NB: This is a guest post by Jon Schepke, president of SIM Partners, a Chicago-based full service marketing agency specialising in mobile, search engine marketing and social media.
Local search marketing is gaining momentum among hoteliers – and for good reason.
Consumers in the US, for example, do more than three billion local searches every month as they increasingly choose online search over traditional methods of advertising.
Consumers search for lodging within the context of a particular destination or a destination experience.
They don’t just want a hotel – they are looking for “New York hotels”, “Times Square hotels”, “Chicago North Michigan Avenue hotels” or even “San Diego Family Vacations”.
More importantly, these generic destination-type searches far outpace the volume of hotel-brand specific queries, which is why it’s critical for hotels to rank prominently in local search results.
When Google announced its new “Place Search” on October 27, the implications were significant as the travel industry depends on search traffic to drive revenue.
With Place Search, Google has eliminated separate local listings (also known as the seven-pack) and combined them with organic results in a dramatic new display.
The map has moved to the right hand side. Hotel listings integrate user generated content such as reviews, website links, addresses, phone numbers as well as average review ratings.
Depending on the search query, Google may also suggest neighborhoods or a type of hotel to help narrow the search results.
Google even includes reviews and links to third-party sites such as tripadvisor.com and yelp.com.
For its part, Google says Place Search makes it easier to find a comprehensive view of each place by offering a new layout with many more relevant links on a single results page - often 30 or 40.
So instead of doing eight or ten searches looking for the websites you want, you’ll find them in just one search.
It’s also intended to cluster search results around specific locations so users can more easily make comparisons and find the information they are seeking.
Search experts will be analyzing this marriage of local and organic algorithms for months to come. But several things are already clear.
First, optimizing your hotel’s online profiles with up-to-date, detailed and accurate information is critical.
It’s also evident that guest reviews will help hotels get better placement in these new merged listings. And why not?
Eighty-four percent of Americans say online customer evaluations have an influence on their decision to purchase a product or service. Now reviews will also help hotel rankings, click-through-rates (CTR’s) and conversion rates.
To illustrate how Place Search will change the game, here are search result examples, based on a search for Albuquerque hotels, before and after Place Search was implemented.
Before, the local listings 7-pack was above organic listings, with paid ads on the right.
After:
After 2: In this example for “luxury hotel room Albuquerque”, Google shows a more dramatic display of results.
This version expands on the information displayed in Google Places listings. It is apparent that Google merged organic and local search results.
Google displays two to three- line descriptions for Places listings, quotes from review sites, the total number of reviews on third-party sites and links to review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp.
So, to optimize their Google Places listing, hoteliers should:
- Be specific about your location and include landmarks, arenas, conventions, street names (i.e. Magnificent Mile in Chicago or Duval Street in Key West) and virtually anything makes your hotel location unique.
- Be specific about your brand. Do you offer luxury suites? Best rates? Beach resort? Emphasizing these terms in Google Places can help you be found for these types of search queries.
- Post an event deal on Google Places using "Google Places Post Event" option.
- Add coupons (i.e. AARP rate, Best Rate Guarantee) and experiment with Google Tags.
- Create customized fields and informative business descriptions that utilize relevant keywords.
- Integrate brand-approved photos and videos.
- Fill out all applicable fields, including Hours of Operation, Payment Methods, and Service Areas.
- Encourage online reviews from leisure guests, meeting guests and event/wedding planners etc.
- Respond to Google guest reviews through Google Places.
- Ensure that your Google Places flag is located in the proper spot.
These changes will continue to be modified by Google in the next 30-60 days.
With that said, those that see a decrease in their rankings will need to move quickly in updating their search strategies in order to regain ground and get back in the game.
NB: This is a guest post by Jon Schepke, president of SIM Partners, a Chicago-based full service marketing agency specialising in mobile, search engine marketing and social media.