As a hotelier, it's difficult to know where to place your digital marketing budget for the best ROI. There are plenty of options, but none have the instant results quite like pay-per-click advertising (PPC).  Maybe you have heard that your hotel brand particpates in pay-per-click advertising, but you may not be certain of what PPC advertising means for your specific hotel. Here's a crash course on PPC advertising for hotels, why it is different than organic SEO efforts, and why your property should be investing in this channel.

Pretend for a moment that you are grocery shopping. You walk up and down the aisles, trying to find the perfect product for your dinner/meal/snack/weird late-night food cravings, "searching" through all the products, picking up packages and reading their descriptions, until you find the one that you feel is best for you. Purchase made.

Let's identify the steps here:

1. You have a need.
2. You, the shopper, the guest, the user, "search" for something to fill that need.
3. The store lines its shelves with things that might possibly fulfill your need, and...
4. You pick the most relevant "answer" to best fulfill this need. If you picked one brand, for example Special K cereal, from 100 choices on the shelves, this would represent an organic search.

Now let's say the Kellogg's brand paid for better placement of their Special K cereal in order to make their product stand out from their competitors. Maybe instead of the cereal appearing on the bottom shelf, Kellogg's pays to have their Special K cereal placed at eye-level in the high-traffic half of the cereal aisle. This would represent a paid search effort. Paid search efforts are a way to ensure that you are more visible than your competitors to shoppers.

What is PPC?

• Pay-per-click advertising is exactly what it sounds like; you only pay for the clicks your ads receive. No clicks = No spend.
• Cost-Per-Click (CPC): this is the cost incurred per click. CPC is a basic metric that is often used to set budgets and expectations for a particular account. 
  For Example: If your average CPC is $2, and you budget $1,000 a month, you can expect (roughly) 500 clicks a month from the ads.
• PPC ads show up on the top and the right side of a search engine results page (in green in photo below) after a user has entered the query into the search engine. The ad will enter an auction for the position, and the winning ad will be shown.

As this photo shows, the sponsored placements (green) will always be visible on the results page, while the organic placements (blue) and the local placements (red) depend on ranking factors. This is where SEO comes in. 

Why Do Advertisers Need PPC?

• The purpose of paid search is to capture traffic that might have otherwise been directed to the highest ranking site on the organic results page. It is one of the quickest and easiest ways to put your business on the top of the search engine results page, which can be especially beneficial for a site that does not rank well organically for certain keywords or search queries.
• PPC enhances all other marketing tactics: social media, email marketing, SEO, local results.
• PPC is easily customized to very specific products, promotions, or offerings.
• PPC can send traffic to the most relevant page on the site, eliminating the user’s need for navigation (and eliminating chances to drop-off!). 
  For Example: if you want to drive more traffic for summer weddings in Sacramento, your ads can send the user directly to your weddings page that showcases pictures, floor plans, catering, etc.
• Out of budget? **Click** Now your PPC advertising and spending is turned off until you turn it back on. Instantaneous.

Why Do Hotels Need PPC?

Nearly every business can benefit from PPC Advertising, whether in building brand awareness, selling a specific product, or even getting folks into a brick-and-mortar location. Every business should be utilizing this channel in their online marketing strategy, and hotels specifically can greatly benefit from PPC in a number of ways:

• Hotels are constantly battling dependency on OTAs, like Expedia and Travelocity, which collect a hefty margin for each booking. PPC efforts allow hotels to capture some of the market that would have gone straight to an OTA, and encourages guests to book accommodations on their most profitable channel: their website.
• Hotels can direct traffic to their specific property. This ensures that the conversion (and revenue!) stays with your property, not on a different property in the same area.
  For Example: if a search is done for "hotels in Oakland", there will be landing pages devoted to all of a brand's properties in Oakland. A hotel will face competition from its own sister properties. The goal of these pages is to elevate the brand as a whole, not the specific hotel.
• SEO + PPC = page dominance. Hopefully, your SEO tactics have put you at the top for both organic and local results. Pair those efforts with PPC’s ability to show your ad at the top or right of the page, and you have now given your audience THREE different opportunities to come to your site and not your competitors’.
• Special offers, events, wedding or restaurant pages: Brand.com will run ads for “Hotels in [insert big city here]”. While this does drive traffic to your property's home page, broad searches such as these indicate the user is likely just beginning their search and not ready to book. By running property-specific PPC, you can now send those seeking wedding venues, on-site restaurants, business meeting space, and anything else your property offers to a specific landing page.

