Google is not known for keeping the status quo and if all indications are correct 2018 is going to really shake up the hotel space. For years we have seen Google continues to make efforts to keep users on their platform for longer and longer. In 2016/17 Google even became a full-funnel system with the rollout of Google Hotel Ads. Well, they’re not stopping there. Here’s just a glimpse of what Google has in store for hotel searchers in 2018.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES:
<h3>Think Mobile First Or Get To The Back Of The Line</h3>
The 1st mobile tipping point, back in 2014, saw more web traffic on mobile devices than desktops. The 2nd and 3rd tipping points, related to bookings and revenue, are likely to hit in 2018.  Google is well aware of the clear shift away from desktop use and, for the first time, beginning to penalize sites that are not thinking mobile first.  What does this mean?
<ul>
<li>Death to the pop up!  Google has been penalizing mobile sites since January 10, 2017 for intrusive pop ups on mobile devices (<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-rolling-mobile-intrusive-interstitials-penalty-yesterday-267408">https://searchengineland.com/google-confirms-rolling-mobile-intrusive-interstitials-penalty-yesterday-267408</a>). However up until now those ranking penalties have been minimal and the SEO world has not seen a significant hit to rankings.  Why?  The answer is twofold:
<ul>
<li>Web marketers have avoided getting rid of them en masse, meaning the biggest sites with the best rankings still have them in use and any penalty has not been enough to dramatically impact the SERP.</li>
<li>Google hasn&#8217;t broken out the big guns yet. Yes they have outlined  intrusive interstitial rules but they haven’t started the big crack down.  Will this happen in 2018?  Time will tell though for an independent hotelier, our advice is to listen to what Google is saying, avoid mobile pop ups, and find new ways to promote your specials and collect emails</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Your mobile experience will drive your rankings. But don’t take our word for it.  Google representatives are quoted as saying, “Google will create and rank its search listings based on the mobile version of content, even for listings that are shown to desktop users.” This means if you have an amazing desktop experience, but drop the ball on mobile… expect to see bad things happen to your rankings.  We have several clients who are seeing 70+% of traffic from mobile, which means anything less than a true “Mobile First” mentality is going to leave you falling short to both your customers and search engines.</li>
<li>Slow traffic keep right. Site speed has long been a ranking factor in search.  Now that Google is paying closer attention to mobile, it is becoming even more important.  If you haven’t tested your site speed, check out a service such as tools.pingdom.com to test.  Then look into speed optimizations such as moving to a CDN, proper site caching, proper image and file compression, and optimizing for general coding best practices.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Voice Search, Structured Snippets and Schema Markup Will Grow</h3>
<ul>
<li>One in 20 mobile searches originates from a voice search… based on 2016 data! (<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-reveals-20-percent-queries-voice-queries-249917">https://searchengineland.com/google-reveals-20-percent-queries-voice-queries-249917</a>)</li>
<li>With the growth of voice search and increase of voice results from devices such as Amazon’s Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod, and others, hoteliers will need to be ready to provide the right data to search engines.  Primarily in the form of featured snippets.</li>
<li>A study last year of over 1.4 million search results found that over 30% of results included a featured snippet in the way of a quote, direct answer, table, etc.</li>
<li>What this means is any hotel site moving forward needs to have the appropriate markup including structured data and schema.org markup</li>
</ul>
<h3>AI and Linkless Mentions</h3>
Artificial Intelligence is going to be a big buzz word in 2018, Google’s RankBrain is getting smarter every day and search results will change.  How will this impact hoteliers?
<ul>
<li>Linkless mentions, when your site or hotel is included in a listing or article on the web, has always been frustrating to a search marketer.  In the past it was one of the big missed opportunities for an inbound link.</li>
