Creating High-Quality, Optimized Hotel Content That Ranks Better

Most marketers understand that high-quality hotel content ranks better than run-of-the-mill pages, but acknowledging this is different than executing it. Optimizing content to rank requires more work than plugging in keywords and phrases. Writing high-quality content to solidify a spot near the top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) requires careful crafting to offer more value than your competitors do, while following SEO best practices for structure, readability, and engagement. If you aren’t sure how this is done, we’ve got the best tips to help you create high-quality content for a hotel’s SEO.

How Do Hotels Make Content That Outranks the Competition?

To outrank other properties, hotel marketers should aim to create 10x content, which refers to pages so well-written, well-structured, and authoritative that they perform 10 times better than the next-best page. To make 10x content, a hotelier must start with a strong pillar page topic and create a cluster of related subpages and blog posts that cover the subject comprehensively and provide more relevant, high-quality content than anyone else. Hitting this high bar takes considerable effort and may even require several attempts, but when you do it right, the page’s informative, shareable, searchable content earns your hotel property a premium spot in the SERPs.

Pillar pages are examples of high-quality hotel content with the potential to achieve 10x status. These act as information hubs to introduce the audience to a larger topic, like an ultimate guide to living at an extended stay property, and then feature the hotel’s location, amenities, and accommodations with internal links to in-depth pages on each subtopic. A property overview, a breakdown of the amenities, or a destination guide are examples of pillars for high-quality hotel content. 

A clustering of related topics isn’t enough to help one hotel rank better than others. Hoteliers must still provide the highest-quality content—following the guidelines below—for their hotels to outrank competitors.

Optimize Hotel Content To Rank Better

Developing SEO-based content is crucial for enhancing a hotel’s online visibility and engaging readers effectively. Marketers can drive more organic traffic to a property’s website when they understand how to write high-quality hotel content that takes the staples of SEO into account.

Hotel content performs better when it’s optimized for search because Google values pages that are structured correctly, technically proficient, and engaging for users. Search engines serve these authoritative sites above others that have less to offer. When searchers engage with your valuable content, Google considers your hotel an authority and boosts the page rank, or position in the search results. Now your site is being shown to an even wider audience, which compounds your investment in technical SEO and organic hotel content and maximizes the results.

Follow On-Page SEO Best Practices

Tasks associated with on-page optimization for a hotel include updating title tags, headers, and URLs. When these reflect what the page is about, Google can better understand the hotel’s content and determine whether it matches a search query. On-page SEO requires less technical skill than performance-related SEO tasks, so it’s a good place for a hotelier to begin. Here are a few factors of on-page SEO that can affect a hotel’s rankings:

Page Titles (Title Tags)

The title tag is the clickable link on the search engine results page and browser tab; it communicates what the page is about. Incorporate your main keyword within the title tag, ideally near the beginning, to help search engines and users recognize it. The title tag should be engaging,  relevant, and limited to 60 characters to avoid truncation in search results.

Example: If the article is about “best eco-friendly hotels in New York,” a well-optimized title might be “Top 10 Eco-Friendly Hotels in New York | Sustainable Stays.”

Headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.)

Header tags are HTML code that designate headings and subheads in optimized hotel content. These help users skim for information and they tell search engines about the page structure. Headers can be numbered from H1 (most important) to H6 (least important), but ideally, you’ll need only H1 to H3. 

H1 Tag: The H1 tag is typically reserved for the main title of your content and should include the primary keyword. It sets the tone and context for the entire page.

H2 and H3 Tags: Use H2 and H3 tags for subheadings that further organize the content. Incorporate secondary keywords or related terms in these headers to improve the page’s SEO and help search engines understand the content structure.

Example: For an article about “Top eco-friendly hotels,” H2 tags might include “Benefits of Staying in Eco-Friendly Hotels” and “Top Green Hotels in NYC.” H3 tags will ‘nest’ under H2 tags and might include for example, “Sustainable Hotel Room Amenities.”

Meta Descriptions

These short summaries of web pages appear in the search engine results and tell searchers and Google what the page is about. These should be compelling enough to encourage searchers to click through to your page, but they must be accurate, or users will bounce and in so doing will send a negative signal to search engines. This in turn will hurt your website’s SEO.

Keyword Integration: Include primary keywords near the front of the meta description, which should be no longer than 160 characters. 

Example: “Discover the best eco-friendly hotels in New York. Our top picks offer sustainable practices and luxury accommodations. Learn more about green stays in NYC.”