What's The Catch?

While few and far between, there are some 'cons' of PPC advertising. With all the dynamic ads and automatic bidding that Google and Bing offer, it’s fairly easy to pick your keywords, set your budgets, and launch your PPC campaign. Here’s the part that’s not so easy: optimizing. Optimizing PPC campaigns, strategies, and budgets is literally a full-time job (thank goodness!). Optimizing and testing is not critical to running PPC ads, but it is absolutely critical to the success of these efforts. The most rewarding (and fun, if you’re as big of online marketing nerds as we are at Blue Magnet) aspect of PPC advertising is its ability to always be one-upping itself.

For Example: run ads A and B at the same time. If ad B gets more clicks/conversions/whatever-your-goal-metric-is than ad A, stop running A, and now try to beat B.

Finding the sweet spot for your bids and ad rank takes a lot of knowledge, skills, and many, many tests.

Catch #2: Without proper access to the HTML code that makes up your site, Conversion Tracking is pretty much impossible. Hotels that have standalone sites in addition to their brand site can track the shopper’s journey from PPC ad to hotel site to reservation page. Without a standalone site, you can only track the shopper coming to the hotel's site. Without this valuable data, it can be difficult to see the exact ROI of your PPC efforts.

With thant in mind, you may be thinking: “So, if I don’t have an independent site, I shouldn’t do PPC advertising?”  Wrong.

A traveler would not be searching for "hotels in ______" unless they were looking to book a hotel in the area they have designated. By simply showing up to the Search Engine Results Page party for your keywords, your specific property will be capturing valuable, relevant traffic that might have gone elsewhere. Miss out on this party/opportunity, and your competitors (or OTAs) may capture what you didn't. It’s not ideal from a tracking (and optimizing!) perspective, but it is still valuable traffic that you have taken away from your competitors.

In short, PPC is a valuable, extremely customizable marketing channel that allows hoteliers to compete with OTAs and their local competitors, even those under the same brand. You can run ads on any budget, on any schedule, and as often as you like.

PPC is a beautiful thing. 

One of the truisms regarding Twitter is: even if you aren't talking about your brand on Twitter, your customers are. Here at Blue Magnet, we come across a lot of nonsense and dubious claims regarding social media and how people use it; however, in this case, we have direct experience with the truth of the above truism. Due to the ephemeral and informal nature of Twitter, many users will tweet about anything and everything that they are doing, and when I say everything, I mean absolutely everything. If I wasn't a skeptic, I would give you my guarantee that your hotel has been mentioned on Twitter at least once at one time or another. As such, I will offer you my nearly unqualified assurance that that is indeed the case: People have/will/are talking about your hotel on Twitter.

Tweeting Behind Your Back

Another oft-repeated truism is that people say things behind your back that they would never say to your face. If this is true, just imagine what people are saying behind your back on the internet, where the discourse can quickly turn to extreme virulence and spitefulness. If this thought worries you, don't panic, just follow these easy steps to tune in to the Twitter conversation. It will take you an hour at most to get everything set up, and then, you will be able to sleep easy knowing that you know exactly what people are saying about your hotel.

Step 1: Create a Twitter account for your hotel (5-10 Min)

Twitter is one of the easiest social media networks to sign up for because unlike Facebook and Youtube, you can get away with a bare minimum of content. Here's how to quickly set-up your account:

• Go to www.twitter.com.
• In the "New to Twitter?" Section, simply enter in your hotel name, an e-mail address, and a new password.

