Improving your hotel website – Details, Details, Details

Just getting consistent about blog posting and updating your website with good content is a great first step. Once you’ve got that down, here are a few suggestions for easily improving the quality of your website as well as the search rankings.

 

1. Title Tags 

The title tag for your website is displayed at the top of the browser window. This title tag is defined in the HTML tag within the header. Most content management software like WordPress or Joomla allow you to defined the title tag yourself without editing HTML. Each page should have a unique title tag and it should be keyword specific and relevant to the content of the page.

Most title tags for many websites look like this: “About”, “Services”, “Rates”. The search engines place a high priority on this title tag and also use it to display on the search results page. A title like “Services” tells your potential visitor nothing about the site. Instead use something like this: “Westchester NY Hotel & Vacation Services”. The title tag should be up to 60 characters long and include at least 1 keyword phrase that your prospects might use to search for you.

2. Picture Alt Tags and Captions

By now you’re probably paying attention to the quality of your pictures. Take this one step further by providing alt tags, captions and naming the picture file according to the keywords of the page. Again, software like WordPress can help you with this. An alt tag is what is displayed when you scroll over the picture with your mouse. The search engines pay attention to this tag as well as your visitors. Captions can be very nice for summarizing the picture and tying it to the text content on the page. Finally, the file name of the picture should include a keyword. Many picture file names on the web are something like this: IMG_092364.jpg. This doesn’t tell you, your visitor or the search engines anything about the picture. Instead use something like this: newyork_riverfront_view.jpg.

3. 1 or 2 Keyword Phrases Per Page

You’re now writing content on a regular basis. That’s fantastic. The next step is to consciously work in 1-2 keyword phrases for each page. When writing content you are writing not only for the human readers, but also for the search engines. Since search engines are computer programs, they do not read content exactly like your human readers. To help write for the search engines, define 1 to 2 keyword phrases that your content speaks to. Then consciously work those phrases into your copy. You can vary the order of the words in the phrase so they do not have to be exactly the same phrase repeated over and over. But be sure that you are working the phrases into each paragraph of copy. If your keyword phrase is “new york river front hotel”, try writing sentences like this: “When visiting New York, you’ll enjoy beautiful river front views from your hotel room.” All the keywords in the phrase are included in the sentence. This kind of keyword conscious writing will help both human and search engine readers.

Focusing on these kinds of details will help your website and blog be more appealing and easy to read and significantly boost your search rankings.

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