How to choose the best domain name for your hotel website?

Why are domain names important?

Choosing the right domain name for your hotel website is an important step towards improving search engine optimisation (SEO), driving visitor traffic online and enhancing your digital brand credibility. It represents your online identity and presence, which cannot be changed easily. Choosing the right domain name can have a positive impact on your business too. It will not only influence your bookings, but also your overall hotel business.

Follow the below best practices to nail the perfect domain name for your hotel!
 

The dos

1. The first, most fundamental step to getting your domain name right is showcasing the brand name. Your domain name must represent the name of your hotel, which results in better visibility and ranking higher on search engine pages.

2. Once you have incorporated your hotel’s brand name into the domain name, pay attention to the language. It is necessary to select words that are easy to pronounce and remember. If your target audience is based in India, it is always better to use English. If your business is set up in France, then French should be the ideal language to follow. The language depends on the hotel’s branding and marketing strategies. Although, using an English name is universally more acceptable and the best option.

3. Get rid of the special characters, like “-”, “_”, etc. These can be a sign of spam. Domains with such names are also prone to typos. Additionally, users might forget these special characters while typing out your domain name.

4. Similarly, avoid doubled letters due to the same reasons mentioned above. For instance, www.simplotellimited.com will be prone to typos and will result in loss of website traffic.

5. Do optimise the domain name with a relevant keyword. The best practice is to include a location in your domain name (This applies only for standalone hotels and will not work for hotel chains). But, don’t go overboard with keywords. Find the right balance! Keyword stuffing is a terrible practice, which will take you nowhere on the road to great SEO! The presence of a brand name, along with a location-based keyword, allows visitors to reach your website easily. For instance, “hotelbaserapune.com” or "rhythmlonavala.in"

6. If you run a hotel chain, then use plural keywords like “hotels” or “resorts” in your domain name. This signifies geographical presence. For instance, sarovarhotels.com.

7. Go after the “.com”! It is one of the most used extensions — it’s familiar, universal and easy to remember. One of the biggest perks of using the “.com” over location restricting extensions, like “.in”, is that it lets you expand your business globally. Due to its universal usage, the “.com” helps you broaden your business’s scope worldwide.

8. Choose shorter domain names than longer ones. The shorter the domain name, the better the recall.

The don'ts:

1. Do not launch multiple websites simultaneously. This confuses Google and also makes your websites appear like imposters. The overflowing of copycat websites affects traffic, which can be detrimental to SEO.

The importance of a domain name is extremely crucial for driving a hotel’s brand visibility across all channels today. This can go a long way in increasing traffic to the website, and in turn attracting more customer footfalls.