Your guests have a constantly expanding library of opinions about your property right at their fingertips in the form of TripAdvisor, Google’s Hotel Finder, Yelp and a host of other review sites. As we discussed in a recent blog post, it’s virtually impossible to control what people say about you online, but you can help protect your reputation by being ready to issue a polite and professional apology when it’s called for.
In addition to responding directly to negativity by saying sorry, you also need to take control of the volume and quality of information you put out there to ensure that any negative mentions are mere blips in an ocean of positivity.
Want to proactively improve your online reputation without going near a review site? Here are four ways to get started.
1. SEO
As you probably know, SEO has gone through some pretty major changes in the past year, so it’s important to continue to evaluate your on and off-page strategies to ensure your guests can still find the information you want them to find about you quickly and easily. One of the best ways to check the performance of your SEO campaign is by conducting a comprehensive audit to identify weak areas and make immediate improvements.
2. Content Creation
Continually publishing fresh, high quality content to your website and other platforms can help impact search rankings and even push negative reviews off the all-important first page of results. This is particularly effective if you post regularly to high-ranking sites that have strong authority with Google such as YouTube.
3. Inbound Link-Building
When it comes to inbound link building, Google has recently switched its focus from sheer quantity (how many sites link to you) to quality (who is linking to you.) You need to be proactive in driving these links by liaising with key hospitality figures, suppliers, affiliates and brands to generate quality links from influential sources.
4. Step Up Your Google+ Campaign
Unsurprisingly, Google gives its own social network plenty of authority on the search results page, which makes it vital to have a committed strategy for growing and managing your Google+ presence. The more followers your resort has in its ‘Circles’, the more your webpage and blog content tied to Google Authorship will show up highly in search results, and the less visible those pesky negative reviews.
Are you proactive in your resort’s online reputation management? Let us know in the comments below.
