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Posted on Oct 5th 2021 by Bryan Marsh
So, you've just launched a new website for your hotel. It looks good, it's search engine optimised and everything is quick to load. The next step to take is analysing your website traffic! Why do I need to do this? Analysing your website traffic is benefi...
Posted on Sep 3rd 2021 by Bryan Marsh
When you search Google for hotels in your location, is your hotel one of the first results to appear? If it isn't, chances are your hotel website needs SEO. SEO, which stands for search engine optimisation, is the key to climbing up the search engine resu...
Posted on Oct 8th 2019 by Bryan Marsh
Early this year, Google officially stopped access to Website Translator - a valuable tool that allowed free content translation in a variety of languages. For businesses and professionals with a website pulling in a global audience, Google Website Transla...
Posted on Jun 29th 2019 by Bryan Marsh
It's easy to fall behind when it comes to accumulating and keeping an eye on customer feedback, but hearing what guests have to say about your hotel can be the difference between losing customers and lifting your brand to new and improved heights. In find...
Posted on Jun 10th 2019 by Bryan Marsh
In recent months, you may have noticed that Google Maps on your website has been made unusable with a message reading "This page cannot load Google Maps correctly." If this has affected you, this is due to the mid-2018 introduction of Google's new Google...
Posted on May 30th 2019 by Bryan Marsh
At eTourism, we're committed to optimised hotel website design and powerful online marketing strategies that generate exposure and increase direct bookings. If you're as keen as we are about getting customers to book direct, take a look at our list of pre...
Posted on Apr 23rd 2019 by Bryan Marsh
With recent studies showing that more than half of today's global website traffic is carried out on portable devices, it's more important than ever to make sure that your website offers the optimal customer experience across the board - not just on deskto...
Posted on Mar 14th 2019 by Bryan Marsh
How's your hotel's SEO campaign shaping up in 2019? As we move into the third month of the year (already!) it's time to recap the big search trends marketers are using to reach their audiences online and the new direction search is moving in. 1. Voice Sea...
Posted on Nov 26th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
If there's one thing marketers love it's shortcuts or, as they've come to be known "hacks." Any trick that helps boost efficiency by speeding up or streamlining a time consuming and boring task is bound to win points, but while some of these shortcuts abs...
Posted on Nov 2nd 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Despite the "content is king" mantra we're all sick of by now, SEO remains one of the most crucial factors when it comes to making sure your website ranks highly in the Google SERPs and gets clicked on by your guests. But with the digital landscape changi...
Posted on Oct 19th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Incorporating videos into your marketing mix is no longer an afterthought it's a necessity. But as with every other form of content marketing, it's not enough to simply create high quality videos, you've got to stick to a range of best practices to ensure...
Posted on Aug 24th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
With the competition for organic traffic tougher than ever, what kind of risks are you willing to take to secure your hotel's website a better position in the SERPs? For marketers, the temptation to disregard search engine guidelines and draw on black or...
Posted on Aug 6th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
No matter how much the rest of the digital marketing landscape evolves, Google's domination over search remains constant. As of last month, the company accounted for a whopping 90.20% of all mobile searches and 72.21% of those made on desktop. Google's un...
Posted on Jul 27th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Online shoppers are notoriously impatient, in fact, even a delay as small as one second can cause a sharp decline in page views, conversions and consumer satisfaction rates. And since Google includes site speed among one of the many factors its uses to de...
Posted on Jun 8th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
Most hotel marketers are aware by now that producing high quality content on a regular basis plays an integral role in getting noticed by the right people online. But without the right research to inform and shape that content, creating blog posts can fee...
Posted on May 8th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
From news to YouTube tutorials, Snaps to Instagram Stories, Vine and endless cat clips, video is the most popular form of content on the internet. In fact, it's expected to account for as much as 82% of all internet traffic by 2021. For marketers, video...
Posted on Feb 23rd 2018 by Bryan Marsh
It has been a debate in digital marketing for a while now: do social signals impact search ranking? While the jury is still out for many on the issue, Google's Matt Cutts has said that a brand's social presence is part of the overall mix of search ranking...
Posted on Feb 16th 2018 by Bryan Marsh
We're all familiar with the stats by now: 75% of Google users won't bother to scroll past the first page of the SERPs, securing that elusive number one ranking spot will get you almost 33% of the clicks. Basically, getting to the first page of search resu...