• On the next page, you will be able to choose your Twitter handle (username). Try to make your handle as descriptive and concise as possible. 
  • e.g. Brand Name + Location = MarriottChicago
  • If EmbassySuitesNewYork is taken or too long, try ESNewYork
• Once you have chosen your handle, Twitter will try to guide you through some introductory steps. Ignore them and press the "Skip this step" link until you are prompted to upload a picture. Upload a picture and that first step is done!

Step 2: Install and Sign-Up for TweetDeck (10 - 15 Min)

TweetDeck is a Twitter monitoring software that went through some growing pains when it transitioned from a third party offering to a Twitter-owned proprietary management solution; however, all of the issues have been fixed and TweetDeck is now one of the best Twitter managers on the market, and most importantly it is completely free! To get TweetDeck:

• Go to www.TweetDeck.com and click the Download button.

• Once the program file finishes downloading, open the file.
• Follow the steps to install the program and then open the program.
• Click on the Create Account button on the main screen of the program.

• Enter in your email address and create a password

• Click the Add Twitter Account button

• A window will open prompting you to authorize TweetDeck to use your Twitter account. To do this, just enter in your Twitter username and password to complete the signup process.

Step 3: Set-Up TweetDeck Columns (10 – 30 Minutes)

TweetDeck allows you to set up a number of different of different “Columns,” which are lists of Tweets that are grouped based on various parameters that you can set. There are two important columns that you definitely want to set up:

• Required Column 1: Interactions
  • This Column will display any interaction that users have with your Twitter profile. It includes Mentions (when users include your handle in a tweet using the “@” sign), Retweets, and New Followers. Even if you never intend to Tweet from your account, some people will search it out and interact anyways, so you should monitor this activity.
  • This Column will automatically populate in Tweet Deck.
• Required Column 2: Hotel Name Search
  • This Column will search Twitter for mentions of your hotel name and display all of those mentions. If you just want to monitor what people are saying on Twitter, this will be your most important Column.
  • To set this up, click the “Add Columns” button in the upper left corner.
    
    
    
    
  • Click the search button.
    
    
    
    
  • Enter your hotel name.
  • If your hotel has name variations, create a search column for each variation.

With these two Columns, you will be able to see exactly what people are saying about your hotel on Twitter.

Say Goodbye to Static

At this point, you can sit back and let the tweets roll in; however, I bet that once you see all of the Tweets mentioning your hotel, you are going to want to jump in and start responding and tweeting yourself. So start playing around with Twitter and TweetDeck. There are a number of other Columns you can create in TweetDeck and things you can do to optimize your profile in Twitter. If you’re not sure where to go from here, never fear. I will tell you exactly how to start interacting on Twitter, but you have to be patient, for that, as they say, is a blog post for another day.

Many people believe that marriage is a sacred bond that unites two souls in eternal bliss and harmony. On the other hand, other people think marriage is punishment for shoplifting in some countries. Here at BMI, we take no sides in the marriage debate; instead, we encourage each and every employee to pursue their own individual happiness, and we respect and cherish each form of happiness no matter its size, shape, or color. For instance, one of our employees’ happiness looks like a bright red cactus, and we love that happiness with every ounce of our bodies and minds; however, we are not here to talk about the bright red cactus-shaped happiness. We are here to talk about the happiness of our beloved team member Ms. Kim Leveque.

Her happiness is not shaped like a bright red cactus, and it is not shaped like an oil portrait of my Aunt Esther. To our eyes, Kim’s happiness is shaped like a lustrous engagement ring and a loving fiancée.

The Proposal

On Wednesday October 5^th, Mr. Richard Armour asked Ms. Kimberly Leveque if she would like to join him for a stroll through Millennium Park, one of Chicago’s most beautiful locales. Merely assuming that he was being his normal, thoughtful self; Kim suspected nothing and set out to simply enjoy a promenade with her paramour.  The walk started innocent enough. The young love birds chatted about work and the beautiful weather as the unseasonably warm yet still refreshing breeze blew past their bright, hopeful eyes. All of a sudden, Richard kneeled down in front of Kim, as her fiery red hair shone in the dying sunlight, and asked her the question that dwarfs all questions – Would she marry him? Although she was initially taken aback by the shock of his unexpected proposal, she quickly recovered her trademark composure and simply and firmly responded, “Yes.”

