As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. Every boutique hotel website has dozens of beautifully produced photographs to entice future visitors and help them imagine themselves there.
Yet, judging from the number of boutique hotel websites I see, many of you are unaware of another way your photos can help you make more bookings.
Via search.
Yes, every single one of your photographs can help more of your potential guests find you through a simple Google search and you may be missing out.
Let me explain.
You probably have a very big picture understanding of SEO (search engine optimization.) You know it exists, you know you need it to help your website get found online, and you may think it’s overly technical and there’s nothing you can do to improve your rankings.
On that last part, you’d be wrong.
See, there are many things you have control over when it comes to helping your boutique hotel website rank higher. None of them require coding or much in the way of tech skills.
I won’t cover all 10 elements of on-page optimization in this post, if you want to know more about keywords and metadata, you can read up on it here.
In this post, let’s focus on your photographs. Those beautifully presented photographs are only doing a small part of the work they could be doing to increase bookings.
The reason is, if you’re like a lot of the boutique hotel websites I see, is that you’re skipping two simple steps.
And it’s all in naming your images.
Apply These Two Simple Steps to Your Hotel Images and Get Found More Often
Applying strategic SEO to your hotel images is simple and easy. In fact, they’re so easy to do that you’ll wonder why you never knew this before. Plus, you can start seeing results within just a few weeks.
1. Name Your Images – 123.jpg will never help your would-be guests find you. Renaming your image as “Relax in our boutique hotel lobby with a delicious glass of wine” or even “boutique hotel lobby – New Orleans” will.
You’re probably familiar with the “images” portion of Google search in which you type something and click “images.” Images with descriptive names can then appear, images titled 123.jpg won’t.
Yes, it takes a few minutes to rename pictures when they’re uploaded to your computer, but it will pay off both in SEO value and your own in-house needs for keeping track.
When you upload the image to your site, you’ll want to fill out the “Alt” text. Here’s a screenshot to illustrate what I mean.
2. Fill Out the “Alt” Text – Ok, maybe this sounds a little geeky but if you can send an email you can do this. Depending on your CMS, it may look a little different but they all work essentially the same. Upload your named image to the photo library and a box will appear offering you the opportunity to name your image. Remember, a short description will be best.
If you want more detail, you can read up on alt descriptions here.
While I realize this might sound a bit daunting if you’ve never done it before, once you’ve done it a few times, it’ll be second nature.
And, I think you’ll agree, these are simple tweaks to the way you handle your photography to help you get the most value from it. It’s also a great example of all the details that make up SEO. You may be surprised at the difference you can make by applying the basics to your content. I’ve had clients go from obscurity on Google to triple the conversions within weeks after revamping their content according to SEO copywriting best practices.
The alt tag is just one example of the little tweaks can help your boutique hotel website rise to the top and get found by more guests. They can, quite literally, boost your revenue by thousands of dollars.
That’s just one of the best SEO practices for hotel marketing. If you want to know more, please contact me for your mini website audit.
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