Ed Tank

1. Search Marketing
for
Hoteliers
October 26, 2011

2. Let’s Get Acquainted
• Ed Tankersley
• Principal of Eight Trails
• Smarter websites and
online marketing
• 20+ years advertising
and marketing
• Interactive director
• Creative director
• Writer

3. Let’s Get Acquainted
• Ed Tankersley
• Google AdWords Qualified Individual

4. What is SEM?

8. Connect with potential
customers while they’re
actively searching for
your service!

9. Natural search (SEO)
vs paid search (PPC)

14. SEO vs PPC
• SEO helps you with your organic
search rankings
• PPC is a way to pay for position on
the search results pages (and other
websites, too)
• PPC is not affected by what you do
with SEO
• SEO is not affected by what you do
with PPC

15. What is SEO?
• AKA Search Engine Optimization,
Search Optimization
• Improvements to your website – and
related to your website – that
improve your site’s ranking in search
engines

16. Why Does SEO Matter?
When someone does a search, they
have communicated that they are
interested, motivated, and engaged

17. Why Does SEO Matter?
60%
of consumers use the Internet
as their first-line tool to search for
local businesses
Source: comScore 2007 Search Report

18. Why Does SEO Matter?
60%
of those searchers
go on to make a purchase
Source: comScore 2007 Search Report

19. Top 10 Rank is Critical
Source: http://www.seoresearcher.com/distribution-of-clicks-on-googles-serps-and-eye-tracking-analysis.htm

20. SEO:
Optimizing Your Site

21. What is Google’s Purpose?
To deliver useful, relevant results
to their searchers

22. What determines your rank?
• It’s all about relevant results for
searchers
• On-site factors, such as
• Visible page content
• Site structure
• Page load time
• Off-site factors, especially
• In-bound links

23. Optimizing is a 5-Step Process
1. Keyword research
2. Site updates
3. Submit to search engines and
directories
4. Build links
5. Measure and adjust

24. Step 1: Keyword Research
Keyword – A word or series of words
that a searcher types into the search
box

25. Step 1: Keyword Research
• Generate a seed list
• Ask your customers
• Ask your front-line employees
• Look at analytics or server logs
• Use tools to expand your list
• Evaluate and rank your keywords by
• High search volume
• High relevance
• Low competition

26. Sample Seed List
1. Hotel
2. Inn
3. Family Hotel
4. Luxury Hotel
5. Pet Friendly Hotel
6. Hotel Deals
7. Flagstaff Hotel
8. Northern Arizona Hotel
9. Hotel Reviews
10. Hotel Ratings

27. Evaluate Search Volume
• Get search volume estimates
• Google Keyword Tool
• adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolEx
ternal
• Wordtracker
• freekeywords.wordtracker.com
• Keyword Discovery
• www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html

29. Evaluate Relevance
Are the people who search for that
keyword likely to be buyers?

30. Evaluate Relevance
• The more precise the search, the
closer they are to buying:
• Hotels
• Flagstaff hotels
• Flagstaff hotel reviews
• Pet friendly flagstaff hotel
• Pet friendly flagstaff hotel downtown

31. Evaluate Competition
• You can’t be number 1 for everything
• Use long tail keywords

33. Select Your Keywords
• Start with a manageable number –
10-20 – these are your Target
Keywords
• Match the Target Keywords to
relevant pages of your site
• One keyword per page

34. Step 2: Optimize Your Site
• Focus on content
• Fix the major problems
• Get help with the tougher things

35. Content – Visible
• Text
• Domain name
• Page title
• URL
• Headings – H1, H2, H3
• Internal links

38. Content – Hidden
• Description
• Image alt tags
• Keywords

39. Structure
• Separation of content and presentation
• Important stuff first
• Text-based navigation

43. Don’t build your site in Flash!

46. Other On-Site Factors
• Content is kept current
• Site map
• Custom error page
• Robots.txt

47. Off-Site Factors
• Inbound links
• Domain authority
• Quality of anchor text
Bad
Better

48. Step 3: Submit Your Site
• Search Engines
• Google
• Bing
• Directories
• Yahoo
• Open Directory (dmoz.org)
• JoeAnt
• Business.com

49. Step 4: Link Building
• Blogs
• Forums
• Press Releases
• Don’t buy links
• Don’t bother with link exchanges
• Most social media sites use
“nofollow” tags so they don’t help
your site get better ranking