<li>Times are changing, Bing is already tracking unlinked brand mentions and using them as one of the many ranking signals in their results. Google appears to be doing this as well, which means what was once a lost opportunity will begin to play a larger and larger role in overall rankings.  In fact, it may eventually serve as the most ‘conversational’ form of creedance a search engine can use to determine site/property worth.  If someone is sharing a great experience about your property, link or no link, it will help your rankings grow.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Security, Security, Security. HTTPS will influence rankings in July</h3>
Google has laid down the gauntlet on sites and stated very clearly that starting in July 2018. If your site is not fully secure (https) it will hurt you in the rankings.  Not necessarily with a penalty, but the search engine will prioritize other fully secure sites over yours. IE: a penalty that’s not really a penalty.
The good news, going HTTPS is easier than ever and something you should be doing anyway.  In years past purchasing an SSL, setting up a secure site, and maintaining all your assets was a daunting process.  Lucky site hosts have been rolling out more an more options for free and low cost SSLs and making going secure a piece of cake.  You’ve got until July, and we highly suggest you get your web team making your site ready to take advantage of the priority Google is going to place on your site over your non-podcast-listening competitors.
<h3>Google Hotel Ads (GHA) Gets a New Admin Interface</h3>
We don’t know exactly when google is going to roll out their new GHA interface, but we are continuing to hear it will be very soon.
Now, like the rest of the world, we don’t know exactly when we’ll get the first glimpse of the new interface.  Though we do know through our AdWords rep it will be a separate system with a very AdWords like feel, not integrated into Adwords like initially suggested.
What does this mean for you?  Well we’re typically seeing ROAS for our GHA clients north of 500% with their current (archaic) system. We fully expect once we can fully optimize GHA campaigns on a more granular basis we will see a typical ROAS soar.  AKA: if you’re not on the GHA train now, buy your ticket and get ready to ride!
<h3>People Also Search For&#8230;</h3>
Finally, and not directly related to hotels, Google rolled out a new element of the “people also searched for…” box on the search results page.  Now anytime you complete a search, visit a result and click back (known as pogo sticking in the SEO world) Google will serve a box under the result you clicked for other searches.
We’ve known for a long time that Google wants to keep you on the results page, as well as sever the best results.  Now when you click a suggested search you not only get a new set of results you also get four more paid results to browse through as well, and Google gathers more relevant information for their AI.  How convenient.
Hotelier Wishes
Mark Simpson
<div>
<ul>
<li>Sensible answer &#8211; I don&#8217;t know what it is like over there in America, but here in the UK, the independent hospitality owners are leaving so much money on the table by not investing time in email marketing. My wish would be for everyone to get on board with it in 2018</li>
<li>Or,  Speaking as someone who has run their own hospitality business over here, I just wish there was a tracking tool which would ping you when guests are thirty minutes to an hour away, so you know when they are going to arrive, so you don&#8217;t have to wait up/in for them every single day.</li>
<li>The snarky answer, ban all yappy dogs! They don&#8217;t do anyone any good =) I have loved every show I have managed to catch this year, here&#8217;s to another set of quality ones next year</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div></div>
<div>
Check out Jeremy’s Tumblr page: <a href="http://jeremyrazook.tumblr.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://jeremyrazook.tumblr.com/</a>
</div>
This episode brought to you by <a href="http://www.myersofkeswick.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Myers of Keswick</a>
<div></div>
======================== 
In The Newsies
AirBnB Turns 10 and wants 1 Billion guests by 2028 
<a href="https://www.tnooz.com/article/marking-its-tenth-year-anniversary-airbnb-pivots-to-a-future-of-1-billion-annual-guest-nights-by-2028/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.tnooz.com/article/marking-its-tenth-year-anniversary-airbnb-pivots-to-a-future-of-1-billion-annual-guest-nights-by-2028/</a>
Priceline Group Changes Its Name to Booking Holdings 
<a href="http://fortune.com/2018/02/21/priceline-group-booking-holdings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://fortune.com/2018/02/21/priceline-group-booking-holdings/</a>
========================
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Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  79 – These Google Changes Will Rock Your Hotel’s World in 2018

