SEO can be confusing and arcane, so SEOs often find themselves using analogies to explain the mysteries of the industry. Recognizing this trend, the good folks over at Internet Marketing Ninja recently put together an article featuring nine of their favorite SEO analogies that they have seen on various different SEO sites and blogs. The list features some excellent and entertaining analogies, but it does not include my SEO analogy of choice, so I have set out to bring the joy of this splendid simile to the great unwashed SEO masses and their considerably cleaner hospitality brethren.

What is this miraculous SEO metaphor, you ask?

Spoiler alert: Look at the title. In the course of my SEO journeys, I have encountered various personages (salesmen, clients, reclusive uncles named Švejk) with tangential connections to the SEO industry who require elucidation of the philosophy of SEO in what the settlers called “plain words.” Drawing on my boundless gift for mixing instruction with nonsense, I concocted the perfect analogy: SEO is like mowing your lawn. Am I mad, you ask? Far from it, my friend. Let me explain and expand…

“Why can’t you just do SEO once and then be done with it?”

This is a question that follows SEO specialists around like a confused chicken. When faced with this question, I remove my spectacles from my nose, wipe my forehead, and in my most unctuously ingratiating manner reply, “Why can’t you just mow your lawn one time and then be done with it?” And before my unsuspecting interrogator can reply, I respond to my own question.

“Because things change. Your grass grows. There is a drought. A car drives over your lawn. Squirrels do things (I don’t know anything about squirrels). In order to keep your lawn in proper order, you have to “maintain” it, which involves doing the same things (watering, mowing, raking, planting) over and over again in different situations. Treat SEO the same way you treat your grass. Google changes its algorithm 500-600 times a year. Technological disruption is constant (e.g mobile devices). Just because you decide not to maintain your website/SEO (lawn), does not mean that your competitors (half-witted neighbor Gary et all) won’t. SEO (lawn maintenance) is not carried out in a vacuum. Search rankings (Best Lawn of the Year awards) are the result of Google (the neighborhood council) comparing different sites (lawns) and ranking them in the order they feel is most valuable for their users (constituents).

Mow, Edge, & Trim the Competition

If your competitors continue to optimize their site and adapt to the changing search world while you perform ‘SEO’ once and then consider it finished, you will fall lower and lower in the rankings as your site becomes out-dated and irrelevant. SEO is a continual process that involves maintaining your online presence, and just like maintaining your lawn, it involves the repetition of certain tasks (such as link building, content creation, performance optimization, etc.) as situations change and evolve, as well as monitoring the world of search and technology to make sure that when game changers come along (mobile, leaf blowers), you are able to take advantage of these new technologies in order to stay ahead.

Now, I understand that some people live in a desert where there is no grass and some hotels are the only game in town, and I admit that these people and hotels probably don’t need to maintain their lawns or their SEO campaign as frequently as others, but for the rest of the world, if you want to not annoy your neighbors/not get fined by the municipal board/not have a failing hotel, I strongly advise that you maintain both your lawn and your SEO. Take it away, Harry:

As a hotelier, you do not need to go undercover at your competitors’ properties to discover their online marketing secrets. With the online investigation skills I'm about to share with you, you will be able to uncover your competitor’s online marketing and selling strategies without resorting to cloak and dagger tactics. It’s not only incredibly important to continually monitor your hotel’s online performance and marketing strategies, but it’s just as crucial that you keep a watchful eye on your competitors. Learn to keenly observe the competition so that your hotel is ahead of the game and constantly seeking out additional opportunities to maintain a competitive edge over other hotels in your market.

9 Professional Investigation Skills to Master

Let’s start easy. Instead of manually searching for all the information about your competitors, have that information automatically sent to you directly. Watching your competitors is as easy as checking your inbox.

#1 Set up Google Alerts.
When hotels in your comp set are being talked about online, you’ll know it! Create a Google Alert for each of the top competitor hotels in your market. Choose your settings for how often you want to receive notifications of activity, and the news will come straight to your email. These alerts can help you monitor your hotel’s online reputation, as well as keep you up to date with the competition's new landing pages, special offers and other updates.

#2 Sign up for eNewsletters from your competitors.
Want to know what exclusive specials and deals the competitors are offering? Do they have a special event coming up? Hear it straight from the source. A more advanced private eye would be mindful of the email address they submit. An @Hilton or @Marriott email submitted to a Holiday Inn may raise a flag and they could purposely remove you from the email list. Perhaps use a less suspicious address such as your personal Gmail account. Digest the eNewsletters and determine if the special event, deal, or news is a similar tactic your hotel needs to capture bookings and remain competitive in the market.

Now that we are intercepting the competition’s messages, let’s cross the border and visit their web pages to investigate further.

#3 Regularly review hotels’ brand or independent websites.
Plan these frequent online visits to take note of a couple key items. First, review the hotel’s keyword strategy. From the pages meta content and the copy on the page, you can determine the different keywords for which the hotel is striving to rank in the search engines. Do they have a well developed strategy? Perform a manual search on Google. Are they ranking on the first page of Google’s search results for these keywords? Are these keywords your hotel wants to target as well? Second, look for creative special offers as well while you peruse their website. Is there a special offer your hotel is missing and should have available as well? Can you offer more intriguing and valuable offers to the guests? It is likely that shopping the competition will spark your own creativity to generate new enticing hotel packages.

#4 Run a mobile search for the competition.
Take out your nifty high-tech smart phone device and run a search for your competitors. Find out who has a mobile-friendly website and is capturing mobile searchers. If all your competitors have a mobile friendly website, then your hotel is missing the opportunity of competing and attracting these searchers who are booking with the competition from their mobile phones. Or rather, if none of the competitors have a mobile strategy in place, your hotel could be at a great advantage with a mobile-friendly website. Your hotel would be in a position to convert the majority of mobile searchers to book at your hotel with the user-friendly mobile website. Furthermore, investigate the current traffic to your website. Are a good portion of the visits arriving at the site on a mobile device? If this is true, the hotel is already in need of optimizing their mobile strategy so that users can easily find information about the hotel and make reservations. Ask yourself, if your hotel does not already have an optimized mobile website, is it time to get one now?