Posted on Sep 27th 2017 by eTourism Support Team
Do you have an SSL certificate on your hotel's website? If not, it's time to act fast. That's because from the start of October onwards, Google Chrome will release an update that will display a "Not Secure" warning on any web page, contact form or input f...
Posted on Jun 1st 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Engaging, SEO boosting, and powerfully promotional, blogging is a tool hotel marketers ignore at their own peril. But it's one a lot of hoteliers are still in the dark about, or see as an optional 'extra' that they'll get round to now and then when they h...
Posted on Apr 26th 2017 by Bryan Marsh
Responsible for delivering holiday planning travellers directly to your website, SEO is one of the most important components of your hotel's online strategy. Unfortunately, it's also one of the most difficult areas to master, with hundreds of Google algor...
Posted on Feb 22nd 2017 by Bryan Marsh
With the huge emphasis that has been placed on content production in recent years, competition for travel consumers' attention online has never been fiercer. A high quality and strategic SEO campaign is therefore essential if you want to be the best answe...
Posted on Feb 8th 2017 by Admin
The competition for your guests' attention online is fiercer than ever, and one thing's for sure; if other local hotels are doing a better job reaching them than you are, your booking rates are going to suffer. So, how do you know if your competition is s...
Posted on Sep 28th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you want to market effectively, you've got to know who you're marketing to. Google Analytics provides a mine of data to help you paint a clearer picture of your audience and inform and improve your social media efforts. It's free to use and easy to get...
Posted on Jul 4th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
93% of all online experiences begin with a query typed into a search engine. SEO is all about helping Google and the other search engines understand how your website is likely to be a relevant and helpful source of information for these queries. Appearing...
Posted on May 6th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Google Analytics offers a wealth of data on the people who are landing on your website and how they're engaging with your content once they land there. But knowing which metrics to focus on and pulling all this data together into an actionable marketing p...
Posted on Apr 15th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Ever wonder who's really accessing your website? Google Analytics gives you access to a wealth of demographic data that can give you some valuable insights on the guests behind all those anonymous clicks. In today's blog, you'll discover how to tap into t...
Posted on Feb 25th 2016 by Bryan Marsh
Online Travel Agencies can get your property's name in front of a huge market of travellers, drive last minute bookings and fill rooms that might otherwise go empty. But this increased exposure comes at a cost, and most independent hoteliers are strugglin...
Posted on Feb 3rd 2016 by Bryan Marsh
If you regularly check in on your Google Analytics data to see how your resort's website is performing (as you should), you're probably keeping an eye on your Bounce Rate. This much talked about quality metric represents the percentage of visitors who lan...
Posted on Sep 21st 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Search engines, and particularly Google, remain one of your guests' favourite tools for researching and planning their breaks online. This means creating and maintaining an effective SEO campaign is a huge component of building a successful internet prese...
Posted on Apr 9th 2015 by Lee Tester
The internet is becoming more mobile by the day, and unsurprisingly, it's Google that is leading the way. In just two weeks, the search company will launch its biggest shake-up of mobile search to date, as it begins using mobile friendliness as a signal w...
Posted on Mar 25th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Today's travellers are researching, planning and booking their breaks online, and more than ever before their using their Smartphones to help them do it. It's a trend that is only set to escalate according to data specialists Euromonitor, who predict that...
Posted on Mar 11th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
As you've probably heard, Google recently made an announcement stating its intention to use mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal from April this year. In case you still needed it, this news should be the final push you've been waiting for to make a mob...
Posted on Feb 17th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Content marketing is one of the most important ways to catch your guests' attention and drive more bookings online. It's also one of the most difficult skills to master. If you know you need to up your content game, but you're not sure where to start, her...
Posted on Feb 10th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
In the past couple of years, Google has put a big emphasis on the link between "quality content" and ranking highly in the search results. But what exactly does quality content look like? Put together using Google's guidelines and our own experience, here...
Posted on Jan 27th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
In the last week, Google has been sending out emails to sites which are not currently mobile-friendly, warning webmasters that their content will not rank highly for smartphone users. The email notifications, which have been sent out on a mass scale via W...
Posted on Jan 27th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Google has changed search dramatically in the last couple of years, transforming it from a system that could be 'tricked' with poor quality, keyword-stuffed content, into a personalized search engine that draws on semantics to deliver the most relevant re...
Posted on Jan 16th 2015 by Bryan Marsh
Creating an effective SEO campaign is an ongoing commitment " you should be continuingly revisiting your strategies to ensure your site ranks highly in the SERPs and gets clicked-on by your guests. Now that the New Year celebrations are over, why not take...
