Search engine optimization is key to helping your hotel marketing plan in order to be found by travelers online. Maybe you’ve started a social media presence, optimized your website, or are working on gaining more reviews to help boost you in search results. But have you optimized your local listings?

The first step to improving your SEO and online ranking is with local listings. In fact, of all the factors that go into search engine ranking, 53% are from local listings, according to Moz. The most important websites to get started on are Google My Business, Bing Places, Yahoo Local, and Yelp.

Claiming or Creating

The first step is to find out if you are already listed on a website and claim your business before you create a new listing. Creating a duplicate listing can confuse searchers and make search engines unsure of which listing is more important to show. When setting up your page, you will usually be able to set business categories. Choose correct categories for your business, and don’t add it to categories that aren’t relevant for more exposure.

If you find that multiple listings have been created in the past, then it is important to remove the duplicate listings and have only one business listing per physical address. The best practice is to claim the listing that has the most reviews and remove the others. Google and Yahoo each provide information on how to remove listings online.

Other websites that are important to check for listing accuracy are ones where a listing exists even if you didn’t set one up. These websites include TripAdvisor, FourSquare, and directories such as the Yellow Pages and Yellow Book.

Your Listing Details

When editing listings, make sure your business information is 100% accurate. In the past, some SEO “experts” would try to game the system by adding keywords to your business name. This will now hurt your business. Google wants the information it provides to searchers to be accurate above all else. Because of this, your name, address, and phone number to be up-to-date and consistent across all websites.

From your Google My Business listing to every directory, you want the contact information to be identical. We know many businesses have multiple phone numbers. Choose one, preferably with a local area code, to be the phone number for all of your listings. Also, closely check your address; for instance, if your street address has “South,” set your address to say “South” and not “S” or “S.”

It can take up to 2 weeks for Google to add a new listing, and up to 4 weeks for a business to claim an existing listing. Get started as soon as possible to mitigate any SEO damage and help build up your search presence.

Adding SEO Value

Finally, to get the most SEO value, completely fill out your listings. Add at least 10 high-quality photos to your listing, and a video if possible. Write a strong business description when the option is available. Include keywords that people may search for, such as the city name or nearby attractions.

One factor you may not realize is affecting your search engine ranking is online reviews. No review is a bad review: up to 10% of your ranking is determined by receiving reviews. It is important to monitor the reviews that come in on these websites to make changes at the property level and respond to every review you receive.

Achieve Stronger Listings

While it is possible to individually update your hotel information on every website and directory, it can be a time-consuming and tedious process. With our unique Listing Management service, we help claim your local listings and update dozens of directories with consistent and accurate information about your hotel. All of our hotel websites come standard with listing management. Be found online and get more direct bookings with an optimized hotel website.