#5 Get social with your comp set.
“Like” other hotels in your market on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. This will help you stay current with their daily messaging, offers, events and promotions available on these channels. Gain key insights into what the competition is doing well on social media and what their weaknesses are. If the market is super active on social media with special promotions, contests and highly engaging visual content, be sure to match and go beyond this level of activity and special offers to garner interest in your hotel on social channels. Likewise, in a market with weak social media influence, take the opportunity to really stand apart for the competitors with a strong social media strategy to be highly engaged with fans and effectively establish your hotel as the authoritative voice of the area.

#6 Monitor rankings on TripAdvisor.
It’s not just your rank on TripAdvisor you need to care about, but the other hotels that are listed above you. Your goal is to be #1, so how do you get there? Are other hotels responding to guest comments more often than you are? What are guests actually saying about the other hotels? Do guests love their service? The price? The free breakfast? The free Wi-Fi? Look for these signals as ways to better improve your hotel on property, which will ultimately influence your online performance and improve your ranking on TripAdvisor.

Pull your cap down and push your collar up as we dive into a closer look at the competitor’s online performance; and we begin at Google.

#7 Run regular searches on Google.
Search both broad phrases such as "Chicago hotels" and niche keywords such as "hotels near Navy Pier" on Google. Detect who is ranking above your hotel organically. Notice which hotels are appearing at the top of the search engine results page for paid ads. Identify who is ranking in the local results. Click on the local listings and observe how hotels are optimizing their listings and how you can improve your hotel’s Google+ local listing or Bing Places listing. Focusing on the niche, more targeted keyword phrases, you will discover which hotels are providing more content with enhanced landing pages. Use this intel to better develop your hotel’s content strategy. Determine if there is a need for additional landing pages to compete with other hotels in the market targeting searchers coming to town for particular events such as the Taste of Chicago or to visit nearby attractions such as The Art Insititue of Chicago.

#8 Use Bing Link Explorer to take a good look at the competition’s link profiles.
When doing so, we are looking for authoritative sites to request similar links. It’s important to link build for SEO purposes, as these in-links are a strong source of boosting power in the search engine results page. Of course while you are looking for linking opportunities, you are also getting a peek at the hotel’s group and corporate business. You can tell which conferences and big events are being held at the hotel among other business partners. Use this as a sales tool to grow your prospect list and potentially steal business from the competition. Bing Link Explorer tends to provide a more complete and recent list of links, but another tool worth trying is SEOMoz’s Open Site Explorer. After all, every good spy has more than one trick up his or her sleeve.

Put on your polarized Ray Bans before you take your snooping to the next level! The final test to complete your investigation of competitor hotels is a reconnaissance mission to visit their property.

#9 Visit physical comp set hotel properties.
You may already occasionally visit the competitors, but next time, be mindful of these clues for strong online marketing strategies in place. Does the hotel have a decal on entry door reminding guests to check in on FourSquare or Facebook? Is there an option to sign up for the hotel’s eNewsletter at the front desk? Does the hotel encourage guests to review them on TripAdvisor after their visit? Are there QR codes in on-property flyers or collateral directing guests to connect with the hotel online? Be very aware of tactics the hotel is taking to make physical visitors become virtual visitors connecting and engaging with them online. These on-property marketing tactics that help hotels develop a strong online relationship with guests will ultimately create loyal fans who are likely to return again. Let the competitors’ on-property marketing tactics inspire creative marketing efforts for your property to also convert your current guests at the hotel into online guests on your hotel website and social media channels while blowing away your competition.

Congratulations on completing your online marketing spy course!

Now, put your online investigating skills to action and start enhancing your internet marketing strategies to go above and beyond your competitors.

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. 

It's been so long since we last contributed to the ever-expanding knowledge base that is the web that you probably assumed Blue Magnet had been the victim of a very localized 2012 Mayan apocalypse. Not so, my fellow digital denizens. Fortunately, 2013 has jump-started us into another great year.  So much so, in fact, that we've had to put the blog on hold while we manage the growth of our company--a welcome change, indeed, but I'm sorry to say it has come at the expense of our own blog contributions. In other words, we're preachin' but not practicin'.

Nevertheless, we're back and ready to dive right in with a topic almost as legendary and mysterious as the Maya themselves: SEO.  Specifically, I'd like to explore the core areas compose a given business's search engine optimization efforts.

Those outside of the search industry typically associate SEO with keywords...and only keywords. Their understanding of SEO is somewhere along the lines of optimization circa 1997, where simply stuffing your content with keywords alone may have bought you top rankings in Altavista or Hotbot. But in our brave new online world, keywords alone do not an effective SEO campaign make.  The way I see it, there are 3 keys to setting your website up for SEO success: building great site usability, creating relevant content and establishing your site as a trusted authority.

The Search Engine Raison d'Être

In order to understand the core components of SEO, you have to first understand the purpose of a search engine.  Like any major business, the end goal of the major search engines is to make money through a sustainable business model.  As you've probably figured by now, the model of choice for the search engines is advertising.  Just like the newspaper biz, search engines thrive on advertising revenue.  And the way you sell more advertising is by having a large, targeted audience viewing your product.  Google has just that.  The more users Google gets to adopt its products (like Google Search, YouTube, Google+, Google Maps and all their other products), the more consumer eyes are on Google.com--the perfect place to present targeted Google Adwords PPC campaigns.

How Do Search Engines Build An Audience?

This isn't the Field of Dreams, so building it does not necessarily mean they will come. Search engines create an audience by providing a valuable service to consumers: delivering relevant websites based on a search query. If search engines provided crappy results users would simply turn to other channels to find information on the web (see: social media). That's why it's in the search engines' best interest to provide customers with the most relevant information from the most trusted authorities on that subject. Search Engine Optimization is really just about making sure your website is providing the search engines (and ultimately the searching public) with the most relevant and trusted website content.

