Search Engine Marketing

Posted on Feb 7th 2022 by Bryan Marsh
A lot has changed in the digital marketing space in the last year. Updates to social media platforms and advertising, new media platforms becoming increasingly popular, and changes in how online users behave and engage, are just the tip of the iceberg. Wi...
Posted on Jan 8th 2022 by Bryan Marsh
What is SEO Search engine optimisation or SEO is the process of looking at your hotel website, and seeing what can be improved, changed, or added so that it is more likely to appear in the top results in a search engine. Whether the user is searching on G...
Posted on Sep 3rd 2021 by Bryan Marsh
When you search Google for hotels in your location, is your hotel one of the first results to appear? If it isn't, chances are your hotel website needs SEO. SEO, which stands for search engine optimisation, is the key to climbing up the search engine resu...
Posted on Jun 17th 2020 by Bryan Marsh
As restrictions ease and the general excitement of travelling again increases, making sure that your hotel and resort has a solid SEO strategy in place is more important than ever - especially if you're looking to get an edge over your competitors as tour...
Posted on Mar 14th 2019 by Bryan Marsh
How's your hotel's SEO campaign shaping up in 2019? As we move into the third month of the year (already!) it's time to recap the big search trends marketers are using to reach their audiences online and the new direction search is moving in. 1. Voice Sea...
Posted on Nov 21st 2018 by Bryan Marsh
With just 6 weeks of 2018 remaining, it's definitely not too early to start looking ahead to the next year in marketing and the tactics you'll be using to rank highly in the search results pages and maximise traffic to your hotel's website in the coming m...
Posted on Nov 2nd 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Despite the "content is king" mantra we're all sick of by now, SEO remains one of the most crucial factors when it comes to making sure your website ranks highly in the Google SERPs and gets clicked on by your guests. But with the digital landscape changi...
Posted on Oct 19th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Incorporating videos into your marketing mix is no longer an afterthought it's a necessity. But as with every other form of content marketing, it's not enough to simply create high quality videos, you've got to stick to a range of best practices to ensure...
Posted on Aug 24th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
With the competition for organic traffic tougher than ever, what kind of risks are you willing to take to secure your hotel's website a better position in the SERPs? For marketers, the temptation to disregard search engine guidelines and draw on black or...
Posted on Jun 8th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Most hotel marketers are aware by now that producing high quality content on a regular basis plays an integral role in getting noticed by the right people online. But without the right research to inform and shape that content, creating blog posts can fee...
Posted on Feb 23rd 2018 by Bryan Marsh
It has been a debate in digital marketing for a while now: do social signals impact search ranking? While the jury is still out for many on the issue, Google's Matt Cutts has said that a brand's social presence is part of the overall mix of search ranking...
Posted on Feb 16th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
We're all familiar with the stats by now: 75% of Google users won't bother to scroll past the first page of the SERPs, securing that elusive number one ranking spot will get you almost 33% of the clicks. Basically, getting to the first page of search resu...
Posted on Feb 1st 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Google is getting more and more sophisticated when it comes to differentiating between high and low quality content. Traditional SEO tactics such as link building have been replaced with an emphasis on creating the best possible user experience, and video...
Posted on Nov 17th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
As any online marketer will tell you, SEO is an increasingly complex art to master. Not only are there more than 200 different factors which make up Google's algorithm, the search landscape is constantly shifting, and each shift brings with it a new set o...
Posted on Oct 9th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
In the struggle to keep up with the constantly evolving digital marketing landscape, it's all too easy to lose sight of basic SEO practices we should all be using to get discovered by the right audience online. Although every new algorithm update inevitab...
Posted on Aug 25th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
With the explosion of content marketing in recent years, the competition to get your hotel noticed by your guests online is fiercer than ever. Unfortunately, there's no quick fix to SEO. But with a little patience, dedication and commitment to these best...