Has the world not realized yet? Mobile is a big deal and you need to be doing everything you can to cater to the consumer’s desire to book on mobile. In this episode, we look at a recent white paper from Criteo and also dig into some of our own data to show just how close we are to becoming a mobile-first industry.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES:
Criteo’s White Paper highlights some interesting mobile stats for the travel industry. Keep in mind, this is not exclusively hotel data.
<a href="https://www.criteo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/18_Criteo_Travel_Report.pdf">https://www.criteo.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/18_Criteo_Travel_Report.pdf</a>
Stand out stats:
<ol>
<li>45% of OTA bookings are Mobile (excluding apps) Vs. 16% for suppliers (aka: you, the hotelier)</li>
<li>30% of bookings were preceded by a click from another device.</li>
<li>Up to 80% of last-minute bookings are mobile</li>
<li>Apps account for up to 41% of last-minute traffic</li>
<li>Tablets account for approximately 6% of total bookings (we are seeing this number decrease)</li>
</ol>
What is the second mobile tipping point?
There are going to be three tipping points. The vast majority of our clients have already hit the first. This is when more traffic is coming to their website from a mobile device than from a desktop/laptop. The second tipping point which will happen later this year for some of our clients, is here the number of bookings on mobile outweighs the bookings from desktops/laptops. This will be follow shortly by the third mobile tipping point, when revenue from mobile outpaces revenue from desktops/laptops.
When will the second mobile tipping point occur?
For some properties, with lower ADR and lower income guests, it will be December 2018. With the third tipping point following in early 2019.
Why do lower ADR properties seem to be ahead of other properties?
There are a few theories regarding this.
1, It’s a smaller purchase and therefore doesn’t require as much thought
<ol start="2">
<li>Lower income guests are less likely to have a computer in their home and therefore they rely on their phone as their main device for accessing the Internet.</li>
<li>Lower income guests may not work on a computer and therefore don’t have time to do their vacation planning during the day.</li>
</ol>
Fuel’s HSMAI presentation on the second mobile tipping point:
<a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_IDG4Slm3FeXEhU8HdTDRAVkkxDRPXGdN1xOWA31KZ8/edit" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_IDG4Slm3FeXEhU8HdTDRAVkkxDRPXGdN1xOWA31KZ8/edit</a>
What can hotels do to get ready for the second mobile tipping point?
<ol>
<li>Integration of the booking engine</li>
<li>Smarter search functionality</li>
<li>Streamlined forms</li>
<li>Use psychology like a boss. See this episode for more examples:</li>
</ol>
<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/fuel-hotel-marketing-podcast-episode-69-5-simple-marketing-psychology-hacks-increase-direct-bookings/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 69 – 5 Simple Marketing Psychology Hacks To Increase Direct Bookings</a>
Hotelier Wishes 
Anna Bowers 
My snarky response would have to be the elimination of all OTAs but we both know that will never happen. That being said, I would love to see the amount of paper eliminated at check-in. I’m sure other properties have solutions to get rid of the paper stack that is handed out at check in (parking pass, property map, room key, discount card, etc.). We taut ourselves as being “green” but we give each one of our guests these bulky packets filled with papers when they check in. Most of our market is a drive market and this seems to me something that could be downloaded by John Smith on the trip down while his wife is at the wheel. Maybe the MB guest isn’t savvy enough for this?
Streamlining social media postings would be nice as well. Instead of having to post on FB, Instagram, Twitter, and Snap Chat (FB and Twitter at least connect), it would be nice if all posts were picked up across all platforms.
An unlimited budget and an inside track to how the powers at be with Google think would also be highly beneficial!
========================
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<div></div>
<div></div>
======================== 
In The Newsies
Webjet signs travel agencies onto blockchain 
<a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/webjet-signs-travel-agencies-onto-blockchain-485319" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.itnews.com.au/news/webjet-signs-travel-agencies-onto-blockchain-485319</a>
Google Updates the “People Also Search For” Feature 
<a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-feature/238169/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-search-feature/238169/</a>
========================
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@_travelboom 
@stuartbutler 
@marketingmeisha 
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Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  78 – Your Hotel Isn’t Ready For The Second Mobile Tipping Point