We Have The Same Goals!

This is great news! Our goal of providing relevant, trusted information to our visitors is the same goal that the search engines have.  In the end it's all about helping the customer find the information they need. When Google sees businesses providing this information on their websites, it rewards them by ranking them higher in the search results. It's so elegant in its simplicity, and best of all, everybody wins! And it makes sense.  Why would Google or Bing promote a site that uses spammy keyword techniques, has little relevant information to your search and is part of a sketchy link network?  Promoting a site like that is a good way to drive users to other search engines--one which would hopefully offer better results.

The 3 Pillars of SEO

Once you understand the search engine's goals, it becomes clear that SEO is more than just keyword and link building; instead, it's about improving the usabilty of your site, the relevance of its textual content to the searcher, and the level of authority your site has within its industry.  Ultimately, both you and the search engines want to create a better user experience (which means more conversions).  And, although there are MANY, MANY ever-changing factors that determine how search engines like Google and Bing rank your website for given keywords, for the most part those individual criteria all tend to fit nicely into these 3 high level categories:  

1. Site Architecture (establishes your site's usability)
2. Content Optimization (establishes your site's relevance)
3. Relationship Building (establishes your site's authority)

I'll break it down even more so you can get a better understanding of what I mean for each category.  In addition, we'll explore a few good examples of the SEO work done for each.

Site Architecture (for Usability)

Site architecture, as the name suggests, is the foundation of your SEO--it's about creating a user-friendly website.  Any good SEO professional will tell you that before you even dive into writing optimized content or building links, you need to ensure that your actual website is built in a user-friendly way.  After all, what good is it sending thousands of visitors to your site if the site's webpages offer such poor usability that those same visitors leave your site in frustration? Overall, site architecture is about designing and coding your website in a way that benefits your visitors. The easier it is for your customers to find, access and navigate your site, the better you'll rank in the search engines.  

Site architecture is one of the more technical aspects of SEO and includes things like:

• Site speed - The faster a site loads the better it is for SEO.  Google even stated that it takes page load speeds into consideration as part of its ranking algorithm.  Slow loading pages frustrate users and offer poor on-site experiences.  Search engines do NOT want to promote those kinds of sites.  In addition, with the proliferation of mobile devices, it's more important than ever to make your site as zippy as possible to prevent your webpage from taking 5 minutes to load on your mobile device.
• File naming and structure - Your website is made up of many different files, including things like HTML, image files and PDFs.  All the files of your site should be properly named and organized in a logical way.  For instance, don't name the photo of your hotel lobby "IMG_2364.jpg."  Instead, name it something more descriptive, like "MarriottAtlantis-HotelLobby.jpg."  Even that small change gives your hotel a greater chance of appearing for the keyword you just included in that photo's file name. In addition, if your site's URL looks like this mysite.com/file123.html?tag=accommodations&special=523, you'd be better off having the URL rewritten as something that makes a little more sense to the untrained eye, like mysite.com/rooms/chicago-hotel-specials.html. Not only does that rewritten URL give visitors a basic idea of its content, but you can even fit a few keywords into the URL as well (ie, "Chicago hotel specials").
• Canonicalization - Otherwise known as the dreaded "duplicate content" problem, fixing canonicalization or redundancy errors in your site can streamline how the search engines crawl your site.  This problem arises when two pages of your site have identical or nearly identical content.  When this happens, the search engines figure, "Hey, why do I need two identical copies of this page in my database.  What a waste!  I'll just keep one copy and drop the other."  The problem is, you don't get to decide which page Google keeps and which it drops unless you specifically tell the search engine what you'd like to do.  This can be done with canonical tags in the code or by setting up 301 redirects.  It's an important "housekeeping" item that goes on behind the scenes, which clients rarely know about or understand.
• Server errors - Have you ever clicked on a link to a webpage that displayed a 404 error, stating that the page you are looking for cannot be found? While these pages aren't inherently bad, your site should be scoured for outdated or broken links that point to 404 pages within your own site.  Using a tool like Bing or Google Webmaster Tools can help you troubleshoot those pesky 404 and 500 errors and get your site back on the right track.  Again, although most clients never see this part of SEO, it's an important part of the clean-up process.

This list is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to optimizing your website's architecture, but it's crucial to understand that not all optimization is in plain view.  Some of the magic takes place behind the curtain. And while it's not nearly as visible or glamorous or understood by all clients, it's imperative to the success of your SEO campaign nonetheless.

Content Optimization (for Relevance)

This is what most people think of when they think SEO. Whereas site architecture focuses on the usability of your site, content optimization deals with the relevance of your site to the searcher. How relevant is your page content to the keyword query of your visitor?  

While keyword optimization can be an important part of site architecture (ie, for naming files and organization), much of your keyword research will take shape in the content optimization section of SEO.  It's the meat of the campaign and comprises the (mostly) visible content on the page.  Making your site more relevant to searchers through Content Optimization can be done in the following ways:

• Meta Tags - This is SEO 101, but optimizing your Title and Description meta tags is one of the most basic things you can do to optimize your website.  While meta tag optimization alone won't rocket you above your competitors in the search engine rankings, it's an important step in the overall process.
• Alt Tags - Similar to meta tags, alt tags are the alternative text attached to the images on your website.  Adding alt tags gives the search engines crawlable text in the code of the webpage.  Without alt tags the search engines will see a big, fat ___________ where some good, optimized text could reside.  It's an often missed opportunity.
• Headings - Like any good publication, headings also play a big part in the usability of your site.  They are the titles and subtitles on the page that help break your big blocks of content into smaller, clearly labeled chunks.  Although they have less impact on content optimization, headings (like H1 and H2 tags) should nevertheless be optimized for the search engines.
• Body Text - Keyword research should be integrated seamlessly into the body text of every page of your site.  Focus on 2 or 3 keywords per page and write for your users, not the search engines.  Your text should always be written naturally and should never become bloated with keywords. Don't write copy like this: "This beautiful Chicago hotel in Chicago is the ideal Chicago hotel in the city of Chicago."  Spoiler alert: You probably won't rank for the keyword "Chicago hotel" writing copy like that.  And even worse, your site will likely get punished for your keyword stuffing.
• Intrasite Links - Links from page to page within your site are integral to getting search engines to crawl deeper into your site. This ties in with usability, but is typically part of your content optimization efforts.
• Interesting Content - By making your content more interesting, you make it more likely to be shared, which is an important part of the next pillar of SEO: relationship building.  Not all your pages will have link-worthy content, but the more unique and relevant your copy is to your community, the more inbound traffic see coming to your site.