Posted on Aug 10th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Despite the evolution of the search landscape in recent years, using white hat tactics to build high quality links remains an important touchstone of good SEO. It's simple: however great your content and on-page SEO techniques, you need relevant, authorit...
Posted on Apr 26th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Responsible for delivering holiday planning travellers directly to your website, SEO is one of the most important components of your hotel's online strategy. Unfortunately, it's also one of the most difficult areas to master, with hundreds of Google algor...
Posted on Feb 22nd 2017 by Bryan Marsh
With the huge emphasis that has been placed on content production in recent years, competition for travel consumers' attention online has never been fiercer. A high quality and strategic SEO campaign is therefore essential if you want to be the best answe...
Posted on Feb 3rd 2017 by Bryan Marsh
It's a debate that rages on and on, and not least when it comes to online travel marketing: is search engine optimisation still relevant, or is it a dying practice? Well I can confirm, SEO is alive and well in fact, organic search consistently generates t...
Posted on Oct 20th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Choosing the right words to rank for can make or break the success of your hotel's PPC campaigns. By taking time to conduct research into the market's demand for certain keywords and phrases, you can identify the words to target to reach more of your gues...
Posted on Jul 4th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
93% of all online experiences begin with a query typed into a search engine. SEO is all about helping Google and the other search engines understand how your website is likely to be a relevant and helpful source of information for these queries. Appearing...
Posted on Jun 24th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
SEO is constantly evolving. New Google algorithms, insights and best practices emerge on a regular basis and it's essential to keep on top of these changes if you want to beat your competition and get found in the search results by your guests. Here are 4...
Posted on May 27th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Driving a steady flow of relevant traffic to your hotel website is integral to the success of your entire digital marketing campaign. If you don't have online travellers landing on your website, it's impossible to convert them into bookings and loyal, lon...
Posted on Jan 27th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Whatever other marketing tactics come and go in the coming 12 months, SEO is here to stay. Recent stats show that an average of 12 billion online searches are made every month, and that's just in the US. With so many people using Google and other search e...
Posted on Sep 2nd 2015 by Admin
Search engines have come a long way since the early days of the internet, which means search marketers have had to change their game plans quite drastically in their attempts to master them. Keywords remain important, but you'll need to do far more than...
Posted on Mar 3rd 2015 by Bryan Marsh
SEO has come a long way. Following the Hummingbird algorithm update of 2013, Google has been placing less value on keyword matching, focusing instead on context, uniqueness and quality in an attempt to serve up the most relevant results for its users. So...
Posted on Jan 16th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Creating an effective SEO campaign is an ongoing commitment " you should be continuingly revisiting your strategies to ensure your site ranks highly in the SERPs and gets clicked-on by your guests. Now that the New Year celebrations are over, why not take...
Posted on Oct 22nd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
In a recent blog post we took a look at some of the most important on-page SEO elements and how often they need to be updated to keep your website ranking highly and bringing in lots of organic search traffic. It's now time to turn our attention to the of...
Posted on Oct 16th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Perfecting your SEO strategy is not a one-off task; it's an ongoing commitment. After all, Google is reported to make more than 500 algorithm tweaks annually, many of which have the potential to impact your website's ranking, the amount of organic traffic...
Posted on Sep 24th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Images and video have appeared in search results for some time now, but often, rich media of this type is very much an afterthought when it comes to search engine optimisation. Although optimising text content is integral to any successful SEO strategy, p...
Posted on Sep 11th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google Analytics is one of the best tools out there for getting to grips with your website metrics, but if you haven't set it up correctly, all you'll achieve is inaccurate data and incorrect conclusions about how your organic traffic converts. Here are 5...
Posted on Aug 6th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Successful SEO is about much more than keyword rankings. If you want your resort's website to survive algorithm changes, avoid Google penalties, and get noticed on a web saturated with content, here are 5 critical SEO mistakes you need to avoid....
Posted on Aug 5th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Who needs Google? Well, we all do. Ranking for important keywords is an undeniably powerful way to get your resort's name in front of your guests and drive streams of relevant traffic back to your website ready to make a booking. But with Google constantl...
