Hardly a day goes by when I am not speaking to a hotelier or lodging manager about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). This is a topic that has continued to become more and more important in most hotels’ and vacation rentals’ marketing mix. And that’s no wonder, as properly done, SEO can very effectively increase any lodging organization’s bottom line. But beyond catch phrases like: “drive tons of traffic” or “rank at the top of Google” and other hyperbole common in the sales process of SEO services, how is a successful SEO project run and how can you be sure you are getting the results you are paying for?

Can SEO Success be Measured?

Given the title of this article, the answer is obviously, yes. However, many times the evaluation and metrics produced from an SEO project do not really tell the stakeholders what they need to know: Is this working very well, ok or poorly? The reason is, often only certain metrics are measured and those items are not being evaluated in a full context. Below is an outline of metrics and other considerations that when taken together produce the context that allows you to truly evaluate whether or not your ...