Posted on Oct 16th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Perfecting your SEO strategy is not a one-off task; it's an ongoing commitment. After all, Google is reported to make more than 500 algorithm tweaks annually, many of which have the potential to impact your website's ranking, the amount of organic traffic...
Posted on Sep 11th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google Analytics is one of the best tools out there for getting to grips with your website metrics, but if you haven't set it up correctly, all you'll achieve is inaccurate data and incorrect conclusions about how your organic traffic converts. Here are 5...
Posted on Aug 12th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
At the end of July, Google introduced a major change to its local search algorithm, informally nicknamed 'Pigeon.' The update is designed to improve local search results by integrating them more closely with traditional search features and ranking signals...
Posted on Aug 6th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Successful SEO is about much more than keyword rankings. If you want your resort's website to survive algorithm changes, avoid Google penalties, and get noticed on a web saturated with content, here are 5 critical SEO mistakes you need to avoid....
Posted on Aug 5th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Who needs Google? Well, we all do. Ranking for important keywords is an undeniably powerful way to get your resort's name in front of your guests and drive streams of relevant traffic back to your website ready to make a booking. But with Google constantl...
Posted on Jun 24th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Are you doing everything you can to maximise your social media marketing efforts or merely covering the basics? By taking just 3 simple steps, you can build on your current social media routine, make your accounts work harder for you and bring in greater...
Posted on Jun 18th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
From social media to blogging and email marketing, there are so many strategies available to improve your resort's online visibility that it's easy to overlook one of the oldest, yet most effective. After all, link building is dead, isn't it? The answer t...
Posted on Jun 18th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
There's no doubt about it: if you want to climb the search results, capture valuable relevant traffic and send it to your resort's website, you have a lot of work to put in. You need to design a strong SEO strategy, implement it successfully into your sit...
Posted on Jun 11th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Up until now you've probably been investing most of your resort's social media energy and resources into building your fan base on Facebook. Now, with Google+ getting bigger and more important by the day, it's time to do the same on Google's own social ne...
Posted on Jun 10th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google+ does not yet command the colossal membership numbers enjoyed by Facebook and Twitter, but thanks to its close integration into many other Google products, the platform is perhaps more crucial to your SEO success than any of the other social networ...
Posted on May 21st 2014 by Bryan Marsh
As we discussed in a recent blog, Google+ looks certain to grow and grow as Google seeks to incorporate the social platform into all its most popular products. Now that Google+ is still relatively 'young', it's a good time to make sure you've mastered its...
Posted on May 19th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
With 29 million unique visitors on desktop every month, and 41 million on Smartphones, Google+ has doubled in size year over year. Despite these figures, it's still a relatively small social network in terms of membership, not least when compared with Fac...
Posted on May 14th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Engaging with your audience is all about knowing your audience. By using data drawn from Google Analytics, you can find out the key information you need to create strong guest personas for your social media audience, helping you formulate content that is...
Posted on May 7th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Thanks to its integration with other Google products like YouTube and search results, Google+ provides more opportunities to interact with your audience and drive web traffic than any other social platform. But to drive this traffic, you must first get yo...
Posted on Apr 30th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Last year, Google caused (another) shake up in the marketing world by removing organic keyword data from Google Analytics, replacing it with the words 'Not Provided'. Since then, speculation has been rife that the search company plans to start blocking p...
Posted on Apr 9th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google's accommodation search and comparison service Hotel Finder is slowly but surely gaining momentum in the US, and will create another valuable opportunity for you to promote your resort online when it gets rolled out fully over here in the near futur...
Posted on Mar 26th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Towards the end of 2012, Google began rolling out its one-stop accommodation planning tool Hotel Finder into standard search results worldwide. Two years on, let's take a closer look at how the service has evolved and its impact on the online travel secto...
Posted on Mar 13th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Noticed anything different about the Google search results lately? In the last few days the search company has begun rolling out a new design which changes the way organic search results and ads are displayed to desktop users....
Posted on Mar 5th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
As an online marketer, the people that actively engage with your message and spread it on to their wider social community are your biggest asset. Perhaps more than any other social platform, Google+ makes it easy to reach out to these brand evangelists an...
Posted on Feb 12th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
Google's innovative and controversial new product Google Glass will be made available to the public later this year. With the launch date imminent, it's time to start thinking about how such technology will impact the way consumers search for and interact...
