5 Local SEO Essentials for San Diego Hotels

As with any other business, the main focus for hotels in San Diego is how to reach and convert new customers. Some dabble with traditional advertising including billboards, coupons, and other print ads; but any marketing expert will tell you that digital marketing (and more specifically, local SEO) is the single best way to generate leads for hotels.

San Diego hotels face intense online competition. Since most people use the internet to book hotels, every hotel has to build a unique and active online presence. The Digital 2021: Global Overview Report reveals that 60% of the world’s population uses the internet.

Making local SEO the top digital marketing strategy for the San Diego hotel industry. Let’s take a look at how you can use local SEO (and adjacent tactics) to help create and nurture an online presence that customers will notice.

Watch this video to learn about the Digital Authority Partners approach to local SEO!

1. Creating Directory Listings and Google My Business

The immense user-base on Google means that creating a Google My Business (GMB) account should be the number one priority for every San Diego hotel. GMB is a free tool that enables businesses to create a local listing for a particular property. It’s important to complete all areas of this listing (e.g., contact number, booking links, etc.).  

Including images allows customers to see the best side of the hotel. But that’s not the only listing you need, because a San Diego hotel should also be listed on Trip Advisor, Yelp, and every major hotel directory you can locate. You might not need a San Diego Digital Agency to take care of the above, but hiring an expert marketer is sure to save you time and effort while making sure your hotel is listed in all the right places.

 2. Targeting Your Audience and Choosing Keywords

You likely already know your target market but it’s worth investigating your competitors’ tactics so you can best refine how you target your chosen audience. It’s easy to research how the competition operates with the use of tools like Moz, Ahrefs, and Semrush. 

These tools should display what kinds of links and keywords the other San Diego hotels are using. Keywords are arguably one of the most important aspects of local SEO, making it critical to choose the right ones.

But how do you choose the right keywords to rank high in a search?

Your prospective customers will type keywords into google that fall into two categories - buyer's intent and information intent. The difference between these two is that buyer’s intent is when customers are ready to make a purchase right away; information intent is when prospects are just browsing. 

Below is a list of examples that show how these two kinds of keywords differ:

Buyer’s Intent

“Book hotel in San Diego”

“Cheap hotel San Diego”

“Hotel San Diego tonight”

Informational Intent

“What hotels are in San Diego”

“Is San Diego a good place to vacation”

“How much are hotels in San Diego”

These examples were chosen randomly but you should see that it’s important to choose a range of keywords geared towards both buyer's intent and information intent. The tools mentioned above provide a way to identify the popularity of keywords and which ones you should be using.

3. Building and Optimizing Website Content

Once you know your keywords, you’ll want to include them in the existing content on the hotel website. San Diego hotels should also create new content related to the local area while ensuring your keywords infuse your blog posts. 

Creating content is not just about giving users something to read or watch; it's about creating something that generates traffic on search engines by being topical and useful to your target market. This optimization extends beyond the body of content. It is equally important to include these keywords in your URL, meta description, and tags on every piece of content. 

4. Nurturing a Positive Online Review Lineup

The power of online reviews is often ignored. Yet, reviews not only encourage prospects to place a booking but also increase the online visibility of the hotel. Reviews are used by search engines when ranking hotels. Therefore, the more positive reviews a hotel acquires, the more traffic it can expect. 

For this reason, every hotel’s strategy should include building a portfolio of reviews on various platforms by asking every guest to take the time to leave a review. 

Most hotels don’t do this themselves. They employ a San Diego Local SEO Agency to take care of local SEO needs like this one.

5. Be Consistent and Active on Social Media

San Diego hotels need to be consistent with their social media content. You should be creating posts several times each day on the platforms where their audience hangs out. The content should be interesting, engaging, and valuable– not merely a placeholder to fill the space. 

The latter will do more harm than good for your social media presence. Prospects often check social media for recent photos, reports, or activity. The absence of high-quality, customer-centric content is likely to encourage prospects to look for another hotel instead of yours.

By implementing all 5 of these tactics, your hotel’s digital strategy will be way ahead of the competition. And if you need a little more help with your local SEO efforts, try bringing in a San Diego Local SEO Agency.