Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 56 – How Your Hotel Can Dominate the SERP In A Mobile-First World

Having a mobile-first mindset is key to a successful hotel marketing strategy. To get it right, you have to make sure that you’re paying attention to PPC, the local listings, and your organic search results. In this episode, we break down all three and provide some tips and tricks to ensure that you dominate against your hotel competition.

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Show Notes:

Mobile-First PPC

• First thing on the SERP – Ads often go well below the “fold”
• Up to 4 ads can show at once, requiring searcher to scroll for more content
• Bidding for #1 position is the best way to be front and center
  • Mobile bid adjustments (settings > devices)
  • You can NOT run on mobile by setting -100% bid
• Using ad extensions will help your ad take up more SERP real estate
• Call extensions or call-only ads can drive direct calls to your property
• Segment your campaigns and analyze the difference between mobile and desktop performance
  • Don’t assume that all campaign data together represents mobile specific performance
• OTAs are present in this space – monitor your competition
• Make sure your landing page is mobile friendly!

More Mobile PPC Tips via the Fuel Blog.

Local Search Pack & Google Hotel Ads

• The local 3-pack & map combo appears below the paid ads and above the natural search listings
• Appearance will differ greatly based on the search query → brand vs non-brand
  • Branded search queries show interactive
  • Non-branded queries will reveal an interactive map, date selection tool, filter buttons, and 3 relevant listings (Determined by Google)
• Make sure you have access to and fully control your Google My Business page
  • Make sure all info and links are up to date
  • Use high quality images
• Google Hotel Ads are present throughout the search experience
  • Appear for brand & non-brand search terms
  • No control over where these show; cannot see keyword level data
• Booking engine integration, hotels must work with a verified partner (See also: Fuel Travel)
  • 3 data feeds → hotel listing feed, price & availability feed, point of sale feed
  • Bids → Managed through Google.com/Ads/Hotels dashboard
  • Dashboard with performance score & warnings
• OTAs are very present in this space
• Automation and intelligence has greatly improved performance over the past several months → ROAS has been phenomenal

Mobile-First SEO

• The last type of SERP result that searchers will see on their phones – requires a bit of scrolling to find.
• Mobile specific rank factors:
  • Mobile friendly website
  • Page speed & site speed (Tool: TestMySite.WithGoogle.Com or Google Search Console)
  • Site design for mobile → No flash, No intrusive pop-ups, user-friendly design (mobile usability)
    • Penalty for intrusive popups (Jan. 2017)
  • Do not block important page resources → CSS, JavaScript, Images, etc. (make sure your site is crawlable and indexable)
  • Schema.org markups (hotel list here)
  • Keep meta information in check → Less room to work with vs desktop
  • Resource → Moz Mobile Optimization Guide & Google Mobile SEO Guide
• Monitor mobile specific rankings & mobile specific KPIs
  • Many SEO platforms & rank tracking software allow you to track both mobile and desktop search queries
  • You can easily segment mobile visitors in Google Analytics & other analytics platforms to monitor mobile specific performance
• AMP Pages – Yay or Nay

HITEC Boothe 1911. Come see us and learn about Guest Express Mobile App
We’re offering HITEC pricing to our podcast listeners through June 30.

Question from Travis Kilgallon
“Our facebook account was under a name and was blocked by Facebook in November last year but they didn’t give me time to convert it. I submitted documents, have tried everything but we don’t have access to anything Facebook i.e. Airbnb, certain accounts, trip advisor. I have had to get other passwords to use these. I have tried everything, lodged help request, complaints, tried to claim our Facebook Listing page under my own account. This is the error I get: Thanks for your help We’ll take a look at the documents you submitted and get back to you. If we need more help with confirming your name, we’ll contact you for additional documentation. Do you guys know how I can get access back? I had to claim 3 pages because people checked-in under different company names. But I no longer have access to anything Facebook, our facebook business page listing is blocked with that message. I still get the weekly page activity email and am notified if people leave a review so it doesn’t seem dead. Thanks so much for your help. Kind regards.”

Facebook support is pretty terrible, unless you are an advertiser that spends a ton of money.

Facebook Chat Support: https://www.facebook.com/business/form/chat → Might not actually get you anywhere but it’s a start.

Community Forum: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/community/

To abide by Facebook’s rules, use Business.Facebook.com to run your page and ads. Create new page, complete profile information, claim relevant URL, start building new page and audience so Facebook will recognize that page as the authority.

• Might have to spend a bit of money to reclaim & rebuild fan base

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COME SEE US AT HITEC | BOOTH 1911

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In The News

Best Western Is Testing Voice-Activated Rooms
https://skift.com/2017/06/06/best-western-is-testing-voice-activated-rooms/

RIP Expedia Online Visibility
https://goralewicz.com/blog/expedia-com-seo-visibility-drop/

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Download the Fuel & Flip.to Website Behavior Study at www.fueltravel.com/websitestudy/

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