Posted on Jun 18th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
From social media to blogging and email marketing, there are so many strategies available to improve your resort's online visibility that it's easy to overlook one of the oldest, yet most effective. After all, link building is dead, isn't it? The answer t...
Posted on Jun 18th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
There's no doubt about it: if you want to climb the search results, capture valuable relevant traffic and send it to your resort's website, you have a lot of work to put in. You need to design a strong SEO strategy, implement it successfully into your sit...
Posted on Jun 10th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google+ does not yet command the colossal membership numbers enjoyed by Facebook and Twitter, but thanks to its close integration into many other Google products, the platform is perhaps more crucial to your SEO success than any of the other social networ...
Posted on May 21st 2014 by Bryan Marsh
As we discussed in a recent blog, Google+ looks certain to grow and grow as Google seeks to incorporate the social platform into all its most popular products. Now that Google+ is still relatively 'young', it's a good time to make sure you've mastered its...
Posted on Apr 30th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Last year, Google caused (another) shake up in the marketing world by removing organic keyword data from Google Analytics, replacing it with the words 'Not Provided'. Since then, speculation has been rife that the search company plans to start blocking p...
Posted on Apr 28th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
The world of Search Engine Optimisation can appear complex and sometimes baffling, so it's not surprising that even in 2014, some people still cling to ideas and practises that are no longer relevant, misjudged or simply obsolete. Listening to these SEO m...
Posted on Mar 26th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Almost every year, the same message can be heard resonating from marketing circles: SEO is officially "dead" or at least changed so fundamentally that it's completely unrecognizable from what it once was. The truth is, search engine optimisation is alive...
Posted on Feb 19th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
With the world of Search constantly changing, and countless new tactics popping up in the marketer's SEO rulebook every month, how do you choose where to prioritise your efforts for maximum results?...
Posted on Feb 5th 2014 by Lee Tester
We all know that optimising your website's content and design is a key component of any successful SEO strategy. But it's also possible to dominate the search rankings with off-site content that you control or at least influence, while at the same time im...
Posted on Jan 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
If, following our recent blog post about Yahoo, Bing and SEO, you've decided to go ahead and dedicate a little more time to these 'alternative' search engines, this is the post for you. Worried about finding time to incorporate two more search engines int...
Posted on Jan 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
When you hear the words "search engine," what's the first name you think of? Chances are your answer is Google, and with good reason. The company has become synonymous with search, boasting a 67% share of the global market and an impressive 6 billion sear...
Posted on Jan 22nd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Maintaining a blog isn't just about writing great content; it's about encouraging a dialogue with your audience. The comments section is the ideal place to encourage your guests to share their thoughts, ideas and opinions, but with so many spammers out th...
Posted on Jan 22nd 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Now that we're a few weeks into the New Year, have you stopped to think about where you'd like to take your property's marketing campaign in the coming 11 months? Taking time to reassess your efforts will keep you focused on everything you need to achieve...
Posted on Dec 18th 2013 by Administrator
SEO has changed radically in the last few years, but many businesses are still inadvertently limiting their ranking potential by relying on ineffective, outdated techniques that at best do nothing, and at worst, are actively penalised by Google. Here are...
Posted on Dec 11th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Your resort's website is the best tool at your disposal for driving online bookings, and as you know, SEO plays a crucial role in making sure as many of your guests as possible actually land on it. Good SEO isn't just about driving high volumes of traffic...
Posted on Dec 4th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
If you want to dominate search results, you need to make sure your main social profiles and pages, as well as your website itself, rank highly. One of the best ways to help these pages climb the rankings is through building links, both from external websi...
Posted on Nov 20th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Great SEO isn't just about ranking highly for those carefully chosen keywords and phrases anymore. It's about making sure you have the right content and technical strategies in place to get taken seriously by Google and get in front of as many of your gue...