Congratulations From Your Friends at Blue Magnet

We, at BMI, are so incredibly happy for Kim and Richard that mere, common words cannot describe the welling of joy in our collective souls. The fusion of two individuals into one beautiful and sublime soul is truly one most the most noble and meaningful of all human occurrences. We wish Kim and Richard the best of luck, but we know they won’t need it. We give them all of our love, but we know they already possess an overabundance of love amongst themselves. So in the end, we simply offer them our sincerest congratulations and our deep hope that their happiness stays as strong and resplendent as it appears to us right now.

Congratulations Kim and Richard from everyone at BMI!

With over 20 million members, sites operating in 30 countries worldwide, and over 50 million reviews and opinions, it is safe to say that TripAdvisor is the world’s largest travel site. TripAdvisor provides a wealth of information to its users, helping travelers plan and make informed decisions on where to stay, eat, and play on their next trips and vacations. While TripAdvisor offers various tools and features to evaluate hotels, restaurants, and attractions, today’s focus is on the role that photography serves within this online travel community.

How Does the Prominence of TripAdvisor's Traveler Photos Affect Hotels?

TripAdvisor has provided the opportunity for travelers to post their own photos for years now, but since June, TripAdvisor’s global sites have prominently featured traveler photos right beneath the hotel-submitted professional photos. This strategic placement encourages travelers to post their own photos. In conjunction with this photo feature, TripAdvisor users can vote thumbs up or down to the photos, link back to the photographers’ TripAdvisor profiles, filter photos by specific categories, and be redirected to the posted professional photos. Earlier this year we covered the importance of professional hotel photography, and since a visitor’s initial peek into your hotel begins well before walking through the lobby doors, professional, visually appealing photography is undoubtedly important. So how does TripAdvisor’s emphasis on travelers posting their own photos fall into the equation?

TripAdvisor serves its members by providing information and reviews on hotels, restaurants, and attractions so travelers can make the most educated travel decisions.  And the 8 million-plus traveler photos featured on TripAdvisor help to do just that. Clicking through traveler-posted photos, users can get a more realistic idea of the hotel’s accommodations, services, and overall ambiance and character, but just like regular reviews, these photos should be carefully monitored and managed. While TripAdvisor’s traveler photos can help users in the travel-planning process, in a world of online user-generated content, it once again highlights the importance of managing the online reputation of your business. Just like negative comments and reviews (which are not limited to travel sites), poor-quality, unappealing photos can hurt the reputation of a hotel.  And because users trust reviews from actual hotel guests, it is that much more important to manage your online reputation, and manage it right.

Making The Most of User Generated Content

The good news is that TripAdvisor--like other sites that promote a social component with their users--gives hotels the opportunity to form relationships with their online communities to encourage repeat visitors and generate new customers. Use TripAdvisor’s services and features as tools instead of fearing the possibility of “make it or break it” opinions. By using the online community to your advantage, your hotel can create a dialog between hotel and visitor before a stay even occurs; become aware of challenges and shortcomings and address the problems quickly and effectively; and give your prospective customers a positive first impression. Because guest reviews are an important part of the search engine algorithms, encourage your visitors to leave reviews of their stay. Ideally they will accompany their review with visually appealing, realistic photos to depict their experiences with your hotel, which will also help your rankings and result in a more trustworthy TripAdvisor listing.

Google is a lot like a guy who dates your mom. Sure, he’s very nice and pretty interesting, but you’re not quite sure what his true intentions are. Even as you’re thanking him for the thoughtful gift that “he just happened to see at the store” and bought for you, you are still keeping an eye on him, trying to figure out what exactly he’s up to. Maybe he just genuinely loves your mom, but maybe, just maybe, he has sinister designs on her burgeoning tea cozy business. You can never be quite sure, so you remain ever vigilant.

Google claims that they are out to make the world a better place by bringing great content to users and generally making their lives easier and more fulfilling, and I’d guess that, to some extent, that is their goal; however, I’m not convinced that they do not have a number of ulterior motives (money, power, sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, etc.), and as such, I always keep an eye on what they’re up to.