There are a lot of buzz-worthy two-letter acronyms thrown around these days. None more so than Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), But, what do these things mean to you as a hotelier and how can they impact your hotel marketing? Tune in to this episode of the Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast to find out.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES:
What is Virtual Reality VS What is Augmented Reality? 
AR &amp; VR Growth &amp; Adoption
<ul>
<li>According to EyeForTravel.com, the shipments of VR devices are expected to grow by over 400% between 2017 &#8211; 2021</li>
<li>Omnivirt.com estimates that there will be more than 171 million active VR users by 2018</li>
<li>Omnivirt.com discovered that 41% of adults are interested in trying a VR device</li>
</ul>
AR &amp; VR Applications For Travel // Predictions
<ul>
<li>AR offers lower barrier to entry → Will be the initial stepping stone for travel brands</li>
<li>Large brands will be the first to experiment with applications</li>
<li>Room tours, on-property navigation, destination experiences</li>
</ul>
What Is Artificial Intelligence? 
Artificial Intelligence Stats
<ul>
<li>CMO.com estimates that 85% of customer interactions will be managed without a human by 2020</li>
<li>72% of business leaders believe investing in AI is a “business advantage”</li>
<li>Investment in AI increased 300% in 2017</li>
<li>By 2025, the AI market will surpass $100 billion</li>
</ul>
Artificial Intelligence in Travel // Predictions
<ul>
<li>Hilton is testing “Connie” → automated concierge powered by IBM Watson and Wayblazer; answer guest questions about services, amenities, local attractions, and more</li>
<li>KLM Royal Dutch Airlines → allows travel shoppers to receive booking info, check-in notifications, boarding passes, and flight updates via FB Messenger</li>
<li>Visit Orlando → Integrated AI into its web and app platforms to answer unique travel searches like “where to find the best brunch” or “places for local craft beer”.</li>
</ul>
Listener Questions:
Hey Guys,
Someone just introduced me to a site called <a href="http://trvl.com/">TRVL.com</a>, which lets individuals earn travel agent commissions. They make their own booking page (<a href="https://lisbonfinest.trvl.com/">like this</a>) with the hotels, then share these recommendations with friends. If friends book, they get the bulk of the commission, with TRVL.com getting the rest.
Have you heard of this site?
The biggest issue I see here is TRVL.com uses the big OTAs for bookings, so in the end it doesn&#8217;t appear to help the properties; it just re-splits the commission. But maybe properties can benefit from the more personalized recommendations TRVL offer?
What&#8217;s your take?
Thanks and keep up the great work with the podcast,
Chris Blachut
Chief Unconventionalist
Hotelier Wishes 
<ul>
<li>Bob Applewhite
<ul>
<li>In an effort to radically improve conversion, it should be mandatory that all visitors to a hotel website MUST book immediately. Site abandonment will not be allowed for any reason — including but not limited to rate-shopping, amenity comparison, reading TripAdvisor reviews or other such time-wasting nonsense. The only allowable exception will be in the case of a property that is 100% occupied, at which time the site visitor will be required to book the next available dates, regardless of their preference, personal needs or vacation schedule — thus maintaining the perfect 100% conversion rate. Can Fuel come up with something like this???   Lol</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
========================
<div id="lp-pom-text-16" class="lp-element lp-pom-text nlh">PARTICIPATE IN THE 2018 HOSPITALITY TECHNOLOGY STUDY: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/tech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WWW.FUELTRAVEL.COM/TECH/</a> </div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
======================== 
In The Newsies
Could Airbnb Soon Have A Loyalty Program? 
<a href="https://www.smartertravel.com/2018/01/17/design-loyalty-program-airbnb/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.smartertravel.com/2018/01/17/design-loyalty-program-airbnb/</a>
========================
Follow Us on Twitter:
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Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  77 – Why Hotels Should Be Paying Attention To AR, VR And AI