Relationship Building (for Trust)

It's great if your site is user friendly and the on-page content is optimized to the gills, but if those were the only factors that determined search rankings, there would be a tremendous amount of unscrupulous nogoodniks that could easily game the system. This is because the site owner has complete control over the site architecture and the content on the site.  However, the one thing that the site owner doesn't control is the public's trust in their site.  

The search engines needed a way to establish trust online.  Which sites should be considered an authority in their industry?  And how do search engines assign a value on authority?  Enter link building and social media.  Google and Bing decided that the best way to determine the trustworthiness of your site is by evaluating it based on the company you keep. Which sites link to yours? Who shares your links on social media?  These social cues are indicators to the search engines that your content is a trusted source of information.  It's also why search engine optimization can take so long to impact your site. Trust isn't something you earn overnight; you become an authority through consistent leadership over time within a given field.  

With that in mind, here are some ways that the search engines establish trust:

• Link Building - Having trusted websites link to your own is one of the best ways to build up authority in a given niche.  The search engines consider every good link a "vote" of trust for your site.  Conversely, links from poor quality sites or spammy sites can negatively impact your authority in the eyes of the search engines.  As someone's mom always said, "Mind the company you keep, and always steer clear of the misanthropes."  Same goes for websites.  Hang with the good crowd and get their links. Don't associate with sites of ill repute.
• Social Networks - While link building is still an important part of SEO, social sharing is quickly becoming an indicator of both trust and relevance for the search engines. It's all one big popularity contest, and if people are sharing your content on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, then the search engines take this as a cue that your site must be pretty relevant. Social networking actually comes in to play within all three pillars of SEO.  It's important to build social sharing features into the architecture of your site to allow users to share your content. In addition, the on-page content has to be share-worthy enough to pass it along, so content optimization is crucial.  And finally, by building relationships through social networks you increase trust and authority in your brand, making it more likely that customers will spread your content to the own communities.

Making The Web A Better Place To Search

The good news is that you and the search engines are both working towards the same goal!  So build your site with usability, relevance and trust in mind and watch your site climb the search rankings. These lists are by no means exhaustive, but they should give you an idea of why SEO is such a time-intensive undertaking any why the search engines promote sites that benefit their users.  By improving your site content and how your users find information on your web pages, not only will you see an increase in traffic to your site, but you'll also see an increase in those visitors converting to paying customers!

We've recently heard many stories of hotels that feel stuck with their current emarketing provider.  Sometimes hoteliers are immobilized by ironclad contracts that give all website rights to the emarketing vendor. Other times a hotel is locked in a perpetual relationship with an emarketing provider due to proprietary technologies and accounts.  Of course, these types of lock-ins are never a problem when the customer is happy, but when things go south that's when the swords come out and the legal dogs are let loose.

Nobody likes to be locked in a partnership, particularly with a business that has let them down. Maybe the product you purchased didn't live up to the marketing hype. It could be that the customer service just stinks. Or perhaps the quality of the service provided is the pits.

Regardless the reason, you're disappointed. You paid the big bucks and you've got nothing to show for it but frustration.  In the best case scenario, you complain directly to the company via social media or navigate the dreaded automated phone maze in order to reach a live human being, only to get platitudes about "quality" and that company's commitment to "service." Most of the time though, you make a mental note of the offending brand and vow never to support their evil empire of shoddiness again! Unfortunately, in some instances you're met with a dead end: you've purchased a product or service that locks you into some sort of agreement that you are unable to break without some sort of severe psychological or financial cost.

How To Trap A Client

Here are just a few examples that we've seen of hotel clients who have been locked into unhealthy relationships with other vendors. The hotel names have been removed to protect the innocent.

• Trapped by a Contract:
  Hotel 1 had signed a contract with a vendor that provides emarketing services but was interested in switching to a new emarketing vendor. The old vendor had built their independent website and provided some dubious ecommerce services. Understandably, the hotel was unimpressed with the performance and the company's overall attention to detail.  Since the hotel entered a contract with the vendor, the General Manager was simply waiting for that agreement to expire before moving on to Blue Magnet.  Unfortunately, upon further review of the vendor's contract, the hotel came to realize that the vendor actually owned the domain name and the design of the site!  This meant that even if the hotel let their contract with the vendor expire they still would not be able to take their website with them.  After all, according to the contract, it was property of the vendor! As a result, the hotel would basically forfeit their entire website and any search engine performance earned by the site thus far. Essentially the hotel would have to rebuild their site if they wanted to change vendors. They were trapped, just as the vendor had planned. They wanted out of their contract, but doing so would financially harm their hotel in the short term.
• Trapped by a Proprietary Product:
  Hotel 2 had paid an emarketing vendor to create their website, but had since decided to go with a new emarketing vendor. Part of that transition from one emarketing vendor to the next involved the management of the hotel's independent website. Unbeknownst to the hotel, the site was developed on the vendor's proprietary content management system (CMS).  This was fine while the hotel was working with the vendor because they managed all the content through the proprietary CMS.  However, the hotel soon discovered that it would be unable to migrate the site away from the old vendor without breaking all the code that tied the site to that vendor's proprietary CMS.  As a result, the hotel had to invest additional funds into rebuilding the broken site in an open, non-proprietary format with the new emarketing vendor. The open format would allow the hotel to freely move the site to whichever vendor they chose without the headache caused by the old vendor's system. Although the proprietary CMS may have offered slick features and options unique to that platform, it needlessly bound the customer to that provider.
• Trapped by Proprietary Information:
  Hotel 3 had an independent website that was being tracked with Google Analytics tracking software. This tracking provides a wealth of historical information about all kinds of user behavior on the website. The vendor set up the hotel's Google Analytic profile (as well as those of their other clients) on their own central vendor account. This meant that when it came time for the hotel to switch online marketing providers, the vendor told the hotel that they would be unable to give them ownership of the data because it was tied to their own corporate account.  The hotel could create their own Google Analytics account, but they would lose the historic data tracked across the previous years. As a result, the hotel was forced to abandon all their old historical data that helps to analyze and improve future site performance, all because their previous vendor held their data captive.