Posted on Nov 7th 2013 by Lee Tester
Nothing beats hitting 'publish' on a new blog post, but even when the new content is finished and up on your site, there's work to be done to maximise its reach. This simple post-publication action plan will help you get more out of each blog you publish....
Posted on Nov 1st 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Search engines see the number of links directing to your website as a strong indication that your content is worth linking to, and therefore worth ranking highly on the search results page. However, increasingly, it's not just the sheer volume of links to...
Posted on Oct 30th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Your guests have a constantly expanding library of opinions about your property right at their fingertips in the form of TripAdvisor, Google's Hotel Finder, Yelp and a host of other review sites. As we discussed in a recent blog post, it's virtually impos...
Posted on Oct 9th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Getting specific when it comes to SEO can be a very profitable strategy. By ranking highly for keywords related to your resort's particular niche, your website will attract higher quality traffic and generate more bookings than ever before. Decide on Your...
Posted on Oct 1st 2013 by Lee Tester
You've had your resort's website professionally designed to showcase your property's best features. You're driving traffic there through a carefully thought-out marketing campaign that includes a social media strategy, email, blogging and possibly pay-per...
Posted on Sep 12th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Uploading promotional videos to YouTube boosts your online marketing campaign by bringing your property's best features to life, capturing the attention and imagination of guests and getting them ready to make a booking. With a little time and effort, the...
Posted on Sep 3rd 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Google has introduced a string of algorithm updates in the last few years in an attempt to banish spam and prioritise quality, freshness and social content on the search results page. All this has stirred up a lot of debate about the value and future of S...
Posted on Aug 19th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Ever since Facebook and Twitter became an integral component of every company's online marketing campaign, debate has raged about how far social media will overtake traditional SEO when it comes to ranking highly in search....
Posted on Dec 17th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Google's Hotel Finder product has recently become available on a global scale and the company is beginning to display Google Hotel results in regular search engine results pages....
Posted on Oct 16th 2012 by Allan Gaddi
Meta tags are html codes that contain your pages' metadata. They are meant to convey additional data for use by web browsers, search engines, and the like. They are the insider information, so to speak....
Posted on Jul 9th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Google dominates 87.6% of the search engine market share worldwide, so it goes it without saying that optimising your resort's website to rank highly in Google search results is essential. And where better to find out how to improve your ranking than from...
Posted on Jun 13th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Appearing in local search results is pretty essential to the success of your resort's internet marketing campaign. While there's been lots written about the importance of Google Place pages and local web content when it comes to boosting your local search...
Posted on Apr 4th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Recent research released by Google has demonstrated that even when a brand ranks highly in organic search, they can effectively double their number of clicks by investing in an accompanying advert....
Posted on Mar 7th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Search Engine Optimisation is rapidly evolving, and many digital marketers are struggling to keep up....
Posted on Feb 6th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
TripAdvisor have announced the launch of an analytics tool to help hotels stay on top of their internet marketing game. The new Management Dashboard service provides a detailed breakdown of individual property's performance and reputation on TripAdvisor,...
Posted on Apr 5th 2011 by Bryan Marsh
Last week Google announced the +1 button, it's latest push into social search, nearly a year after Facebook launched Like buttons. The Google +1 button allows you to "+1" the search results and advertisements that you like. Soon you will also be able to a...
Posted on Mar 17th 2011 by Bryan Marsh
Today I would like to demonstrate how blogging can increase the search ranking of certain pages within your website. One of the features of your resort might be that it has a unique location for example it is situated within walking distance from the loca...
Posted on Mar 16th 2011 by Bryan Marsh
Limelight Networks reports that just over 50% of bandwidth usage in the US is online video. That's a 107% growth in video bandwidth over last year, what an incredible statistic. Today very few Australian resorts and serviced apartments are using online vi...
Posted on Mar 1st 2011 by Bryan Marsh
Room77 is a search engine for hotel rooms with over 425,000 hotel rooms in 16 cites in the US and UK. The developer have built profiles of thousands of hotel rooms detailing information on the room location, bed types, size, proximity to the elevator plus...