Body Content

Hotel content should offer searchers value, whether it answers questions, provides travel advice, or describes the property in detail. Optimized body content should be written with the target audience in mind and structured using the header tags described above.

Organize Content: Headings organize the main section of content, but you can also add bullets to highlight key items and make your content more skimmable for mobile users, and to break up content into digestible points. Make the reading experience more pleasant with paragraph breaks between copy blocks. Consider using icons and infographics within the content to illustrate room types, amenities, and other features.

Natural Integration: Place keywords naturally throughout the body of the content. Keep them relevant to the context and do not disrupt the flow or readability of the text. Use primary keywords in the introduction, headers, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Example: In a blog post about eco-friendly hotels, integrate keywords like “sustainable hotels,” “green lodging,” and “eco-friendly accommodations” naturally, and in relevant sections of the text.

Proper URL Structure

When it comes to URLs, simpler is better. If you’re tempted to use symbols or characters in a URL, let Google’s URL structure guidelines change your mind. The basics boil down to this: Use hyphens to separate words, avoid special characters, and keep URLs as short as possible. 

Descriptive and Readable URLs: Create URLs that are concise, descriptive, and include relevant keywords. This helps both search engines and users understand the page content. A consistent theme should exist between the URL, H1, and Page Title (hint: the primary keyword) because each should be optimized to reflect the page content. 

Example: For an article on eco-friendly hotels in New York, a well-structured friendly URL might be /eco-friendly-hotels-new-york. If the page has sub-sections, you might use /eco-friendly-hotels-new-york/benefits, or /eco-friendly-hotels-new-york/top-green-hotels.

Create Readable Hotel Website Content

Keywords shouldn’t be obvious to website visitors, so hoteliers must master keyword frequency and write for the reader, rather than search engines, to optimize content in a way that readers won’t notice. While this takes practice, people won’t stick around if they feel they’re being force-fed keywords rather than being supplied with readable, high-quality hotel content. Here are a few takeaways for optimizing hotel content to satisfy visitors first and search engines second:

Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Overusing keywords to the point where they seem out of place or repetitive can harm readability and may lead to penalties from search engines. Use keywords sparingly and contextually within the content.

Best Practice: Aim for a keyword density that feels natural and enhances the content’s relevance without compromising its readability. A general guideline is to use the primary keyword about one to two times per 100 words.

Use Synonyms and Related Terms

Incorporate synonyms, related terms, and variations of your primary keywords to avoid repetition and to enrich the content. This approach helps maintain a natural flow, and using a selection of secondary keywords and even long-tail phrases can capture a wider range of search queries. Google understands context and intent, so it can offer results based on semantics rather than a keyword alone.

Example: Instead of repeatedly using “eco-friendly hotels,” you might also include terms like “sustainable lodging,” “green hotels,” or “environmentally friendly accommodations.”

Maintain Natural Language Use

Readability: The content should read naturally and engage the audience. Prioritize writing for users first, while optimizing for search engines. Content should flow smoothly and provide clear, valuable information.

Example: Rather than forcing keywords into awkward places, focus on writing high-quality, informative content that naturally integrates keywords to enhance the reader’s understanding. “Choosing an eco-friendly NYC hotel for your upcoming stay in the Big Apple doesn’t mean you must sacrifice luxury for sustainability. We’ve done the legwork for you to create this ‘10 best’ list of accommodations that are comfortable and earth-friendly in equal measure.” In these two sentences the target keywords ‘eco-friendly NYC hotel’ and semantic-match terms are worked into the language naturally.

Improve Technical Content SEO for Hotels

The technical aspects of a website, including the load times, mobile-responsive design, crawlability, and site hierarchy, play a big role in your search engine rankings. Think of technical SEO as your website’s health meter. When it’s in poor condition, it worsens the user experience and prohibits a search engine from navigating your site. Optimizing these elements goes beyond hotel content and may require backend updates. If you aren’t comfortable doing this, ask search engine marketing pros for help. The technical content SEO for your hotel’s site is its foundation and should be done right.

Mobile Friendliness

According to market research, one-third of global bookings were made via mobile apps and websites. This makes technical SEO for hotels a critical step to improving rankings and direct bookings. A site optimized for mobile will follow these two best practices:

• Responsive Design: The layout and elements of your hotel’s website content automatically adjust to fit various screen sizes and orientations, providing a consistent user experience across smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
• Fast-Loading Pages: Optimize hotel content by reducing image sizes and limiting heavy scripts and large files that can slow down mobile page load times. Images should also be scaled to appear appropriately on various device screens.  