It's clear why these companies choose to do businesses this way. They assume that trapping customers with contracts, proprietary formats and locked data is a way to ensure continued revenue streams. Let's face it, new business acquisition is challenging and comes at a significant cost to any business (time and money). It's tempting to lock someone into your services. But forcing customers to stay with your company against their will is a shortsighted solution. Once that barrier is removed, that customer is going to bolt, spewing obscenities about your company in their wake. Putting up false obstacles is never good for customer satisfaction either. Blue Magnet was founded on the idea that customers would want to stay with our agency because we've become a valuable part of their team, not because they've been trapped by a proprietary product or slick contract that grants us rights to all their website content.

How To Protect Yourself

There are a lot of sketchy characters out there, and not all of them conspicuously don the Snidely Whiplash mustache with matching "bad-guy" cape. In fact, many vendors appear to be acting in your best interest, and for the most part they are. You just have to make sure you read the fine print on the agreement. The best defense against getting trapped with an unscrupulous emarketing vendor is the same in any industry: do your homework! In addition, these simple tips will help keep you free from the shackles of an unhealthy business relationship.

1. Call vendor references - Investigate the company with which you are considering doing business. And don't just call the clients the vendor provides you. Snoop around the internet. Google's great for sleuthing! And because many vendors will place a link back to their own company website in the footer of their clients' websites, you have an easy way of tracking down potential references (even ones they may not want to explicitly advertise).  Another good tool for investigating this beyond the search engines is to run a search for the vendor's website in OpenSiteExplorer.org.  Here are the results from a search for BlueMagnetInteractive.com. You can see many of the sites we built for our clients.
2. Use open source solutions - If you think you may switch emarketing vendors at some point, make sure your website isn't built on that vendor's proprietary framework. Some examples of content management systems that are open source are Joomla!, Drupal and Wordpress, among others.  Unless you really need a custom CMS, many of these open source solutions will be able to accomplish the same goals. More importantly, they can easily be transferred from one vendor to another without having to worry about breaking the system.
3. Purchase your own domain - Make sure that when you purchase your domain name (examplehotel.com) that the WhoIs information (contact info for the domain) is in the hotel's name. There is no reason for the vendor to own this. In addition, the contract that the client enters into with the vendor should clearly state that the domain is property of the hotel, not the vendor.
4. Request full access to the hosting - Many vendors will host a client's website on their own servers. This is fine, as long as the client is given access to manipulate content on the back end of the system.  Some vendors prevent outside access to their systems.
5. Set up accounts in your name - Should you ever choose to leave your current vendor, you're going to want to take all your hard earned data with you. Otherwise, how will your new vendor know how to benchmark your performance? Let's take Google Analytics as an example. The vendor should set up a separate Google account in the hotel's name in order to track your website. Vendors that insist on setting up the account under their own vendor profile are only setting you up to lose all your historical web data when the day comes that you choose to leave that vendor. Ask that any new accounts for your hotel be set up independent of the vendor's other clients, for portability's sake. Also, make sure you request admin access to any accounts they set up for you.
6. Own all creative rights - This should be a given for any kind of work-for-hire, but ensure that when your vendor builds your website that they transfer ownership rights of all design and development work, all copy on the site, all images to you. The vendor is building the website for you. You should not need to license the site from them. If you paid them to build it, you should own it. Make sure the contract says as much. There's nothing quite like spending thousands of dollars on a cool new website, only to find out that you're not the real owner--the vendor is.
7. Review the contract carefully - This tip covers many of the items above, but it's important to list on its own. Many clients who think they're free to leave with everything they've already paid for are often shocked to find that the simple agreement they signed states otherwise. Have your legal team review the terms before you give the final sign off on any vendor contracts, particularly if you're unfamiliar with the technologies referenced in the document.
8. Ask questions - Grill your vendor with some hard hitting questions. This is your money! Make them work for it. It's harder to walk all over a client when they're knowledgeable about the emarketing industry. When I bring my car to a mechanic they look at me and see a sucker. That's when their eyes quickly flash dollar signs, a cash register chime is heard, and with a wry smile the mechanic assures me, "We'll take it from here, chump." A little knowledge goes a long way in showing the vendor that you'll call them out if they try any funny business. You don't have to be a jerk about it--just be knowledgeable and ask questions based on the list in this blog post.
9. Understand what you're purchasing - Finally, just make sure that your vendor tells you, in plain English (not legalese), what your business has purchased from them. What do you own at the end of the day when you decide to walk away? How long are you in the contract? What does the vendor own? How easy is it to migrate the website, hosting, domain, services and accounts over to a new vendor? Even if you're on good terms with the vendor now, always make sure you have an out.

Most client/vendor problems can be avoided by simply understanding what you're buying into as the client. Admittedly, emarketing can be a confusing industry; there are a lot of technologies, intellectual property rights and participating parties involved in website development and marketing the site online. Keeping it all straight can be exhausting. Just be sure to use these tips as a guideline so you can understand what your hotel will walk away with after the relationship has ended. Contracts in themselves aren't inherently evil, and in many cases should serve to protect both parties; However, as identified above, when put into the wrong hands they can certainly be used for nefarious purposes. The more you understand before signing the contract, the less pain you'll experience when you and your vendor decide to part ways. Fortunately, most reputable emarketing vendors won't need to rely on underhanded contracts to secure their business model. Vendors that rely on the strength of their performance and the quality of their support will never need to rely on fine print agreements to lock in their clients. Quite the contrary--those clients will never want to leave!

