Author: Dr. Manus Ward │Head of Digital Strategy and Data Protection │Hotelconsultant.com is a qualified and experienced former hotel manager, culinary Olympic team manager and hospitality Head of School who is passionate about passing on the knowledge he gained from one of the few hotel digital strategy doctorates in the world to you the hotelier. Bonus: If you have any problems with this contact me (100% free) at manus@hotelconsultant.com or 086 8185829 on this or any aspect of your hotel’s digital strategy.
Why do we need to do this
Google rewards sites whose links are from relevant sites. Hotel relevant sites would be restaurants, bars, local activity providers etc.
What does this mean
Google examines the backlinks to and from your hotel’s site and rewards you with higher rankings if your links are more relevant than your competitors’ links. This means, if the links from or to other sites are hospitality (hotels, restaurants, events theme parks) local (the website has registered its address in Google as local) or a hotel expert site like mine http://www.hotelconsultant.com Google will reward your hotel site with higher rankings in searches. Guests also expect a things to do type page. Basically they want to feel that there is a lot to do if they visit your hotel. They may never engage in any of these activities but having a things to page may influence them into choosing your hotel over your competitors’ hotel.
What do I do: Create a “things to do” page and create links to all these hospitality websites. When you have done this send the website owners an email showing the link to their site and request a link back. If you create a link first they will be significantly more likely to create a link back to you.
How do I find out all the local hospitality activities and their contact details: Click on http://www.tripadvisor.com and do the following:
Then click here.
Click on every attraction.
And take note of their contact details.
When you click here you will find the map which helps you locate all the very close activities and get their contact details but also helps you position them on your hotels map of local things to do.
Now do this for other activities such as local restaurants. Putting up the good local restaurants may feel like you are advertising your competitors but this is not so. Guests will feel that there is a variety of quality places to eat locally and will be more likely to book your hotel. If they want to eat outside the hotel they will and you can’t do anything about it. Select restaurants that are of an equivalent standard to your hotel.
Find out their contact details on this page.
Then click on the map page to both find out their location but also to find out the restaurant’s contact details.
Where do I find out the influencers or the name of these individuals: Ireland is a small place and contacting an individual personally will always be much more successful than an email. Find out who the relevant individuals are by clicking on http://www.linkedin.com.
Look for your shared connections and seek an introduction if required. When somebody knows you have shared connections you are more likely to get the link.
How do I find out the expert sites: Click on http://www.google.com and type in words such as “top hospitality influencers” and request a link form them.
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