There is a lot of buzz in the hotel industry about both blockchain and voice search. While both are undoubtedly going to have a major impact on society, the Fueligans have a lively discussion about both of these &#8216;megatrends&#8217; and analyze the likely impact that they will have on the average hotelier in the next twelve months. Do you need to drop everything you&#8217;re doing and jump on board the hype train? We think not.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES:
1. Blockchain
What is “blockchain”?
Think of blockchain as a secure digital ledger.
How does “blockchain” actually work?
There are a bunch of great resources out there that explain this better than we can: https://www.google.com/search?q=how+does+blockchain+work&amp;ie=utf-8&amp;oe=utf-8&amp;client=firefox-b-1-ab
What does blockchain mean for the travel industry? 
Truth is, for right now, not a whole lot. Listen to the episode and hear why we don&#8217;t think you need to be doing anything differently right now. While blockchain will have a big influence on the future of transactions, banking, insurance and healthcare. It&#8217;s going to be a while before it has a meaningful impact on day-to-day hotel operations.
2. Voice Search
Voice Search Growth &amp; Usage
<ol>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ol>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>According to 2017 study &#8212; 35.6 million Americans will use a voice-activated device (NOT including smart phones) at least once per month (a 128.6% increase over 2016)</li>
<li>The voice assist market is expected to grow 23.1% this year with more than 60 million users utilizing voice assistants at least once per month</li>
<li>This represents nearly 20% of Americans</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
Voice Search In The Travel Space
<ol>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
<li>Several travel brands have dedicated “skills” available for voice assistants
<ul>
<li>Kayak (owned by Priceline.com) → flight tracker, KAYAK explore, and travel search</li>
<li>Expedia → Less planning oriented, more focused on assisting guests with details of current / already planned trip (arrival / departure times for flights, check-in times for hotel, car rentals, etc.)</li>
<li>Other travel brands are slowly expanding → Transportation (Uber, Lyft) and airlines</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
Listener wishes:
<ul>
<li>Ron Stevenson
<ul>
<li>This would be first for branded hotels. For independent hotels this is already possible.   A tool or technology that could log into the respective brand data warehouse and pull the monthly data into a dashboard So that brand and independent hotels could be compared on attribution points Visits , conversion, ADR, etc. Then if the data could then be pivoted to show month over month comparisons if would make life so much easier.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
========================
<div id="lp-pom-text-16" class="lp-element lp-pom-text nlh">PARTICIPATE IN THE 2018 HOSPITALITY TECHNOLOGY STUDY: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/tech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WWW.FUELTRAVEL.COM/TECH/</a> </div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
======================== 
In The Newsies
Page Speed is now a mobile ranking factor 
<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-speed-update-page-speed-will-become-ranking-factor-mobile-search-289904">https://searchengineland.com/google-speed-update-page-speed-will-become-ranking-factor-mobile-search-289904</a>
Why Expedia or Priceline Might Just Be the Next Great Hotel Brand 
<a href="https://skift.com/2018/01/23/why-expedia-or-priceline-might-just-be-the-next-great-hotel-brand/">https://skift.com/2018/01/23/why-expedia-or-priceline-might-just-be-the-next-great-hotel-brand/</a>
Google rolls out AI based predictive flight cancellation notifications 
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/31/google-flights-will-now-predict-airline-delays-before-the-airlines-do/">https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/31/google-flights-will-now-predict-airline-delays-before-the-airlines-do/</a>
========================
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Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  76 – Don’t Believe The Hype About Blockchain Or Voice Search…Yet

