Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are not all about how much money you are willing to spend as an advertiser. Besides the Cost Per Click (CPC), there are several components factored into the ranking of advertisers’ sites on Google. Many large Online Travel Agencies such as Orbitz, Expedia, and Travelocity have huge online marketing budgets that allow them to simply ‘buy’ top rankings within the SERPs. Many times these OTA’s are willing to pay extremely high CPCs to maintain a certain position.

What can advertisers with smaller budgets do to compete? First a recap of what factors Google considers when determining rank. (more…)

It’s been said there are thousands of variables that go into how the search engine’s algorithms determine which websites rank where. While there may be truth to this, in reality there are a few key things you can change on your website that will quickly improve how often your hotel’s website shows up in the search engines. And although I would never claim that if you do all of these you will see an increase in traffic from the search engines, I will go on the record that I’d be surprised if you didn’t at least see a bump. All of these tips are important enough to warrant an individual in-depth look so expect future posts on each of them in the future. (more…)