The Cornell School of Hotel Management recently performed a search result study with the St. James Hotel in Red Wing, Minn. The hotel wanted to see and make sure that they appeared on the first page of search results. We all know that that first page listing can make or break a business, therefore careful search engine optimization, and website design are crucial. Expedia says that 95% of the transactions occur on the search result first page, meaning that most people never make it to page two of the search results. Page two and beyond is considered no man’s land.
There are some things that you can do to help the web crawlers index you high. Proper keywords so you can be placed high in the organic search results. You bid on keywords which if you are the high bidder you will be placed on the first page of the sponsored search results but this can become very expensive because every click may cost you a dollar or more. That is why high organic search results are what everyone tries for. Web page organization is also very important. Web sites should be designed with layout, content, and text in mind. Major search engines use web crawlers to go over these sites, and through the internet to see relevant links from other websites to your website and not links from your website out to the internet. Mobile apps are now the wave of the future, Hilton and other travel search sites have developed mobile apps for mobile users.
Posted On: 2/22/2011
How to Top Expedia, Google Search Results By Glenn Withiam, Director of Publications, Cornell Center for Hospitality Research
Posted On: 2/22/2011
How to Top Expedia, Google Search Results By Glenn Withiam, Director of Publications, Cornell Center for Hospitality Research
http://hospitalitytechnology.edgl.com/home
Best Practices in Search Engine Marketing and Optimization: The Case of the St. James Hotel
Vol 10 No 16By: Greg Bodenlos, Victor Bogert, Dan Gordon, Carter Hearne, and Chris Anderson Ph.D.
http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/abstract-15320.html
Reflection
The foreign language and science of search engine optimization is something that is very hard to do unless you have the education to do it. I have had websites and done basic web designing but SEO (search engine optimization) is something that I have not been able to figure out. You have to learn about Google’s search algorithms and properly use keywords in order to index properly. I had a retail business which I just sold and I tried to properly set up a store website. I could not do it by myself so I ended up scaling the website down to a basic five page informational website. I contacted various webmaster to try and design a website and have it properly optimized but the cost was too great at the time for me to implement. If you are a major business and have an online presence it is essential to be properly optimized and index in the search result. If you come up on any other page beside the first page you will see very little business if any at all.
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