We’ve been hearing that ‘SEO is dead’ for the better part of the last 4 years. While it’s certainly true that the value of SEO has become harder to understand and that the tactics employed to accomplish search ranking continues to evolve, we believe that SEO is far from dead and that it should remain a very important part of your overall hotel marketing strategy. In this episode, we go through a very basic SEO checklist that you should pay attention to in 2018.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES:
Audit Your Site
<ul>
<li>Identify any technical errors like 404 Not Found or 500 Server Errors
<ul>
<li>Eliminate as many of these as possible. Can be done through redirection</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Audit your content.
<ul>
<li>See what’s been performing well in terms of traffic and rank. Find out what content doesn’t perform well and find out what needs to be done to improve it. (this will come up later in the episode)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Audit your competition
<ul>
<li>Find out what your competitors have been doing that you are not. Develop a strategy how you can do it better.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Claim Your Local Listings
<ul>
<li>If you have not yet claimed your local listings there is no better time than now</li>
<li>We recommend you check the following sites:
<ul>
<li>Google My Business</li>
<li>Facebook</li>
<li>Foursquare</li>
<li>Superpages</li>
<li>Infogroup</li>
<li>Localeze</li>
<li>Factual</li>
<li>City Search</li>
<li>Insider PAges</li>
<li>Best Of The Web</li>
<li>HotFrog</li>
<li>Acxiom</li>
<li>Yelp</li>
<li>Yellowpages</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Ensure that you have your listings claimed and that all of your business info is correct and consistent</li>
<li>We use Moz’s tool, Moz Local, To help us do these efficiently</li>
</ul>
Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile Friendly
<ul>
<li>If your site is not already mobile friendly you need to make that a top priority in 2018.</li>
<li>If you’re not sure if your site is mobile friendly you can find out with Google’s mobile friendly test &#8211; <a href="https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly">https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly</a>
<ul>
<li>This tool will identify any mobile-friendly issues your site may have and give you a list of what you need to fix</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Make Sure Your Site Is Lightning Fast
<ul>
<li>We have talked about the importance of load speeds before and it’s only getting more important.</li>
<li>Page speed has been a ranking factor for desktop for a while and Google just announced that it is a ranking factor for mobile now too</li>
<li>To monitor page speeds you can use:
<ul>
<li>Google Page Speed Insights &#8211; <a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/">https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/</a></li>
<li>GTmetrix &#8211; <a href="https://gtmetrix.com/">https://gtmetrix.com/</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Revisit Keywords and Messaging
<ul>
<li>It’s important to look at your keywords and messaging periodically</li>
<li>The way people search for things can change, which means your search volume can change</li>
<li>If you used to get a lot of traffic to a certain page but that traffic has died off, look at what keyword you were targeting and see if people are calling it something different today.
<ul>
<li>Example: Maybe when you created the page it made sense to target Oceanfront Hotels but search volume has changed now so it makes more sense to target Beachfront Hotels.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Optimize Title Tags &amp; Meta Descriptions 
<ul>
<li>This goes hand-in-hand with revisiting your keywords and messaging</li>
<li>Use your updated keyword research and make sure you’re including target keywords in your page titles and in your meta descriptions. It’s also important to use those target keywords in your header tags too.</li>
</ul>
Repurpose Content
<ul>
<li>You already did a content audit so now it’s time to find out what worked best, and repurpose that content.</li>
<li>Let’s say you had an article about New Year’s Eve events in your city that drove a lot of traffic. Repurpose that by making a video of some of those events.</li>
<li>If you have some outdated content it’s time to update it. Let’s say that NYE article we just mentioned has last year’s event details on it. Time to do your research and update it. This is why we don’t like using years in our URLs. You want to keep reusing that page each year so make sure your URL string doesn’t have new-years-eve-events-2018.</li>
</ul>
Schema Markups
<ul>
<li>Schema markup and structured data are crucial in helping search engines understand your content.</li>
<li>Take the Hotel Schema markup for example.Specifically check in/out times.  There are options to enter check in and check out times within your hotel schema. If someone asks Siri, or Google Home or Alexa what time is checkout for your property, these markups will help the voice assistant provide the correct answer.</li>
</ul>
Set Up Search Console &amp; Analytics
<ul>
<li>This should be a no-brainer, especially for our listeners.</li>
<li>You need to understand what’s working for you and Search Console and Analytics are essential for tracking your performance.</li>
</ul>
========================
<div id="lp-pom-text-16" class="lp-element lp-pom-text nlh">PARTICIPATE IN THE 2018 HOSPITALITY TECHNOLOGY STUDY: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/tech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WWW.FUELTRAVEL.COM/TECH/</a> </div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
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In The Newaies
White Moose Cafe (Charleville Lodge) Incident 
<a href="http://mashable.com/2018/01/19/hotel-bans-bloggers-after-feud-with-youtubers/#3vZ8Co140Sqf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://mashable.com/2018/01/19/hotel-bans-bloggers-after-feud-with-youtubers/#3vZ8Co140Sqf</a>
========================
Follow Us on Twitter:
@_travelboom 
@stuartbutler 
@marketingmeisha 
@makavanagh 
@pdimaio 
@pforiska
<hr />
<div></div>
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode  75 – Is SEO Finally Dead In 2018? Listen And Find Out.

