Search Marketing Update - May 2006

Search engines are an essential component of the hotel direct online distribution strategy:

• According to Forrester research about 80% of overall website visits begin in a search engine or a directory service. Many other surveys also show that up to 85% of Internet users rely on search engines to locate relevant information on the Web (e.g. Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc).
• PhoCusWright surveys found that three-fifths of online travel shoppers cite search engines as resources to research their vacations.
• According to a recent study by the comScore Networks (February 2005), some 73% of online travel buyers conducted relevant keyword searches in the weeks prior to an online travel purchase
• Merrill Lynch predicts that search-related travel bookings will double each year through 2007

Reasons why US Online Travelers use search engines by type of travel (as % of respondents)

                              Leisure  Travelers                Business Travelers

To get info about a destination:                      61%                                64%

To see available specials/offers:                   56%                                53%

 To find out about fares or rates:                     52%                               53%

To find things to do at my destination:          47%                                46%

To learn which travel suppliers serve a market: 41%                        39%

To find pictures of a destination to visit:        33%                                35%

(Forrester Research, 2004)

Top Ten Search Engines Among US Users

(ranked by unique visitors, October 2005, in thousands):

Google                                  75,281

Yahoo! Search                     68,031

MSN Search                         49,748

Ask Jeeves                            43,705

AOL Search                          36,092

Yahoo Local Search           20,270

MySpace Search                  8,083

InfoSpace Search                 5,942

Lycos Network Search        5,249

LookSmart                             4,402

(ComScore Media Metrix)

Unlike other e-commerce categories, Internet users search for travel and hospitality services and offerings within the context of a particular destination. This destination-focused search engine strategy requires in-depth knowledge of the travel and hospitality industry, extensive destination research, destination target keyword analysis, etc. Only a destination-focused search engine strategy can help the hotel website leverage the popularity of the destination for your benefit.

The order in which the hotel appears on a search engine is of absolute importance. According to iProspect’s April 2006 study, 62% of search engine users click on links returned within the first page of search results. A full 90% of users click on links within the first three pages of search results.

Search ranking affects consumer attitudes and perceptions for brand quality. Among search engine users, 36% believe that companies whose websites are listed at the top of the search results are also the leading brands.

What are the Search Engines looking at?

Here are the most important criteria used by the search engines to rank a hotel website:

• The overall search-engine friendliness of the site (the search engine bots do not like sites built entirely in FLASH, sites built in frames, Intro/Splash pages with no navigation and copy, lack of site maps, the copy in GIF or JPEG and not in HTML text format, etc)
• Relevancy of the website to the search term used (e.g. San Francisco Hotel)
• Rich and deep content on the siteBody copy with high keyword density number of relevant keywords per 100 words of copy)
• Invisible copy (page titles, description tags, meta tags), supported by the body copy.
• Link Popularity of the site (number of incoming links from highly authoritative websites like hotel directories, portals, etc)
• PageRank (Google)
• Traffic Rank

Read more in our article: Search Engine Marketing in Hospitality.

Online distribution has become the main distribution channel in hospitality. Search marketing is an essential component of the hotel direct online distribution strategy and is one of the many aspects of a robust eMarketing strategy.

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