You already understand the importance of link building for search engine optimization purposes, so it’s time to take your link building to the next level. Obtaining links from quality websites can help raise your hotel’s organic search rankings. In addition, by creatively utilizing some of your current sales strategies you can obtain links on sites that encourage extended stays, which in return can help you increase your hotel's average length of stay (LOS).

Start by talking with your sales team and asking a few questions: Who are they already reaching out to for sales leads? You may find that just by having this simple discussion you can already come up with a list of new sites to target for link building. Your sales team is probably already in various discussions with a variety of companies attempting to negotiate group rates for upcoming conferences or meetings near or at your hotel. Work with your sales team to build each group a specific booking code to place on their company site to make it easier for attendees to book their stay at your property. Link building can be as simple as that!

Then, build upon the list they provide to you. Consider this: Why would someone want to stay at a hotel for longer than a few nights? In what situations would be a potential guest need week-long or month-long accommodations? Below are a few suggestions to help you brainstorm:

• Partner with local area realtors and ask them to refer house hunters to your hotel verbally and on their website. When a family is relocating, typically one or more members of the family will do the majority of the house hunting. Since this can be a longer process, this family member will typically need to stay close to their new location. Offer a local realtor an incentive for referring clients to your hotel, and be sure to ask them to link from their site to your hotel sites. You could even set up special rates for “house hunting” family members looking for accommodations for 3+ days. Work with local moving services to explore opportunities for marketing on their sites.

• Stay current with construction plans in the area. Any time there is construction happening in the area, there will be a need for housing and opportunities to book extended hotel stays. If a new neighborhood is under construction in the area, new residents may need a temporary housing solution until their new home is complete. Ask for links from the new neighborhood’s informational website to the hotel’s website to get in front of the new residents. Likewise, if a new shopping center or restaurant is opening in the area, you’ll want to be listed on these sites as well; many companies will send employees from different stores or restaurants to help open the new establishment and these teams will need somewhere to stay.

• Contact local businesses to discuss relocation for employees. For example, if you have any family members that work with an airline, you may know that airline employees frequently relocate. Work closely with the airline to form a partnership to become the referred hotel for extended stay while these employees search for permanent housing.

• Work with local moving services to explore opportunities for marketing on their sites. Talk to moving van & storage facilities to ask for leads. Also, ask them to include a link to your hotel site to your hotel website.

• If your hotel is located near a symphony or concert venue, work with the talent coordinator to secure your hotel as a preferred property for performers. Often, groups like symphonies or bands would prefer to stay in hotel accommodations while in your town than to try to sleep on a crowded tour bus. Although it won’t be a constant revenue-generator for your hotel, securing a partnership now could result a large group for an extended time period in the future.

• Contact the webmaster at your local hospital and rehabilitation center. While the patient will most likely be staying in the hospital, friends and family may need a place to stay to be close to their loved one. Become a recommended hotel and ask the hospital to link to your website. If you can, offer a discounted rate to family members of hospital patients to encourage them to stay with you, rather than sleeping on a hospital chair.

• Local police and fire stations may also be a good resource to acquire extended stay guests. When tragedies happen, like a house fire, people will need somewhere to stay fast, and for an undisclosed time frame. You may be able to speak with the Red Cross as well, as they are known for helping displaced homeowners after a disaster.

• Reach out to local divorce attorneys. When couples decide to split, most likely someone is going to need some temporary housing. Ask local divorce lawyers to direct their clients to your hotel.

Even if you’re not technically an "extended stay hotel," partnering with local organizations that could help you attract guests with longer length stays. Depending on your property and market, some of the suggestions above may not work for your hotel. However, if you do end up with a guest with a 30+ night stay as a result, you’ll be happy you took the time to acquire these links.

As hoteliers, budget season is upon us so now is the perfect time to ensure you have the resources in place to create and optimize that ROI-producing mobile-friendly site everyone is raving about. With the increased importance of SoLoMo (social local and mobile opportunities, for the uninitiated) in 2012 and 2013, if you don’t have a mobile site you’re already behind the eight ball, but there’s still time to get back ahead of the competition. Creating a site using responsive web design may be the most efficient and budget-friendly option for your hotel to ensure your presence is optimized for all booking devices.

What is responsive web design?

Simply put, responsive web design is a development technique that optimizes your site for any sized screen, based on size of the device that is viewing the content. For example, if someone views your site from their desktop computer, the website's code will detect the larger sized screen and appropriately adjust the site's layout and design for that larger monitor. Things such as the main navigation, body content and image size will be optimized for people browsing at a desktop computer, in order to provide the best layout for usability on that device.

On the other hand, the same user will likely interact with the site very differently on a tablet or smartphone than they would sitting at a computer with a mouse or a laptop touchpad. When searching on a tablet or mobile phone, users have to tap directly on the link in order to get the information they want, instead of hovering over the information with a tiny pointer. In order to provide the best user experience for someone on a mobile phone, buttons have to be bigger so people can easily tab where they want, phone number should be clickable (and trackable!), and information should be concise and easy to find.  Fat fingers and small smartphone screens are a bad combo.

What does responsive web design look like?

Let’s use the beautiful but imaginary Blue Magnet Hotel as an example. Say you’re searching for the Blue Magnet Hotel on your desktop computer during your lunch break at work. You will see the full site like this:

Then, on your way home from work, you decide that you liked what that hotel had to say and you want to check out rates on your phone. The site would look like this.

Finally, when you get home, you announce to your spouse that you found the perfect hotel and want to get their final approval before you book your room using your iPad.

The same content is presented and the changes are very slight, but the site dynamically adjusts to make the site more usable based on the viewing screen of the device being used.

Why does my hotel need a responsive website?

