Over the last few years, Google has optimized its way of working with users. Now, with only one Gmail account, you will have a free access to all the tools we will talk about in this post (including YouTube).
Google My Business: positioning on Booking
It is an essential, not only for hotels but also for any business. There is no point in struggling for a first rank, when a user is directly searching our company on Google.
Even though there is no point, companies still do it. Booking, for example, strives on Google Adwords for the top positions in the result list that hotels cannot compete with. Then the hotel is left behind and cannot fight for this first rank even if users directly search for its name. Until now.
There is no better explanation than this image. Appear on Google in the most outstanding and free way!
Signing up on Google My Business is very quick and easy. Once you are registered, your company will be visible with the photo that is below:
Have you noticed it? Without Google My Business, this hotel would not appear in the first results since there are four other companies that struggled for the top positions (advertisement). However, thanks to Google My Business the hotel stands out, there is a direct link to its website (which implies more direct bookings) and its contact details are prominently displayed.
It is important to note that Google My Business includes the former Google Local and Google Places. For those who do not know it, once you have opened an account on Google My Business, you are able to use all its other professional tools. Google is always optimizing your resources.
Google Plus will help you improve your Google ranking
The Google My Business tool will not only allow you to improve your position on Google and increase direct traffic towards your website, but you will as well automatically have the opportunity to work with the Google Plus social network. This social platform is also a very powerful tool for your SEO positioning.
Although people may think it is disappearing, we should never underestimate the Internet giant. The new design of Google Plus and the creation of communities that divide its content have relaunched this social network in the last few months.
Even though in terms of figures Google Plus is not as important as Facebook or Twitter, it offers data for the hotel industry. You can see some figures in this photo. Never put aside what Google offers.
Fuente: JUSTSEO
Google Maps, where you have to be
Users are more and more directly searching for a company on Google Maps instead of its address. If your hotel appears on Google Maps, you will gain ten points. Think about it, users are looking for companies that are close to their location.
Make sure your name as well as your industry appear. Look at the example on the image:
How do you appear on Google Maps? If you took into account what I said before and you have already created your Google My Business account, you will automatically appear on Google Maps. Make sure that your contact details are accurate. If not or if you see any information that does not please you, feel free to contact Google. You will always have a very polite and helpful response.
Google Alerts: what are they saying about you
Paying attention to your online reputation is one of the responsibilities of any company. Anyone can have access to the Internet and it is a powerful marketing tool. However, it can also result in a bad reputation if you do not manage your online presence. It is very important to know where you are mentioned and what media say about you.
The Google Alerts tool allows you to be automatically notified. You can add, for example, the name of your company and Google will send you a notification every time your brand is mentioned.
Google Trends or what your clients want to talk about
Google Trends will be your favourite tool when knowing what is happening on the Internet. It will help you figuring out what are the trending topics. On Google Trends you can compare till five terms at the same time and see which one is the most searched. In this way, you will be able to carry out your web content strategy towards users’ interest.
It is to be noted that Google Trends is not the most powerful tool for measuring Google search results but it can help you if you do not know much about analytics and you want to start creating your web content at a relatively low cost.
If you are interested in going deeper into web analytics, we recommend you to use more powerful tools such as Google Adwords, Google Analytics or Hubspot.
Youtube, the other Internet giant
Never forget that YouTube is the second biggest search engine. And, of course, it is part of Google itself.
Some users still do not know that YouTube has become a search engine and not just a mere video player. Many Internet users directly search information on YouTube, without even googling.
Leverage this boom. Users prefer more and more learning by watching videos than reading. We’d rather see pictures than texts. And if they are motion pictures, it is even better.
If you are thinking about using video marketing, this is your moment. You will be twice as likely to be found by your potential clients since you will appear on two very powerful search engines (Google and YouTube). Furthermore, Google is already offering video results:
Internet users spend almost 88% more time on web pages containing videos. More figures? The conversion can be raised to a maximum of 80% thanks to video marketing. Keep it in mind when using online marketing resources with Google.