When your website is mobile-friendly, users can learn about your hotel’s offerings, check availability, and book reservations seamlessly from a mobile device. In terms of rankings, mobile responsiveness is a critical aspect of technical SEO for hotels for these two reasons:

1. Google’s Mobile-First Indexing: Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in its search rankings due to the increasing prevalence of mobile device usage. A website suited for desktop browsers may suffer from lower rankings in search results.
2. Traffic Trends: A substantial portion of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. Ensuring your site is mobile-friendly is crucial for reaching and engaging with this large audience segment.

Page Load Speed

When a hotel’s website loads quickly, the user experience and your rankings improve. Visitors spend more time exploring room types and checking out amenities when everything loads as it should, increasing the opportunities for engagement. Page-load times are a key ranking factor for Google, which favors optimized sites in the search results. Dissecting speed issues can be challenging, but doing it can increase your visitor engagement and page views, which Google values.

Here are some tools and methods to address technical content SEO for a hotel’s site speed:

1. Use Performance Tools: Utilize tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to analyze and measure your site’s load times. These tools provide actionable recommendations for performance improvements.
2. Image Compression: Optimizing hotel content should include addressing images; compress these to reduce file sizes without sacrificing quality. This helps speed up load times and improves site performance.
3. Leverage Browser Caching: Enable browser caching to store static resources (like images, CSS, and JavaScript) on users’ devices. This increases speed and reduces the need for repeated downloads.
4. Minimize JavaScript: Reduce and optimize JavaScript files to decrease their impact on page load speed. Remove unnecessary scripts and defer the loading of non-essential scripts to improve website performance.

Navigation and Site Hierarchy

Google needs to understand how your site is organized to determine which pages are most important and how a hotel’s content is related. One way the hierarchy is created is through navigational and on-page links. A site audit is a routine technical optimization step for hotels and will report the following issues:

• Link Errors: Broken links that result in a 404, or links with multiple redirects.
• Buried Pages: Links that are several clicks from the homepage and thus difficult for visitors (and search engines) to discover.
• Orphaned Pages: These pages are essentially ‘floating’ and won’t be crawled or indexed by Google, and they aren’t navigable for visitors.

While implementing internal links boosts SEO, fixing link issues can improve technical SEO. Correcting broken links and orphaned pages keeps sites navigable and all pages indexed for search. To make updates, find live page replacements, fix link typos, and consider creating content to give orphaned pages a logical, relevant home.

Schema Markup 

Adding structured data to a website is another technical SEO method for hotels to improve their search visibility. This markup communicates specific information to Google about the property, the location, and its features, and when the search engine understands what you offer, you’re more likely to be featured and recommended. Searchers’ experiences improve when this is implemented correctly because they can efficiently find properties that match their specific needs and queries.

Focus On Value-Driven Content

A hotel’s page or article can still fall short of high-quality content if it is optimized for keywords, structured, and readable, but fails to offer the audience substantial information or ideas. There’s a reason publishing helpful content is an SEO trend—it works. Getting your website noticed by your target audience and search engines requires high-quality content, and for a hotel’s SEO strategy to take hold, it must provide genuine value. Your blog posts, articles, emails, and social posts often serve one of these three purposes:

1. Educate and Inform: Offer detailed, well-researched information that helps your audience better understand a topic—for example your amenities, the destination, or your hotel’s loyalty program. This could include in-depth guides, how-to articles, or explanatory content that answers common questions. The more helpful and informative your content, the more likely it is to be shared and linked to by other sites, which boosts organic performance.
2. Offer Actionable Insights: Provide readers practical tips, actionable steps, or solutions through blog content or designated landing pages. When this content thoroughly answers searchers’ questions or provides a solution, it boosts the hotel’s SEO and helps solve specific problems. Examples of high-quality hotel content of this type include how-tos on cashing in loyalty rewards or a step-by-step guide to requesting a price match.
3. Engage and Entertain: A hotel’s blog can include engaging and entertaining content to capture and retain an interested audience’s attention. Thought-provoking posts about your hotel’s sustainability efforts, human-interest pieces on staff members, or interactive content, like a tour of the hotel’s historic wing, can encourage reader engagement. When readers spend more time on your site and share it with others, search engines recognize your high-quality content and boost your hotel’s SEO rankings.