Below are 4 reasons you should consider building your hotels site in responsive web design:

1. Usability and user experience: Think of how annoying it is when you are searching for something on your phone and you land on the site’s desktop version, with microscopic links and too much information. What do you do? Most likely you'll try to pinch and zoom on the screen until you can make out the information you’re looking for or bounce off immediately and go to a site that’s easier to use. Either way, this makes for a bad user experience and a potentially lost guest.  With responsive web design, the right version of your site will always be served to your user on the first try which makes for a better user experience.
2. Cost and return: Your initial investment in the site may be slightly higher, it may take a bit longer to develop, and you may have to research to find a developer with the proper skills to effectively create your site in responsive web design. However, since potential guests will be served the information they want on the first try they’ll be more likely to stay on your site and book if they like what they see. Also, if your hotel is easily bookable through all mediums guests will be more likely to book with you.  Another thing to consider is that instead of paying someone to manage the content on three different websites (desktop, mobile and tablet), with a responsive website you're only paying someone to update content on a single website.
3. Three websites in one: As mentioned above, content management is simple for all three sites, because you're really only updating a single website instead of three separate ones. Most responsive websites will have a simple content management system. The Blue Magnet Hotel example above was built in Wordpress. Since this is all technically one site, we only have to make the change once and the mobile site, tablet version and desktop version will all reflect the updates. This is great for maintaining consistency of information across all of your sites.
4. Google will love you: In June of 2012, Google explained the best practices for building a mobile site and responsive web design was mentioned as the "recommended configuration" for targeting smartphones. Responsive websites, whether viewed on a mobile device, tablet or desktop computer, all use the same HTML, which make it easier for Google to index.  Rather than indexing 3 different, independent versions of your accommodations page, Google prefers to only index a single page--a responsive one that adapts to various screen sizes. This doesn't necessarily give you any SEO bonus for using responsive web design, but it helps avoid duplicate content issues that arise from having a copy of each of your webpages in each of the various viewing formats.  Google doesn't need 3 different copies of your homepage.  It's redundant and Google will likely drop one from its index if it identifies it as such.  It's best to have a single page at a single URL that works across all devices.

With the importance of SoLoMo increasing in 2013 and beyond, building a responsive website may be a modest budget hotel's best solution. Your content will be more shareable, Google will give you the thumbs up, and your website's usability will be better than ever before on any device. Having a flashy desktop version of your site is simply not enough to guarantee conversions anymore; responsive web design will help you convert guests no matter what device they use!

*This article was co-authored by Jennifer Dewey and Ashley Stevens.

Number crunching, headaches, owner approval, Brand approval, and furious calculations… It sounds like budgeting season is here!  We know how tedious it is to go through last year’s budget to determine where you can cut costs or where more money should be spent. Not to mention, it’s difficult to keep up with the ever-evolving online market, let alone to know how much money to set aside for new initiatives that may arise.  That’s why Blue Magnet has put together this list of online marketing budget advice for hotels that will help you plan for a lucrative 2013.

Although it can be an exhausting process, we know that once a hotel has a set budget, it becomes nearly impossible to reallocate these funds. Budgeting season is our opportunity to ensure hotels know how to allocate the appropriate funds for internet marketing costs in order to see the ROI they expect.

Planning for Hotel Budget Season

The first step in budgeting effectively is to understand upcoming trends and opportunities in general, both for your market and for hotels. In 2013, social, local and mobile (SoLoMo) will continue its steady rise, while investment in traditional media will continue to dive. Google reports that 50% of travelers reserve hotel stays online, so doesn’t it make sense to allocate at least 50% of your overall marketing budget to digital marketing? Even though SoLoMo will take precedence, Blue Magnet Interactive recommends guaranteeing your entire online presence is up to par by allocating funds to all of the online marketing strategies below in order to see the best ROI on your campaign. Without further ado, here are Blue Magnet Interactive’s recommendations for how to spend your online marketing budget in 2013, staring with SoLoMo.

Social Media (The “So”)

While it’s certainly possible that Facebook may someday go the way of MySpace, social media as a movement is here to stay. Reputation management and engaging via social channels will continue to be a crucial piece of your online marketing campaign.

Engaging in social media can even help your organic search rankings. As engagement increases in your social media campaigns, research suggests that you may gain higher search engine rankings in correlation to your social media usage. Bing, for example, now has a very prominent social search bar on the right side of your screen, encouraging people to see what search listings their friends like and recommend. Google, too, is starting to boost rankings to hotels that have been +1ed by your inner circle. Hotels with little or no social media presence will start to slowly drop in rankings, unless they decide to jump on the social media train and engage.

In order to increase your engagement and your number of followers on social channels, hotels should create a social media marketing plan that strategically incorporates paid ads as well. Facebook Ads are very inexpensive, simple, and they are a great way to target people with interest in your hotel or property.

Blue Magnet social media budget recommendation: ~15%

Local Search (The “Lo”)

Why is local search important? Consider how you search. Typically, when searching for a hotel or restaurant you have a rough idea of the area you’re searching. For example, say you are heading to Nashville on business and you need to find a hotel. You’ll probably type something like “hotel in Nashville” into your favorite search engine. Or, if you’ve just landed in Nashville you will probably do a search on Google Maps or Yelp on your smartphone for hotels nearby. Both of these are considered local searches.

In order to make sure you are showing up in these local searches you need to optimize your presence for local searches as well as organic searches. There are very specific ongoing strategies for increasing your visibility through local search. Blue Magnet Interactive has seen success by utilizing Whitespark’s Local Search Citation finder to ensure we are covering all of our bases with local search. Please keep in mind that this, too, is a strategy that is ever-evolving and needs consistent attention throughout 2013 and beyond. Blue Magnet Interactive recommends having an SEO expert handle all of your search marketing.

Blue Magnet local search budget recommendation: ~10%

Hotel Website & Mobile Site (The “Mo")

Your online budgeting goals should all boil down to one objective: Drive direct online reservations through your hotel website (brand website, standalone website or both!). In addition, with the increase in the number of searches though mobile channels in 2013 it will be essential to encourage mobile bookings by creating a mobile friendly website.

