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The most searched for hotels brands also have the most visited websites -- but this need not be so
September 23, 2005
I did some analysis last week on the search terms sending UK visits to hotel websites and noticed two particularly interesting things:
- The most searched for hotel brands also have the most visited websites
- Searches for locations make up a larger share of search terms sending visits to hotel websites than do brand searches.
Travelodge UK, InterContinental Hotels, and Premier Travel Inn own the brands that were most searched for by UK internet users. These hotel chains also have the most visited hotel websites in the UK. This pattern continues down the rankings with the exception of easyJethotels.com which relies on its sister company easyJet for visits rather than its own brand strength.
As the title of this post indicates, this need not be so! There is tremendous opportunity for smaller hotels to snap up market share from the leading players by capitalizing on the location opportunity!
Percent of Search Terms among Top 200 Sending Visits to Destinations and Accommodation Websites in Four Weeks Ending 3 September 2005
22% of search terms sending visits to Destination & Accommodation websites are searches on specific locations. These range from tourist attractions including 'london eye', 'warwick castle' and 'chatsworth house' to cities and countries, such as 'hotels in dublin' and 'york hotels'.
There are plenty of opportunities for search marketers to attract potential hotel guests to a hotel website by bidding on search terms for specific locations. Marketers promoting hotel brands can take advantage of vast inventories or niche locations to draw visitors to the site.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 04:24 PM
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Thank you for sharing that observation :-)
Ironically, this is true of almost all Brick and Mortar Products and Services.
By putting the State, Province, County and/or City (including any common abbreviations) in the Title Tag and Body Text of the Web pages, traffic and Phone inquiries literally "DOUBLED" for all of our clients!
It appears that generally, consumers find it easier to just add the location or Abbreviation to a search query than to use the new LOCAL Search options that many search engines have included.
This of course, is the most obvious in Hotels and Real Estate related sites.
Posted by Search Engines Web | October 22, 2005 12:21 AM