If you’re at this step, it means that you chose your website builder (webflow!), integrated your PMS, designed your website and you’re ready to hit publish. I just want to say, CONGRATS! It’s a huge effort, and you’re 89% done, how gratifying.
If you want to hit publish, and get another dopamine hit with people arriving on your website, don’t stop here, you're just getting started 🤩
Let's talk foundational SEO for hotels websites, this part is key to your direct-booking strategy. So stick with me for five more minutes, I'll walk you through how to get your first visitors in just five steps.
Step 1: Find the Right Keywords to Optimize Your Pages Around
Don’t overthink this. All you need to know is: what is your ideal guest searching for?
For example, one of my clients runs a motel in Quebec. The most obvious keyword to optimize for was simply “Motel in Quebec.” (Ps: I recommend you get even more specific on the region, I am using this as a broad example so that you understand the gist of it.)
Here’s how to find similar keywords for your business:
- Go to Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (or use any keyword tool).
- Type your main keyword—for example, your destination (“Quebec”).
- Filter results by:
- KD (Keyword Difficulty) < 20
- Search Volume > 500
Now apply intent filters:
- Filter for Intent “C” (Commercial) and “T” (Transactional) – these are your converting keywords (for your homepage, rooms, and booking pages). For example:
- Stay Quebec
- Motel to rent Quebec
- Quebec hotel
- Then, remove previous filters, and filter by Intent “I” (Informational) and Local – these are your discovery keywords (for your blog posts). For example:
- What to do in Quebec
- Restaurant Quebec
Create a big list of those, and select the most interesting ones for your pages. The most interesting ones are strongly relevant to your website, and "easy enough" to rank for (that's why we filtered by Keyword Difficulty and Search volume).
Step 2: Optimize Pages with These Keywords
Now that you’ve gathered your keywords, it’s time to optimize your main pages and blog content.
For Main Pages (Home, Rooms):
First you will want to add these keywords across your website page copy. Ideally, it will appear as an H1, and the body content. Then, it will appear in your SEO Title, Meta Description, and URL. In Webflow, you can go to the Page Settings and manually add your keywords to your:
- Title Tag
- Meta Description
- Slug (URL)
- H1 and H2 headings
- Body content
For Blog Pages:
Once you wrote your articles (I recommend you start with 3 when your website goes live), you can optimize your blog pages to rank on specific keywords. Your blog pages in Webflow are dynamic, meaning one setting can apply to all posts. In the SEO settings, select your Blog Title and add your Hotel Name so that each post is personalized for search engines.
Step 3: Double-Check Your Webflow Settings
Before you publish, make sure Webflow is set up to help Google find your site.
- Go to your Site Settings
- Under the SEO tab, make sure “Submit sitemap automatically” is toggled on
Step 4: Submit Your Website to Google Search Console
Once your domain is connected and your site is published, go to Google Search Console and add a new property with your full domain (e.g. https://yourhotel.com)
Once it's done, submit your sitemap. Type your site URL followed by /sitemap.xml (Example: https://yourhotel.com/sitemap.xml).
This helps Google index your site faster. Sometimes, Webflow already handles this but it’s better to double-check.
Step 5: Start getting your first clicks 😍
After a few days, go back to Google Search Console. Head to the Performance tab → Search Results, and you’ll start seeing which exact searches people typed into Google that triggered your site to appear (even if they didn’t click on it).
🎉 Tadaaa! You’ve taken the first step toward ranking on Google (and AI Search too...)
Step 6: Collect emails from visitors (and turn them into guests using StayFi)
That's great so far, but our strategy isn't to receive lots of impressions from Google, but convert visitors into guest sign ups.
The primary purpose of building a custom direct booking website is conversion. One effective strategy is to collect email addresses and nurture those leads by offering exclusive discounts or special offers.
A single website visitor can become a subscriber and eventually, a (repeat!) guest.
The best part? You’re in control. These are your sign-ups, your guests to engage with.
What’s powerful about Google is that with the right optimization, your site can attract new visitors every day, and consistently convert them into email subscribers and future guests.
Learn more about how to collect emails, and which tool to use.
In the meantime, if you need any help setting this up, or have some questions, book an office hours call or reach out via email.