TripAdvisor is setting the stage for a year full of changes in 2018. They launched a major new initiative at the very end of 2017 with Sponsored Positions and are now in the process of completely revamping their internal structures. Today we are going to discuss some of the most notable changes we are seeing and what may be on the horizon.
If you like what you hear, please leave a comment below, share it with your friends, and also leave a review.
========================
SHOW NOTES:
Related article: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/tripadvisor-hotel-sponsored-positions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/tripadvisor-hotel-sponsored-positions/</a>
Sponsored Positions:
TripAdvisor has rolled out the entirely new Sponsored Positions for hotels in December 2017.  This is the first opportunity for hotels to actually bid on the position of their hotel on the destination page, effectively monetizing the the listings.
<ul>
<li>What is sponsored positions?</li>
<li>Are Sponsored Positions a Good Investment?</li>
<li>Potential Goals</li>
<li>Know  before you go</li>
<li>Setup and implementation</li>
</ul>
Changes in the TripAdvisor C-Suite
<a href="https://skift.com/2018/01/09/exclusive-tripadvisor-reorganizes-business-units-to-bolster-performance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://skift.com/2018/01/09/exclusive-tripadvisor-reorganizes-business-units-to-bolster-performance/</a>
TL;DR &#8211; Tripadvisor Hotels team was helping out with all other TripAdvisor Business Units (Restaurants, Vacation Rentals, Flights, Attractions and SmarterTravel) but they are restructuring to have a dedicated team for hotels and a profit and loss structure specific to hotels.
Wishes for 2018:
<ul>
<li>Patrick Norton
<ul>
<li>My next goal is to maximize spend while guests are at our resorts. I would like a more effective tool for guests to purchase from ALL on-site vendors &#8211; Similar to Disney wristbands. The hope would be that it came with itemized reporting, allowing us to track guest vacation purchase trends and more effectively market to them the following year.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Listener Questions:
Question from Selim
Hello all,
I have been listening your podcast and find it very helpful. Thank you very much for all your input so far. I have 2 questions which I would like to hear your comments;
<ul>
<li>If hotels want to reach bigger audiences, would you recommend Demand-side platforms to buy display locations? If SSP is any good you can tell of course but I guess SSP is no good for ad buyers. Hotels and agencies which want to promote on different countries and markets sometimes needs more than Facebook and Google Ads. Are DSPs an answer?
<ul>
<li></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>What is the best way to track button clicks to online booking widget “book now” buttons and clickable telephone numbers on hotel page?
<ul>
<li>Event tracking in Google Analytics is your answer. By setting an event it will record every time someone clicks, even if they go to a page that is not on your site or go to a traditional URL (such as a tel: link) <a href="https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6106716?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://support.google.com/tagmanager/answer/6106716?hl=en</a> 
What is even more important than just tracking the click to ensuring you can accurately attribute revenue.  This can be done by having the proper linker code in place on your booking engine. You can find more about this at Melissa’s article, “<a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/blog/google-analytics-cross-domain-tracking-hotels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">3 Steps to Ensure Your Booking Engine Tracks Correctly in Google Analytics”</a>.  When it comes to phone tracking, take it a step farther by having a dedicated number for your site so you can record what actually happens on the phone, not just how often it rings.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
========================
<div id="lp-pom-text-16" class="lp-element lp-pom-text nlh">PARTICIPATE IN THE 2018 HOSPITALITY TECHNOLOGY STUDY: <a href="https://admin.travelboommarketing.com/tech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WWW.FUELTRAVEL.COM/TECH/</a> </div>
<div></div>
<div></div>
======================== 
In The Newaies
Review Extensions Going Away 
<a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-sunsetting-adwords-review-extensions-289595" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://searchengineland.com/google-sunsetting-adwords-review-extensions-289595</a>
Google’s Search Market Eroding 
<a href="http://adage.com/article/digital/amazon-apps-chew-google-s-search-market-share/311910/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://adage.com/article/digital/amazon-apps-chew-google-s-search-market-share/311910/</a> 
oogle&#8217;s search market share has seen a decline each year from 88 percent in 2011 to 78 percent in 2016
========================
Follow Us on Twitter:
@_travelboom 
@stuartbutler 
@marketingmeisha 
@makavanagh 
@pdimaio 
@pforiska
<hr />
<div></div>
Submit your questions and topic ideas on Twitter to <a href="http://www.twitter.com/fueltravel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">@_travelboom</a>.

Hotel Marketing Podcast

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 79 – These Google Changes Will Rock Your Hotel’s World in 2018

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 79 – These Google Changes Will Rock Your Hotel’s World in 2018

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 78 – Your Hotel Isn’t Ready For The Second Mobile Tipping Point

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 78 – Your Hotel Isn’t Ready For The Second Mobile Tipping Point

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 77 – Why Hotels Should Be Paying Attention To AR, VR And AI

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 77 – Why Hotels Should Be Paying Attention To AR, VR And AI

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 76 – Don’t Believe The Hype About Blockchain Or Voice Search…Yet

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 76 – Don’t Believe The Hype About Blockchain Or Voice Search…Yet

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 75 – Is SEO Finally Dead In 2018? Listen And Find Out.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 75 – Is SEO Finally Dead In 2018? Listen And Find Out.

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 74 – Are There Troubles At TripAdvisor?

Fuel Hotel Marketing Podcast: Episode 74 – Are There Troubles At TripAdvisor?

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