reviewpro guide for hotels - how to optimize your website for sales using customer reviews

Optimizing your hotels’ web presence with reviews and user-generated content

By Josiah Mackenzie August 2011

Show Me The Money! How Online Reviews and UGC Make Sales

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Online guest reviews and user generated content can help hotels generate sales two ways:

•  Indirectly: by increasing rankings in search engines, bringing more traffic to your website

•  Directly: by improving sales conversion rates by increasing consumer confidence

Optimizing Your Website With Online Reviews

Reviews and UGC for Search Engine Optimization

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For a long time, the key benefits of reviews and UGC was that they provided fresh content. Now, major search engines take reviews into account for their ranking algorithms. Why are search rankings important? “The average travel purchase online involves over 50 unique search queries and 2.5 hours of research time” [Google at EyeforTravel conference, May 2011] Each of these searches is an opportunity to introduce your brand….if people see you. •  The top result on a search page gets clicked 42% of the time •  The top 3 results get 79% of the total clicks •  The top 5 results get 88% of clicks •  Only 3% of searchers go beyond the first page of results pages

Placement in search results plays a huge role in how much website traffic your hotels receive!


Reviews for Increasing Direct Sales

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•  Many people who leave your hotel websites do so to read online reviews elsewhere.

Publishing reviews directly on your hotel websites can cut down on this loss of traffic, and

encourage more direct bookings.

•  Increasing consumer confidence is another key factor in encouraging more direct sales, and

placing reviews on your websites can increase this confidence.

•  These issues are particularly important for small and independent hotels that may not have

the recognition of a large chain brand.


World Travel Market

How HKHotels Displays Social Proof

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More Review Publishing Examples

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Example: Pueblo Bonito Resorts

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Example: Fierro Hotel

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Make It Easy – Bridge the Online/Offline Gap

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Putting Rich Media UGC On Your Site

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Hotel SO uploads photos of their guestbook to the web:


Example: Seven Hotel

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Key Points To Remember About UGC

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The next time you receive positive feedback, ask the guest to share that experience online.

(But remember to communicate what they have to gain from the process!)

Establish mechanisms to organize it all:

•  To organize uploads (tags and hashtags)

•  To centralize access (Flickr, Facebook groups)

•  To share the content (website section, blog, etc)


Test, Test, Test

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Setup A/B split tests to track everything and identify improvement opportunities. A few suggested metrics to begin with include: •  Time on site •  Bounce rates •  Page exit rates •  Sales conversion rates


Any Questions About Optimizing Your Presence with UGC?

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Email me:

[email protected] Or connect on Twitter:

@HmarketingHelp @ReviewPro

More ideas, interviews, and case studies:

http://www.ReviewPro.com/blog


reviewpro guide for hotels - how to optimize your website for sales using customer reviews

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