I discussed Google+ in my last post, and although there have been some updates to the product since then, none of them have been big enough to change my predications or opinions. I’m still keeping a wary eye on Google+, but the new Google product/feature/update that I’m currently most interested in is their new e-book Zero Moment of Truth – ZMOT written by Jim Lecinski, Google's Managing Director of US Sales & Service, which I will refer to in the future as ZMOT.

The e-book is targeted at marketers and companies, everybody whose business has any contact with Google (so everybody) should make sure that they read the book. Regardless of what you think Google’s intentions with the book are, you will find ZMOT an intensely fascinating read. I sure did.

As I read the book, numerous ideas and theories popped into my head. First of all, the very fact that this book is from Google altered the perspective from which I read the book. Had this information been presented by a blogger or marketing firm, I probably would have breezed through the material and gleaned a few helpful tips. Instead, I kept in mind the three questions I ask myself about everything Google does:

1. What is Google ostensibly up to?
2. What shady stuff are they possibly up to?
3. What are they really most likely up to?

As I go through the answers I came up with for these questions, please keep in mind that I do not necessary believe all of these answers, but am merely proposing them as possibilities worth thinking about.

What Is Google Ostensibly Up To?

Ostensibly, ZMOT introduces a new marketing term and strategy and shares some extremely interesting data that Google had collected. The book is extremely well written, well designed, and packed with useful information. It introduces the term “Zero Moment of Truth” or ZMOT, which is a marketing buzzword that encapsulates all the research and online activity that consumers engage in before buying the product.  Lecinski frames ZMOT as the future of marketing and a complete shift in the way companies should be communicating. While this is a bit of an overstatement, for non SEO/SEM people, the information will be pretty eye-opening.

For SEO/SEM practitioners, it’s basically a well-organized and simplified overview of what we do with some new data with a fancy new name. It’s definitely worth reading, but it is definitely targeted to online marketing novices. So on the surface, it looks like Google is giving out some important (but hardly revelatory) information for free with just a few shout outs to their programs (Adwords, Analytics). What generous people Google are!

What Shady Stuff Is Google Possibly Up?

It is only when you read the book from a slightly paranoid, ulterior motive-type viewpoint that the book becomes intensely fascinating and somewhat worrying. When read from this viewpoint, ZMOT appears to be an announcement of Google’s conscious or subconscious (yes, corporations can have a subconscious) intention to take over the roles of online marketers. Not content with merely controlling the platforms through which marketers have to work, Google wants to control everything. Taken to an extreme, the book reads as a battle plan for how Google will take over all the functions of advertising and marketing agencies. Based on this reading, Google does not want to control the industry; they want to be the industry.

This is of course a reactionary exaggeration of reality, but I think it’s worthwhile to think about ZMOT from this perspective. The book seems to foretell a future where marketing and advertising is crushed by user-generated information. A very telling paragraph reads:

There are certain objections to ZMOT that we hear all the time. Let me share a few with you. "Nobody looks online for toothpaste or paper clips." Really? Tell that to 3M. In the first year after they started taking website comments about Scotch Tape, they got almost 3,000 comments from users. Comments like this: “I use this tape all the time because it holds the things I want to hold together without being seen. I have used this product for years and will continue using it for many more years” (Lecinski, 2011).

Who needs marketing when you have your consumers doing it for you? Companies that produce inferior products, of course (and they sadly might be where the future of marketing lies), but for quality products, all companies will need is an information controller/provider. Guess who’s really good at that? Google. Boom!

What is Google Most Likely Really Up To?

If you discount the above theory that Google is planning to destroy the marketing industry, then you have to ask what they are really up to. In my opinion, ZMOT is, like many of their releases, a mixture of goodwill and cunning strategy. I do not think that Google is actually trying to replace the marketing industry, but I do believe that they want to control it to as large extent as they can. As such, ZMOT is a bid to start controlling the online marketing conversation. If the ZMOT concept is picked up and becomes the guiding principle of online marketing, then Google will have a huge influence over the online marketing field. Personally, I feel that ZMOT is a really compelling and probably extremely useful concept that will greatly benefit companies that adopt it. But—and this is the kicker—if companies adopt ZMOT, Google stands to benefit greatly too, so watch out SEOs, Google’s getting in the game. Think of how easy it would be to optimize for search if you control the search.  I know Google is thinking about it.