51. Step 5: Measure
• Google Analytics
• Referrers
• Search terms
• Authority Labs
• Position monitoring

52. Adjust
• Getting to the top takes time
• SEO never stops
• Give it a few months to see results
• Adjust and refine regularly based on
what you measure

53. Is SEO Free?
• keyword research
• content generation
• site updates
• tracking
• link-building
• also consider visitor intent – typically
higher with a well-executed PPC ad

54. Resources
• EightTrails.com
• SEOmoz.com
• SEObook.com
• SearchEngineLand.com

55. What is AdWords?
• AdWords is Google’s paid search
advertising program
• Paid search is also known as pay-
per-click or PPC
• PPC is one component of SEM

56. AdWords Essentials
• Benefits of AdWords
• Reach
• Targeting
• Flexibility
• Measurability

57. AdWords Essentials
• AdWords is an auction
• The higher you bid, the higher your
ads appear (generally)

58. AdWords Essentials
• You pay only when someone clicks
on your ad
• Hence, pay-per-click
• There is no minimum budget
requirement
• Spend as much or as little as works
for you

59. AdWords Essentials
• Your bid price for a given position is
determined by competition AND your
Quality Score
• With a good Quality Score, you could
rank higher than a competitor for a
lower bid price

60. AdWords Essentials
• Your Quality Score is determined by
• The relevance of your ad
• The relevance of your landing page
• Your clickthrough rate
• Other mysterious factors

61. AdWords Essentials
• AdWords comprises:
• Search Network
• Google search
• Search partners (AOL, Earthlink)
• Display Network
• Hundreds of thousands of websites

62. The Lowdown
on Keywords

63. Keyword Research
• Generate a seed list
• Ask your customers
• Ask your front-line employees
• Look at analytics or server logs
• Use tools to expand your list
• Evaluate and rank your keywords by
• High search volume
• High relevance
• Low competition

64. Select Your Keywords
• Arrange keywords into closely
related groups
• Location
• Room amenities
• Promotions
• Nearby attractions

65. Hands-On
Create a Keyword List
• Write a seed list across the top
• Write similar keywords below each
seed word to create groups

66. The Lowdown on Keywords
• Use negative keywords to tell
AdWords what searches are not
relevant to your business

67. The Lowdown on Keywords
• Put your most popular keywords in
their own group
• Put lots of keywords in your
campaign
• Add new keywords regularly

68. Your Secret
Advantage –
Irresistible Ads

69. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
The purpose of your ad is to get
people to click on your ad!

70. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
People don’t need a drill…
…they need a hole.
Sell your benefits!

71. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
< Benefits
< Features

72. Explore Your Benefits
• Create a list of features
• Extend those to benefits
• Add emotional promise if you can

73. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
• Include a call to action and make it
specific
• Bad: Click here.
• Better: Learn about our hotel.
• Best: Book online. Buy now. Reserve
your spot. Get yours today.

74. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
• Include a call to action and make it
specific

75. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
• Put your price in your ad

76. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
Spy on your competitors,
then differentiate

78. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
• Write two ads and let them battle

79. What Can You Test?
• Headlines
• Offers
• Features
• Benefits
• Appeal/Promise
• URLs
• Capitalization

80. Your Secret Advantage –
Irresistible Ads
• Use your top keyword in your ad
headline

81. Optimize Your Ad
Groups for Success

82. Organize Your Ad Groups for
Success
• Create tightly focused ad groups
• One feature or promotion per ad
group, for example

83. Bonus Tips
for Insiders Only

84. Ad Extensions Supercharge
Your PPC Ads

85. Create a separate campaign for
your branded keywords
• Company name
• Website
• Variations
• Keeps these top performers from
skewing your other metrics

86. Ad Scheduling
• Test Ad Scheduling to run your ads
during those hours when you want
to answer the phone

87. Be Patient
• Don’t make changes too frequently
• Allow enough time to observe
relevant trends

88. Be a Hoarder
• Don’t delete ads
• Pause and replace
• Review old underperforming ads for
new ideas

89. Bookmark These
• EightTrails.com
• adwords.google.com
• google.com/adwords/learningcenter
– advanced tutorials
• adwords.google.com/select/Keyword
ToolExternal –
keyword tool

90. Questions?
Effusive Praise?
• Ed Tankersley
• EightTrails.com
• ed@eighttrails.com
• 602-361-2001