"Hotel" SEO & TripAdvisor

[Super7]

I am trying to learn a little more about Travel SEO, particularly in the "hotel" vertical.

1. what are some of the top Hotel SEO sites out there and what are they doing right?

2. Tripadvisor is great at SEO in general, but I've heard they struggle a little in the "hotel" vertical. Is there anything they can do to improve their rankings in this area?  Does anyone have any suggestions, whether it be a far out idea or on-site optimization?

Thanks!

[BenRush]

I think it depends on the keywords - for example "bali hotels" is a head term, but since the introduction of the hotel box on Google results its not a particularly high traffic driver any more.

Individual hotel names on the other hand aren't impacted by the hotel box, thus you tend to have the traditional Google organic results (i.e., 10 slots per page) and more opportunity to acquire decent traffic for rankings between 1-6.

Sites like hotels.com and agoda.com are pretty strong on hotel names, but rankings are so varied depending on the Google locale you're accessing.

Google are making it increasingly difficult to gain visibility in the hotel sector having also recently launched their own "hotel finder" product: http://www.google.com/hotelfinder/

[InMarketingWeTrust]

Hi Super7,

1. Most top hotel SEO sites are very likely to be chains with an SEO/ Digital Marketing team capable of creating content, linkbuilding and integrated marketing strategies. I know Hilton has been working pretty hard on their SEO in the past.

2. I would say Tripadvisor is doing fairly well. Their strategy is interesting at a hotel level, they tend to rank across their multiple properties, say you type "Hyatt Hotel Sydney", apart from the main site and those doing direct link campaigns to the hotel, you will find 4-5 properties of tripadvisor both AU & .com.

[EastEssence22]

I think to achieve good results for any "vertical" focus has to be actual users and not search volumes. SEO, SEM,  & Inbound Social Marketing has to be startegic & creative. (Say Adding Value?)

Here few suggestions & features I liked from Urbanspoon , Expedia

1. Scope for UGC (User Generated Content) : Reviews, Ratings, How to Reach, Overall Experience.
2. Solid site architecture. ( For fun we name it wysiwyg architecture ) - Panoramic view of Hotel room, restaurant, Car for Rent Or Add value using more relevant modules on Page.

3. Many  great websites are missing implementation  of  Microdata using schema.org
4. Sectionwise Sitemap.xml, Image Sitemap, Video Sitemap
5. User-centric Navigation (Internal linking with partial anchor text)
6. Add Value using cool Facebook fan page or app
7. Promote every effort & channel strategically
8. Implement Canonical tags across Multilingual TLDs.

Hope, I have made attempt to enlist major features which Tripadvisor is missing