Create Content The Audience Wants to E-E-A-T

Content written for any purpose must follow the E-E-A-T principle, a ranking factor acronym that stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. E-E-A-T applies to a hotel’s content in that its website must provide an honest, authentic reflection of the property in order to be recognized as an authority by Google. Meeting this standard with high-quality content does wonders for the hotel’s SEO. Remember these guidelines when applying E-E-A-T to your hotel’s content:

• Display hotel reviews and testimonials that reflect firsthand experiences of actual guests or staff.
• Verify hotel features and selling points by a resident expert—staff or management—with intimate knowledge of the property. Include content like insider tips, detailed descriptions, and virtual tours.
• Use accolades from credible travel websites and display logos of hospitality industry awards to authenticate the hotel’s reputation.
• Create guides and 10x content that shows your brand as an authority in the hospitality space.
• Make your room descriptions, hotel features, and pricing transparent and trustworthy, using accurate language and images that won’t mislead guests.

Make Content That Converts Readers Into Guests

A hotel’s blog posts, emails, and site pages can—and should—be super engaging, informative, and easy to read, but your efforts won’t do much for your bottom line if your content isn’t written to convert. Landing pages, emails, booking engine pages, room guides, and blog posts should persuade searchers to take some sort of action like book a room, sign up for the hotel’s newsletter, or download a travel guide. To do this effectively, you’ll want to create content for each stage (top, middle, and bottom) of the marketing funnel, keeping these tips in mind:

• Top-Funnel Content: These high-quality pieces should raise awareness of your hotel brand, introduce people to your location, and pique travelers’ interest. Searchers at this stage aren’t actively looking for a hotel yet—they were likely drawn to your website through a destination guide, a listicle on family-friendly attractions nearby, or an Instagram post showing a day in the life at the hotel.
• Mid-Funnel Content: Searchers in this stage of the marketing funnel are actively comparing destinations and solutions for their travel needs. A hotel should invest in high-quality content to help its mid-funnel audience decide. Comprehensive room guides, detailed property descriptions, and testimonials and reviews are content examples to consider.
• Bottom-Funnel Content: Guests nearing the bottom of the funnel should need only a little push to finalize their reservation. Personalized email campaigns using saved searches and cart information can remind potential guests to return to the booking page, and urgency-inducing content on last-minute deals or limited travel packages can also help. By including content on cancellation policies, best-rate guarantees, and accolades, you can give your potential guests the confidence they need to book.

A Checklist for High-Quality Hotel Content

We’ve covered a lot of tips for creating high-quality content for a hotel’s SEO.  As you begin fleshing out your next pillar page or blog post, review this checklist to ensure you’re maximizing your results with each piece of content:

• Follow On-page SEO Rules: Optimize the content using appropriate headers and title tags, and write a friendly URL that abides by Google’s best practices. 
• Integrate Keywords Naturally: Incorporate relevant keywords seamlessly into your content without keyword stuffing, maintaining natural readability and flow.
• Craft Engaging Introductions: Start with a compelling opening that captures the reader’s attention and includes primary keywords early on.
• Write for Your Audience: Tailor your content to address the needs, questions, and interests of your target audience and where they are in the marketing funnel, making it relevant and engaging.
• Maintain a Conversational Tone: Use a friendly, approachable style to make your content more relatable and engaging for readers.
• Include Actionable Insights: Provide practical advice, tips, or solutions readers can apply when selecting a suite, booking excursions, or redeeming rewards, to encourage longer and repeat engagement with your content.
• Optimize the Content Length: Aim for an appropriate length that thoroughly covers the topic but remains concise enough to keep readers interested, and avoid ‘fluff.’
• Review Your Content for E-E-A-T: Ask yourself whether your content reflects Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
• Incorporate Relevant Examples: Use real-world experiences, case studies, or human-interest pieces to illustrate your points and make your content concrete and relatable.
• Edit for Clarity and Precision: Review and revise your content to eliminate errors, improve readability, and to keep your message clear and precise.

If you’re tired of getting outranked by a competitor, it’s time to give your content a second look. Our marketing team understands the value of quality marketing and how to create it. Contact TravelBoom today to learn how we can help your content rank better.

Alyssa Fate is the Client Success Manager at TravelBoom Marketing. Connect with Alyssa at LinkedIn.

About TravelBoom Marketing

TravelBoom specializes in developing and executing customized data-driven marketing solutions that drive direct bookings and growth for its clients. With over 25 years of experience in digital marketing for travel and hotels, TravelBoom leverages advanced data science and analytics to uncover insights and develop strategies that greatly enhance results for our clients and reduce reliance on third-party channels. TravelBoom is also host of the world’s #1 ranked Hotel Marketing Podcast and its quarterly Traveler Sentiment Study both of which can be found at www.travelboommarketing.com.