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Technology — the not much talked about factor in SEO

When we talk about digital marketing strategies, the take is rather simple: Get the right keywords, create user-friendly content, and optimise your on-site or on-page search engine optimisation (on-page SEO). But, with over 1 billion websites today, each using the best ranking keywords, how do you create a website, and especially a hotel website, that is top-ranking?

Well, what is not much talked about is technical SEO — it can boost your website ranking on search engine result pages (SERP) if done correctly. Technical SEO helps search engines to crawl, index and rank the website quickly and efficiently. In simpler terms, having a great website with poor technical SEO is like having a stunning house that is built on a weak foundation.

So what defines high-end technical SEO? Here are the top six factors that you need to focus on for technical SEO:

Faster load time

Your hotel website’s load time is another important technical SEO metric to check. It is proven that web pages that load faster lead to a better user experience and help in increased sales conversions. A slow-loading site, on the other hand, leads to losing out on visitors, a higher bounce rate, and eventually, loss of revenue.
There are several factors that affect the load time of a website, some of which are — image and video optimisations, third-party widgets, server capacity, and website code, to name a few.

A mobile-friendly website

To improve on search engine rankings, a website must be smartphone- friendly. Studies show that the majority of today’s web traffic is from smartphones. That is why in 2019, Google rolled out a mobile-first indexing update for all new websites, which meant website content is ranked and indexed according to the mobile-version content, as compared to the desktop version previously. A mobile-friendly website helps you, not just to reach a wider audience and offer a better browsing experience, but also amplifies your product through sharing.

A secured website:

A secured website uses a secure sockets layer (SSL). This is a protocol that allows for the authentication, encryption and decryption of data between a web server and a browser. Meaning, Google wants you to have a secured website — which runs on "HTTPS" (the ‘S’ standing for secured in Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) instead of "HTTP". A secure site endorses the credibility of the website for its visitors, maintains a professional web presence and helps in SEO.

Optimized XML & HTML sitemaps

A sitemap works as the blueprint of your website and helps search engine crawlers to find different pages in the website. One of the first steps of optimizing a website, a well-designed HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap helps a great deal in your SEO strategy. Not delving into details, HTML is the language your website speaks with the user while XML is the language your website communicates with the server.

SEO-friendly URL structure

URLs are the building blocks of your website. To deliver relevant results to searchers, the URL is one of the most important parts that is looked into by Google and other search engines. It is a point that is oftentimes overlooked, but URLs work as the address of your website, and its structure acts in making or breaking your website traffic. Hence, it is important that you create URLs built with SEO.

Schema markup

In simple language, it is a code that helps search engines find relevant and informative content to the user. Schema markup is a sure way to boost your website’s SEO and improve the browsing experience in desktops, phones and other mobile devices.

The Simplotel advantage:

Simplotel’s websites have a number of incredible built-in and automated features that are offered as complimentary services (Learn how Sarovar witnessed 500% growth in revenue from direct bookings). Some of these are:

Optimization of load time (dynamic image and video compression, host your web assets across the globe, high server capacity, minimization of website code).
Run them on HTTPS.
Automated URL structuring.
Schema markup adaptation.
Variable image quality and format delivery for faster load time.
Content/image delivery from the closest server to the guest to boost load time.
Automated canonical tags.
Mobile optimized version of the website (to drive more conversions with prominent call-to-action buttons).

When we talk about digital marketing strategies, the take is rather simple: Get the right keywords, create user-friendly content, and optimise your on-site or on-page search engine optimisation (on-page SEO). But, with over 1 billion websites today, each using the best ranking keywords, how do you create a website, and especially a hotel website, that is top-ranking?

Well, what is not much talked about is technical SEO — it can boost your website ranking on search engine result pages (SERP) if done correctly. Technical SEO helps search engines to crawl, index and rank the website quickly and efficiently. In simpler terms, having a great website with poor technical SEO is like having a stunning house that is built on a weak foundation.

So what defines high-end technical SEO? Here are the top six factors that you need to focus on for technical SEO:

Faster load time

Your hotel website’s load time is another important technical SEO metric to check. It is proven that web pages that load faster lead to a better user experience and help in increased sales conversions. A slow-loading site, on the other hand, leads to losing out on visitors, a higher bounce rate, and eventually, loss of revenue.
There are several factors that affect the load time of a website, some of which are — image and video optimisations, third-party widgets, server capacity, and website code, to name a few.

A mobile-friendly website

To improve on search engine rankings, a website must be smartphone- friendly. Studies show that the majority of today’s web traffic is from smartphones. That is why in 2019, Google rolled out a mobile-first indexing update for all new websites, which meant website content is ranked and indexed according to the mobile-version content, as compared to the desktop version previously. A mobile-friendly website helps you, not just to reach a wider audience and offer a better browsing experience, but also amplifies your product through sharing.

A secured website:

A secured website uses a secure sockets layer (SSL). This is a protocol that allows for the authentication, encryption and decryption of data between a web server and a browser. Meaning, Google wants you to have a secured website — which runs on "HTTPS" (the ‘S’ standing for secured in Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) instead of "HTTP". A secure site endorses the credibility of the website for its visitors, maintains a professional web presence and helps in SEO.

Optimized XML & HTML sitemaps

A sitemap works as the blueprint of your website and helps search engine crawlers to find different pages in the website. One of the first steps of optimizing a website, a well-designed HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap helps a great deal in your SEO strategy. Not delving into details, HTML is the language your website speaks with the user while XML is the language your website communicates with the server.

SEO-friendly URL structure

URLs are the building blocks of your website. To deliver relevant results to searchers, the URL is one of the most important parts that is looked into by Google and other search engines. It is a point that is oftentimes overlooked, but URLs work as the address of your website, and its structure acts in making or breaking your website traffic. Hence, it is important that you create URLs built with SEO.

Schema markup

In simple language, it is a code that helps search engines find relevant and informative content to the user. Schema markup is a sure way to boost your website’s SEO and improve the browsing experience in desktops, phones and other mobile devices.

The Simplotel advantage:

Simplotel’s websites have a number of incredible built-in and automated features that are offered as complimentary services (Learn how Sarovar witnessed 500% growth in revenue from direct bookings). Some of these are:

Optimization of load time (dynamic image and video compression, host your web assets across the globe, high server capacity, minimization of website code).
Run them on HTTPS.
Automated URL structuring.
Schema markup adaptation.
Variable image quality and format delivery for faster load time.
Content/image delivery from the closest server to the guest to boost load time.
Automated canonical tags.
Mobile optimized version of the website (to drive more conversions with prominent call-to-action buttons).