Posted on Jan 28th 2011 by eTourism
One common question that many resort managers share is how to evaluate their SEO effectiveness. To date, it can be difficult to gauge if your SEO is performing or not, let alone, fully grasp the requirements of an effective online advertising strategy....
Posted on Nov 22nd 2010 by eTourism
It's been weeks since Google rolled out Instant Previews"a feature that allows users to preview the results right on the search engine results page by displaying a screenshot with the click of a magnifying glass....
Posted on Nov 11th 2010 by eTourism
Google pushes the boundaries in search even further by creating a speedier and more useful user experience with its new feature, Instant Previews...
Posted on Nov 10th 2010 by eTourism
Time and time again, online marketing experts stress the value of a well-optimised website and content. If you're struggling with SEO, here are 5 ways on how you can optimise better....
Posted on Nov 4th 2010 by eTourism
Google Places, formerly known as Google Maps or Google Local is Google's new way of giving more localised results....
Posted on Oct 18th 2010 by eTourism
Microsoft and Facebook recently announced a new partnership that brings "Like" data and profile search to Bing....
Posted on Sep 20th 2010 by eTourism
Facebook and Microsoft are currently in talks of expanding the search ties the two have been sharing for many years. Sources say that these talks include the possibility for Microsoft's Bing search service to find data from consumer usage of the social n...
Posted on Sep 16th 2010 by eTourism
Last week, Google unveiled Instant"a new search interface that provides real-time suggested results as keywords are entered into the Google search box. But the main question is: how will this change affect your resort? Will Google Instant "Kill SEO" o...
Posted on Sep 9th 2010 by eTourism
Today, search giant Google introduced a new version of its search engine interface"Google Instant. This new interface provides real-time suggested results as keywords are entered into Google....
Posted on Aug 30th 2010 by eTourism
Decades ago, hotels had to worry about building a brand, providing a good product with excellent customer service, and maintaining a good reputation within their community. It still holds true today"the only difference is that Internet advanc...
Posted on Aug 26th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
Yahoo! Search Products announced this week that Bing will now officially power Yahoo's organic search results in USA and Canada, more specifically their web, image and video search. However, they have yet to announce its official roll out in Australia,...
Posted on Jul 8th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
By now everyone in the online world has heard about Google's acquisition of Software Company ITA. We have heard the rumors of Google's potential monopoly of Cyberspace and the online travel industry, but what does this mean for companies already in the ma...
Posted on Jun 14th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
Last week we discussed the importance of content in your SEO strategy. This week I want to focus on a specific type of content " the video....
Posted on Jun 10th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
When creating a website it is important to ensure the content included within it is effectively optimised. What this entails is an effective Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy. An effective strategy would see your website rank highly in major searc...
Posted on May 14th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
There is a buzz in cyber space in the wake of Google's release of the new look interfaces....
Posted on May 6th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
Google announced its plans to launch its new Search Engine Interface, which according to ITech Report should be visible to Australian users later today....
Posted on Apr 12th 2010 by Jessica Stevens
Apple is making waves by launching a new program, iAds for mobiles. This new software is the first step made by Apple to enter the business of selling advertising, once again placing itself at odds with Google. Google's AdWords application features a simi...
Posted on Apr 8th 2010 by Max Starkov
Facebook is definitely here to stay and has experienced tremendous growth, but it is not going to replace Google as a travel planning tool anytime soon. Though Facebook initiatives drive traffic to hotel websites, this trackable traffic is not directly re...
Posted on Apr 6th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
Google Maps is currently experimenting with a new feature which aims to make planning for vacations faster and more effective. The new feature on Google Maps displays specific prices for selected hotel listings....
Posted on Aug 18th 2009 by Bryan Marsh
On Monday, August 10, Google made an unusual announcement by pre-warning the world about changes to its organic search algorithm....