Posted on Jan 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
If, following our recent blog post about Yahoo, Bing and SEO, you've decided to go ahead and dedicate a little more time to these 'alternative' search engines, this is the post for you. Worried about finding time to incorporate two more search engines int...
Posted on Jan 29th 2014 by Bryan Marsh
When you hear the words "search engine," what's the first name you think of? Chances are your answer is Google, and with good reason. The company has become synonymous with search, boasting a 67% share of the global market and an impressive 6 billion sear...
Posted on Oct 16th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
One of the most significant changes of Google's recent Hummingbird update is that data scraped from websites is now being displayed on the results page alongside traditional search results content. Now, each time a user makes a search enquiry, Google will...
Posted on Oct 16th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Just before its 15th birthday, Google unveiled one of its biggest and most significant algorithm overhauls yet. The update, nicknamed Hummingbird, is the search company's latest move designed to deliver a higher quality service to its users. How the updat...
Posted on Oct 9th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Getting specific when it comes to SEO can be a very profitable strategy. By ranking highly for keywords related to your resort's particular niche, your website will attract higher quality traffic and generate more bookings than ever before. Decide on Your...
Posted on Oct 8th 2013 by Lee Tester
When Google developed Google+, it created a SEO powerhouse designed to dominate search results above Facebook, Twitter and all other social media platforms. Want to take advantage of this domination and get your resort noticed in search results? Here's a...
Posted on Oct 1st 2013 by Lee Tester
You've had your resort's website professionally designed to showcase your property's best features. You're driving traffic there through a carefully thought-out marketing campaign that includes a social media strategy, email, blogging and possibly pay-per...
Posted on Sep 12th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Uploading promotional videos to YouTube boosts your online marketing campaign by bringing your property's best features to life, capturing the attention and imagination of guests and getting them ready to make a booking. With a little time and effort, the...
Posted on Sep 10th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Over the last three years, Google has made several important changes to the way it indexes the search results page. Determined to serve up only the best, most useful results for every online query, the company has introduced a series of algorithm updates...
Posted on Sep 3rd 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Google has introduced a string of algorithm updates in the last few years in an attempt to banish spam and prioritise quality, freshness and social content on the search results page. All this has stirred up a lot of debate about the value and future of S...
Posted on Aug 28th 2013 by Lee Tester
Google+ is still barely over two years old, but it has already claimed a total of 359 million active monthly users, ranking it behind Facebook as the second largest social media network. Despite this rapid rise to success, it seems many businesses and bra...
Posted on Feb 19th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Google has recently revamped the design of its Analytics interface, streamlining several features that were strewn across different tabs and making it a more coherent, easy to use product. Here is a run through of the most prominent changes....
Posted on Jan 9th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
Now that Google is rolling out Hotel Finder on a worldwide scale, it's time to pay attention to your hotel's Google Hotel Finder page. Because the product's initial feed of data was collected from sites like Yelp.com, online travel agencies and GDS repr...
Posted on Jan 8th 2013 by Bryan Marsh
The following OTAs and GDSs can be used to get your hotel rooms and rates listed on Google Hotel Finder. As we find more GDS or OTAs connected to Hotel Finder we'll update the list....
Posted on Dec 17th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Google's Hotel Finder product has recently become available on a global scale and the company is beginning to display Google Hotel results in regular search engine results pages....
Posted on Sep 18th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Nearly a year after its acquisition of restaurant review and ratings service Zagat Survey, Google has announced it is buying travel guidebook brand Frommer's....
Posted on Sep 6th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
If you struggle to memorise that long string of random numbers that makes up your hotel's Google + business page, you'll be pleased to hear that Google is in the process of rolling out shorter, more professional custom URLs to thousands of its users....
Posted on Jul 9th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Google dominates 87.6% of the search engine market share worldwide, so it goes it without saying that optimising your resort's website to rank highly in Google search results is essential. And where better to find out how to improve your ranking than from...
Posted on Jun 21st 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Email marketing campaigns are an effective and affordable way to attract return visitors to your resort's website. Campaign tags help you to analyze the success of each email you send so you can stay on top of your campaign and maximize your return on inv...
Posted on Jun 13th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Appearing in local search results is pretty essential to the success of your resort's internet marketing campaign. While there's been lots written about the importance of Google Place pages and local web content when it comes to boosting your local search...