Take a look at your competitor’s websites. Now look at their mobile sites. Go back and objectively look at your own brand and mobile sites. If your site is over 3-5 years old, there’s a great chance that your competitors are stealing your bookings just by having a more aesthetically pleasing site, even if your product is better. If your website is cluttered, poorly designed, difficult to navigate, lacking compelling imagery, or outdated, it may be time for a complete redesign. It’s often a potential guest's first impression of your hotel — better make it a good one!

Hotel websites with the highest conversion rates are based heavily on hotel photography and they are easy to navigate. If you’re building a site from scratch, it will be extremely important to consult an SEO team to ensure your site is built to be search engine friendly. SEO has changed drastically in the last 3-5 years, so if your site is older, there’s a good chance your hotel websites structure and content are hurting your rankings just by its outdated construction.

In addition, mobile site usage is quickly increasing. Experts predict mobile hotel bookings will surpass desktop bookings very soon, if they haven’t already by the time you found this article. Mobile sites can be simple and inexpensive, plus they tend to convert well and produce an excellent ROI. What's more, new technology, such as Responsive Web Design, allows you to create a website that is both mobile optimized as well as desktop and tablet optimized. Responsive web design can be an extremely affordable solution for your hotel, as it essentially allows your site to dynamically adapt to the screen size of any viewing device, whether it’s a smartphone, desktop computer or tablet.

Blue Magnet website and mobile site budget recommendation: ~20%

Budgeting Beyond SoLoMo

New Photography

The same rule applies to new photography as it does to your hotel website’s lifespan: If your hotel photos are more than 3-5 years old, now is the time to budget for a new photo shoot. Likewise, if your hotel has been renovated since your last photo shoot and your website does not reflect your new photos, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to showcase your newly renovated accommodations.  While costly, photos are crucial to selling your site, particularly online. Moreover, photo gallery pages tend to be one of the most viewed pages or your site. Photos turn lookers into bookers. Our analytics show that beyond the homepage, the Photo Gallery consistently receives the most visits on hotel websites.

Blue Magnet Interactive recently recommended a photo shoot to one of our clients with outdated photography. After one month of having the photos live, their conversion rate increased 5% YOY to an almost 12% conversion rate! If you’re driving traffic to your site but the conversion rate is consistently low, updating your photos may be the key to securing more bookings.

Blue Magnet photography budget recommendation: ~15%

Paid Search

In 2013, hotel should continue to allocate a fair chunk of the budget towards paid search in Google and OTA sites. Paid ads are still one of the quickest ways to gain exposure for targeted keywords and one of the most measurable sources of online ROI.

Google’s PPC program is one of most commonly used methods of paid advertising and it works well for many different advertisers. Specifically in the hospitality industry, we have seen the most success with Expedia Travel Ads, Intent Media Sponsored Ads (Orbitz & Travelocity), and Facebook Ads. These programs tend to be very successful because they are so customizable and give hotels the ability to target specific need dates.

Blue Magnet paid search budget recommendation: ~10%

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In the past, we’ve heard clients say “Our site is already SEOed, we don’t need ongoing management.” Just because your site was initially built to be SEO-friendly with keyword optimized content and meta tags, that does not mean your rankings will withstand the test of time. In 2011, Google changed their algorithm over 500 times. As a result, Google’s search results are becoming more relevant and valuable. If your hotel isn’t keeping up with website updates and adjusting the SEO strategy accordingly, your hotel - that previously ranked on the first page of Google’s search engine ranking position (SERP) - could drop drastically in a matter of weeks or months. Allocating funds monthly to an SEO specialist is absolutely essential for maintaining and gaining exposure in various search engines.

Blue Magnet SEO budget recommendation: ~20%

Reputation Management

Funding reputation management is always a budget must-have. No matter how well your website looks and functions, your guests will have positive and negative reviews on various internet channels. According to RateTiger, 33% of bookers change their choice of hotel based on reviews alone. Unattended negative reviews can be the difference between a guest choosing your hotel or choosing your competitor’s product. However, simply having someone manage your reputation and respond to any review in a helpful, concerned manner will be dramatically beneficial to you reputation. Consider SoLoMo again; Google+ Local now shows Zagat reviews on their listings, clearly displayed for users once they click on your listing.  A reputation manager can manage all review sites, respond to these reviews, report fraudulent reviews entries, and even perform other tasks that will encourage new, more positive reviews to push any negative reviews further down on the list and thus out of sight.  Dedicating some of your budget to reputation management is a definite must for 2013.

Blue Magnet reputation management budget recommendation: ~5%

Maintenance and Miscellaneous

It’s a well-known fact that the internet is constantly evolving at a rapid pace, which means your newly-constructed website or your perfectly-tweaked social media profiles can’t just be left by the wayside. Someone needs to constantly update your website’s content for freshness and usability.  Your social media profiles should be updated regularly with valuable content that engages your community and encourages online conversations.  As you can imagine, maintaining a website’s freshness and posting regularly on social media requires time, dedication, and knowledge.  What’s more, as the internet evolves, there may be new initiatives that arise throughout the year that will require additional budget.  For example, in 2011 Google launched their social media platform, Google+, and just recently, they combined Google+ with their Local Search listings to create a one-stop shop for online users.  This affected the hospitality industry since hotels must now have a Google+ Brand profile in order to optimize their Local Listing.  New initiatives (i.e. the introduction of Apple Maps) that require time and knowledge will continue to crop up as the year continues and as the internet continues to grow.  Be sure to allot enough money in your budget to handle these maintenance and miscellaneous expenses.

Blue Magnet miscellaneous budget recommendation: ~5%

2013 Online Marketing Budget Breakdown

Tying It All Together

While headaches, number crunching, approvals and many scratch-outs may still be a part of your 2013 budget meeting, planning ahead for your online marketing budget will save you the hassle of reallocating funds. These tips should provide you with clear insight as to what is important to budget for 2013, so that you don’t get caught empty-handed when that new travel website launches or when Google releases a new update.