10 Tips For Marketing Your Hotel on Google Places

Is your hotel making the most of Google Places? If so, how does your page rank among local competitors?

Place pages are more important than ever. A recent Google study found that 20% of all searches on Google are used to find location specific answers.

Place pages - individual Web pages for businesses and points of interest - often dominate search results for location specific queries (e.g. “Sunshine Coast Hotels”), along with a Google Map feature with red markers identifying locations. Google often blends Websites with their accompanying Place pages, as one search result, and even includes links to hotels’ reviews. As you can tell, Google Places is a vital channel for your property.

Below are 10 tips to optimize your page…

1. Add as much detailed information as possible. Google Places listings are ranked by relevance to search terms entered, as well as location, among other factors. Make sure you completely fill out all of the fields in the 'edit page' area. These includes latitude and longitude, your property’s hours of operation, amenities and payment types accepted.
2. Fill out the additional, yet optional, information fields. These are broken up into two categories: “Label” and “Value.” Do not put full sentences into your label. Use specific words. For example, add “Services: concierge, tour booking service, free wireless Internet” not “The services we offer are concierge and free wireless Internet.”
3. Take advantage of Google Tags. These tags allow your hotel to have a direct link to different locations such as your booking page, apartments page or photo gallery. The links are displayed as yellow highlighted icons. Google tags should not be mistaken for a sponsored listing. They will not affect the ranking of Google Places listings.
4. Optimize your description. Write a description that will be helpful to your guests first, then Google - not the other way around. When describing your hotel, using relevant search terms are important, as these are the keywords that people will also to search. For example, “Our Gold Coast holiday accommodation features spacious, self-contained 2 bedroom apartments, a great range of facilities, including a swimming pool, tennis courts and sauna and an unbeatable location - right next to the beaches and close to entertainment and popular Gold Coast attractions.”
5. Select category listings carefully. Google allows you to select up to five categories. These offer your potential guests, and Google, a more detailed description of your accommodation. You should only select categories that directly apply to your property. Creating a lot of “custom categories” doesn’t necessarily help; in some cases doing this can hurt your ranking.
6. Keep your title simple. The title must be your property’s name. Don’t attempt to embed keywords into your title, as that is almost a certain way to ensure your property listing is never seen.
7. Use the “share an update” feature. These updates will be listed on your Google Places page for 30 days, unless you remove the event prior. This is another feature to reach out to potential guests, and add more information about your property, eg special events, conferences etc.
8. Include pictures and videos. Take full advantage of this! Google allows you to upload up to 10 pictures and five videos. When you upload pictures and videos, it provides Google and your potential guests more information about your property. It also displays the photos next to your Google Places listing, which will naturally draw a potential guests’ attention to your listing first.
9. Take advantage of the coupon feature. This is a good way to help drive traffic to your site. However, there are many guidelines for using coupons; the main rule is that the promotion should not be available without the coupon. Therefore, you would need to use a promo code or have them print the page to bring to the property when checking in.
10. Encourage online interaction with your guests. Ask that satisfied guests leave positive reviews on your Google Places page. If you do get a poor review, respond quickly and calmly. Positive reviews that are left on other reputable travel sites (such as TripAdvisor) may also increase your Google ranking.

With four million businesses and growing currently listed on Google Places, the competition for page ranking, especially for hotel related searches, is constantly growing. If you do not currently have a Place page or your page is not appearing near the top of Google results, your property is missing a huge opportunity to reach travel shoppers and direct bookings.

For more information about marketing, website design or if you need help setting up a Google Places page, speak to one of the marketing consultants at TA Fastrack today on 07 3040 3590 or email@tafastrack.com.au. 

12 Reasons Why People Buy Travel

People travel for a reason and those reasons are not the same for everyone. Below are 12 simple motivations on why they might:

1.    To increase enjoyment of life
2.    To escape reality
3.    To keep up with the Joneses
4.    To feel younger and carefree
5.    To be entertained
6.    To be trendy
7.    To gratify curiosity
8.    To become informed
9.    To pursue a dream
10.  To spend time with family
11.  To satisfy an impulse
12.  To get away from the family

Understanding why people buy makes it easier to appeal directly to your customers needs. Therefore, consider how you could apply the above reasons to your marketing message; whether that is in your website, social networking or any other marketing activity you undertake, so that it captures the attention of your viewer and resonates with them.

Looking Back on 2010

As I sit in a very crowded airport, I find myself reflecting back on this past year. For the Interactive Marketing/Search industry, 2010 was very active with mergers/acquisitions, partnerships, innovation and constant change. Although it’s been a wild ride, as we look toward 2011, advertisers should leverage the knowledge learned this past year and prepare for what’s ahead.


Here is a sampling of some of the more eventful happenings from this year:

• Google Caffeine, Instant & Preview
• Partnership between Yahoo & MSN/Bing
• Promoted Tweets
• Facebook Pages to “Like” not ‘Friend/Follow”
• LinkedIn Company Page Feature for “Products/Services”
• iPad and entry of the Tablet
• Introduction of Droid and Windows Phone
• Remarketing Ads
• Invasion of all things Mobile
• Enhanced features (extensions) in AdWords for more robust ads.

As we finish out the year and prepare 2011 marketing budgets and goals, here are the areas I predict will be on most company’s radar:

• Measuring Social Media Results and Monetization of Those Efforts
• Crafting Multi-Device, Robust Mobile Strategy Beyond Basic Visibility
• Improving on Analytics and Integration With Other Important Data
• Refining Paid Search Campaigns – More Experimentation With Other Engines, Portals, Networks, etc.
• Multi-Channel Strategy Development & Execution … Holistic Marketing
• Content Maximization for Enhanced SEO Value
• Experimentation – Multivariate Testing
• Identification of Metrics & Goals

As an incentive to companies who are looking to get a Jumpstart on 2011, we are offering 10% off any consulting program initiated by December 31, 2010. Let us help with a laser-like focus on search and interactive marketing.

Contact me for more details.

TAFastrack

Established in 2003, TA Fastrack has now become Australasia's leading travel, tourism and hospitality industry business solutions provider. Offering a range of specialised services including consultancy, business coaching, training and a separate marketing division. TA Fastrack's vision is to enrich the lives of members of the travel and tourism industry world-wide by providing the world's best solutions.

This is achieved by providing the industry with the world's 'best-practice' business solutions delivered by a specialist team of consultants, business coaches and people. Some of these 'best-practices' have been developed exclusively by TA Fastrack for the industry. TA Fastrack is the only company of its type in Australasia. No other business solutions company specialises solely in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry nor has the hands-on knowledge or experience that the TA Fastrack team has. TA Fastrack has worked with over 800 travel & tourism businesses in Australasia including some some of Australasia's leading travel companies.