Through my ultra cutting-edge industry contacts, I received an invite for Google+ before many of my friends and acquaintances, so I have been able to track the way people are reacting to and using this new platform. The overwhelming first response seems to be “What is this?” or “I don’t get it.” However, this confusion has not seemed to deter people from continuing to use Google+.  Google has failed in the past by using the “Build it, and they will come model” with Buzz and Wave, but for some reason people seem to have decided to start using Google+ mostly just because it exists.

Confusion to the French

I think that the confusion is actually part of the reason that people will actually adopt Google+. Based on my experiences with Twitter and Facebook, I believe that people like social media that does not tell them how to use it. For instance, Google Wave flopped because people knew what they were supposed to use it for, but could not actually figure out how to use the program; however, with Twitter, users were just given a basic platform and users decided how they wanted to use it. In other words, people knew how to use Twitter but not why, while Google Wave was the exact opposite. Google has learned from their mistakes. Google+ is not quite as simple as Twitter or Facebook, but it’s so wide open that users can do whatever they want with it, even if they don’t fully understand all the features. Users still don’t fully understand why their using it, but they’re definitely figuring out as they go.

It's Mine!

In my opinion, the social media revolution capitalized on the human need to possess. People love Facebook and Twitter because they feel that it is theirs--that they helped define it and therefore “own” it in some capacity.  Whenever Facebook makes a big change, some people get outraged--How dare they change my site? There’s a reason MySpace is named “MY” Space. Humanity has been fighting for their own space since the dawn of man, and then, the Zuckerbergs of the world came along and finally gave it to them. Google did not want to cede control of space with Buzz and Wave, but as they say, “Fool Google once shame on you; Fool Google twice shame on Google; Fool Google three times...no one has fooled Google three times."

Freud Would Be Proud

Many industry types were surprised at the lack of innovation in Google+, and their surprise is quite understandable. There is almost nothing innovative technically about the platform. What is innovative is the psychology behind the program. Google knows you, knows your secrets and your desires, knows what you want before you want it, and above all they now understand your primal need for possession; so they threw a bunch of old ideas at a wall, took the ones the stuck, and said, “Here you go people, do whatever you want it; it’s yours now.” All that remains to be seen is if people actually accept the offering that Google has presented. Will Google+ satisfy that deep, basic urge to “have” that other social media have so successfully tapped? That, my friends, is the question.

Shakespeare wrote: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." -- but would it rank as well in Google?

Have you ever pondered the importance of your hotel's name? Studies have shown that even a baby's name can influence their success later in life, but have you ever wondered about the importance of your hotel's name?

In the online marketing world, the importance of a business' name is a fact that is often overlooked. Commonly, newly built hotels, newly re-branded hotels, and even newly remodeled hotels decide to change their name – but the gravity of their decision isn't always clear.

In fact, due to recent and strengthened search engine algorithm changes over the past year or so, a hotel's name is perhaps the single most powerful asset to one's search engine marketing strategy.  Unfortunately, it's also typically one of the least flexible elements in your marketing.

Here are a few facts about the battles your hotel will face when choosing the right name:

Meta Tags & SEO

The first thing to understand about choosing a name is how it will relate to your Search Engine Optimization. The basis of SEO seeks to pair the code and content of your site with the keywords that users search for in Google. This is called building relevancy.

If you are trying to rank for "Downtown Chicago Hotel" you should have that phrase repeated throughout your meta-tags and throughout the body copy on your site. What better way to naturally optimize your site for this keyword than to include the phrase in your hotel name? This will automatically build keyword relevancy anytime you refer to the benefits of staying at, say, the "Embassy Suites Downtown Chicago Hotel."

Brand vs. Market Keywords

Often when in a market with several hotels, one must decide whether to brand the hotel with a unique name or whether to attach an identifier to one's brand name. So which is better?

