into content-sharing sites. These sites enable information sharing across the web. If you choose your topics wisely, they can help you expand your WIZ even further:

• Public Wikis: Wikipedia is the best known. However, you have a plethora from which to choose. You can even create your own at sites such as Wiki Travel, Wiki Spaces, or Squidoo. Also, with a little effort, you might even be able to create your own Wikipedia entry. Remember these sites are public forums and will be edited sometimes in ways that you won’t like. The upside is they will drive those spiders crazy.
• You Tube: If you have vibrant employees who are good in front of a camera, you might want to get their thoughts on your hotel and try to go viral. Consider running contests (paid or otherwise) to help gain more relevance.
• Blogs and Micro Blogs: Cyberspace is jammed with literally millions of blogs. Research the ones that will be most relevant to your hotel and your branding. Bed Jump is an interesting and fun one that can help get you started.

5. Use social bookmarking sites. Remember when we bookmarked a site just so we could get back to it quickly? Now that concept has gone global. Sites such as Digg and Delicious let users bookmark sites, links, and other content from a centralized source. Also, sites like Technorati act as search engines for blogs. They can be set up to link directly to any blogs you maintain. Each of your posts is added to the directory, which opens you up to all new people.

These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg. There are literally thousands of ways you can broaden your reach. Work hand in hand with your Internet marketing strategist to implement these steps and uncover additional opportunities.

Widening your Web Influence Zone may seem an arduous task. And at first, it probably will be. Yet by using many of the strategies discussed in this article, you can broaden your reach—creating a web presence that drives more people to your website, your booking engine, and ultimately, your hotel door.

Kristi White is Director of Revenue Optimization for TravelCLICK. Her team provides focus on TravelCLICK’s iHotelier Central Reservations customers, working to maximize transactions through best practices in marketing and distribution. Ms. White advises on business strategy, improving performance and profitability. She has experience in Operations and Regional Sales at both independent and flagged hotels. She is a frequent guest speaker and is on the Board for the HSMAI Revenue Management Special Interest Group. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from LSU and multiple certifications from AH&LA. Ms. White can be contacted at 817-719-2956 or kwhite@travelclick.net Extended Bio...

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