Posted on Apr 12th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Google have recently revealed "Project Glass," augmented reality glasses which will allow wearers to access the web on a screen no bigger than a postage stamp attached to a pair of specs....
Posted on Apr 4th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Recent research released by Google has demonstrated that even when a brand ranks highly in organic search, they can effectively double their number of clicks by investing in an accompanying advert....
Posted on Feb 15th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
Google have recently introduced "Search Plus Your World," a new personalised search results page that incorporates social content from your Google Plus network with standard search results. The new layout displays results which have been recommended or gi...
Posted on Feb 14th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
The launch of Google Plus last year was a bit of a washout. While some people were impressed by the exclusive nature of the new invite-only social media platform, many more dismissed it as just another unsuccessful attempt by the Internet giant to jump on...
Posted on Feb 14th 2012 by Bryan Marsh
As Google begins to roll out its new personalised search results page, basic search and social media look set to overlap. Not everybody however, is happy about the increasingly personal direction in which search results are heading....
Posted on Dec 1st 2011 by Ryan Kim @ Gigaom.com
Android users who download the latest version of Google Maps from Android Market will now be able to locate themselves inside airports, malls and big department stores that partner with Google and share their floor plans. Google Maps will offer the famili...
Posted on Dec 1st 2011 by Ronnie @ Evision
The fact that Google favors brands in search results means independent and flagged hotels need to be more proactive about staying on top of their online marketing. Fortunately, the avenues discussed in this article are excellent ways you can remain compet...
Posted on Nov 11th 2011 by Bryan Marsh
Google has just released the new Think Insights with Google from beta, that sports a new playful look, helpful tools, more studies, the latest trends and exciting videos....
Posted on Nov 9th 2011 by Bryan Marsh
Google has announced Google+ Pages for your Resort or Hotel. These pages have been specifically created for businesses on Google+. We'll show you how to create your very own Google+ Page....
Posted on Apr 5th 2011 by Bryan Marsh
Last week Google announced the +1 button, it's latest push into social search, nearly a year after Facebook launched Like buttons. The Google +1 button allows you to "+1" the search results and advertisements that you like. Soon you will also be able to a...
Posted on Nov 22nd 2010 by eTourism
It's been weeks since Google rolled out Instant Previews"a feature that allows users to preview the results right on the search engine results page by displaying a screenshot with the click of a magnifying glass....
Posted on Nov 11th 2010 by eTourism
Google pushes the boundaries in search even further by creating a speedier and more useful user experience with its new feature, Instant Previews...
Posted on Nov 4th 2010 by eTourism
Google Places, formerly known as Google Maps or Google Local is Google's new way of giving more localised results....
Posted on Nov 4th 2010 by eTourism
Social media has proven to be a great tool for resorts to reach out to a wider audience online. But not surprisingly, this marketing tool also has its way of extending its reach offline....
Posted on Oct 21st 2010 by eTourism
Google TV has finally unveiled it's first set top box to the public. You can now watch streaming movies, live webcasts, or just about any online content on your very own TV screen....
Posted on Sep 16th 2010 by eTourism
Last week, Google unveiled Instant"a new search interface that provides real-time suggested results as keywords are entered into the Google search box. But the main question is: how will this change affect your resort? Will Google Instant "Kill SEO" o...
Posted on Sep 9th 2010 by eTourism
Today, search giant Google introduced a new version of its search engine interface"Google Instant. This new interface provides real-time suggested results as keywords are entered into Google....
Posted on Aug 24th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
After setting up your hotel's dynamic, content-managed website, what's next? Well, you have to test if it works--by saying "it works" doesn't mean it's live and people can actually go to the website....
Posted on Jul 14th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
Over the past few years, the online travel industry has immerged as one of the most popular and booming online industries. Search engines have readily become one of the first points of call for prospective travelers to research all their travel related qu...
Posted on Jul 8th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
By now everyone in the online world has heard about Google's acquisition of Software Company ITA. We have heard the rumors of Google's potential monopoly of Cyberspace and the online travel industry, but what does this mean for companies already in the ma...
Posted on Jul 8th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
It seems as though everyone's favorite search engine giant Google is not satisfied with search engine dominance, the web has been circulating rumors recently regarding the possibility of a Google version of social networking website Facebook. Faceboo...
Posted on Jul 5th 2010 by Bryan Marsh
Google has finally announced the $700 mil deal to acquire Software Company ITA. This agreement is just another step for the search engine giant to solidly its hold on the online travel industry. Google first rumored its intentions to acquire the company e...