It's never a bad idea to make your hotel's name memorable, but when referring to the hotel online – never forget to attach an identifier with the keyword you hope to rank for. Again using the Chicago area as an example, a Doubletree Chicago hotel branded their self "the Wit." This branded name allows them to market themselves as a hotel with a boutique feel, but they could benefit from an online strategy of always referring to themselves as "The Wit – Downtown Chicago Hotel" as that would help them rank better in search engines.  The identifier "Downtown Chicago Hotel" simply adds more opportunities for city-specific search rankings.

Local Listing Optimization

Speaking of ranking better in search engines, one must also be aware of the circumstances surrounding your local listings (i.e. your Google Places or Bing Local Listing page) when one chooses a hotel name.

Last year Google integrated their Google Places accounts in the search results for most local businesses, including searches for hotels. When one searches for "downtown Chicago hotels" not only will the user see organic search results, but also a thumbnail and link to the hotel's Google Places page. What this means is that now one must optimize their Google Places page (and Bing Local and Yahoo! Local) if they are going to compete effectively for competitive searches like the one mentioned above.

How does this relate back to your hotel name? Simply put, in order to rank well in the local results you must have truthful and verified information in your account.  Your hotel name, address, and contact information must appear the same throughout Google, Yahoo, Bing, third parties and other sites that list information about your hotel. The more mis-information out there, the less likely you are to rank.  Even variations of your existing hotel name can have a negative impact on your local listings.  Are you listed as "Courtyard by Marriott Chicago" or just "Courtyard Chicago?"  Be sure to be consistent with your naming across the web.

In addition, this means that if you are re-branding you must do your due diligence to replace any old hotel names on existing websites with your new one. If you don't, then your hotel's name change can instead have a negative effect on your rankings.

The Competitive Edge

Above I've spoken to many aspects of one's online search marketing strategy and laid out the positive and negative implications on choosing your hotel name, but one thing is certain: The right name can give your hotel the competitive edge.

With a hotel name that has the proper identifiers—those that contain your primary target keywords—one can rank better in search engines.  But in addition to that, a good name can also improve your quality score for PPC, make it easier for guests find your hotel on some OTAs, and sometimes even improve conversion rate. So when it comes to naming, it turns out not every rose "would smell as sweet!"

You may hear the phrase "landing pages" thrown around the marketing world – but what are they really and why are they important?

A landing page is the first page a user is sent to after clicking on a link, ad, or search result when browsing the internet. For organic search results, Google determines what page to send their user to based on the content and meta information that the page provides. For any paid advertising including AdWords – the user can choose what page the user will see after they click.

If done properly landing pages should send the user to a relevant page with unique and authoritative content about the subject for which they are searching.

A good landing page strategy can:

• Help search engine rankings for specific keyword searches
• Increase the effectiveness of a PPC campaign
• Increase a site's conversion rate
• Decrease the bounce rate on a site
• Add to a site's overall link-building campaign

Getting Started with Landing Pages

The first step is to sit down and identify the target audience. Do you want to target users looking for "downtown Chicago hotels?" What about "Chicago airport hotels?" Or maybe "hotels near Navy Pier?"

The opportunity for landing pages can be boundless – especially when building a landing page to use in tandem with your PPC campaign. Once you've identified the keyword searches you want to target, make sure to build ad copy and a landing page that includes relevant content to what a search engine user may be looking for.  In other words, if you want to attract users looking for "Navy Pier Hotels" – make sure your landing page speaks to your hotel's proximity to Navy pier, attractions at Navy Pier or other such details.

When building landing pages for organic search rankings, the importance of "relevancy" is paramount. You will need to make sure that the keyword you choose to target is also included in the meta content as well as the copy on the page.

Keep in mind that once a landing page is built it can immediately impact the success of your PPC campaign; however, it could take several months to begin ranking organically in the search results.

Keep these tips in mind for not only your official brand.com website but for standalone sites and blogs as well. With this quick intro to landing pages you can be on your way to increasing your SEO, PPC and overall online presence in no time!