Hospitality SEO: Visibility Strategies for Hotels, Restaurants, and Venues

Understanding who you're competing against is essential. Hospitality search results are dominated by aggregators and platforms:

Hotels

• OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia) — Dominate generic "hotel [location]" searches
• Metasearch (Google Hotels, TripAdvisor) — Price comparison visibility
• Chain websites — Brand searches, loyalty programme traffic
• Direct hotel sites — Branded searches, specific queries

Restaurants

• Google Maps/Local Pack — Dominates "near me" searches
• Aggregators (TripAdvisor, OpenTable) — Review and booking platforms
• Delivery platforms (Deliveroo, Uber Eats) — Increasingly prominent for casual dining
• Direct restaurant sites — Branded and occasion-based searches

Event Venues

• Venue directories (Coco Wedding, Tagvenue) — High domain authority, difficult to outrank
• Wedding blogs/publications — Styled shoots, real weddings
• Corporate event platforms — VenueScanner, Hire Space
• Direct venue sites — Branded searches, specific occasion queries

The Commission Problem

Platform dependence erodes margins:

• OTA commissions: 15-25% per booking
• Restaurant covers: £1-3 per booking
• Venue enquiry fees: £20-100+ per lead

Every direct booking recovered from platforms drops straight to the bottom line.

Hotels can't outrank Booking.com for "hotel [city]"—but they can capture high-intent traffic through smarter targeting:

Keyword Strategy

• Brand searches — "[Hotel name]", "[Hotel] booking"—own your brand terms
• Occasion-based — "Anniversary hotel [location]", "romantic weekend [area]"
• Experience-based — "Spa hotel [region]", "golf hotel [area]"
• Location-specific — "Hotel near [landmark/attraction]", "[Neighbourhood] hotel"
• Long-tail — "Dog-friendly hotel with restaurant [area]"

Content Opportunities

Content that OTAs can't replicate:

• Area guides — "Things to do in [location]", local expertise
• Experience pages — Detailed spa, dining, golf, wedding content
• Seasonal content — Christmas packages, summer breaks, event tie-ins
• Local partnerships — Combined experiences with local attractions

Technical Requirements

• Hotel schema — LodgingBusiness markup for rich results
• Room-level pages — Individual pages for room types (if sufficient content)
• Booking engine optimisation — Fast, mobile-friendly booking flow
• Image optimisation — High-quality imagery, proper alt text, WebP format

Google Hotel Integration

• Google Business Profile: complete and regularly updated
• Free booking links: enable in Hotel Center
• Price accuracy: match your direct rate or beat OTAs

Restaurant SEO is predominantly local SEO. The Local Pack (map results) drives the majority of restaurant discovery:

Google Business Profile Optimisation

The most important ranking factor for restaurants:

• Complete information — Hours (including special hours), menu link, booking link
• Category selection — Primary category plus relevant additional categories
• Attributes — Dietary options, amenities, payment methods
• Photos — Regular uploads of food, interior, team
• Posts — Weekly updates: specials, events, seasonal menus
• Q&A — Proactively answer common questions

Review Strategy

Reviews significantly impact local rankings and conversion:

• Volume — More reviews generally means better visibility
• Recency — Recent reviews weighted more heavily
• Response — Reply to all reviews, positive and negative
• Keywords in reviews — Encourage specific feedback (food, service, atmosphere)

Website Content

Beyond GBP, your website supports rankings and conversion:

• Menu pages — Structured, crawlable menus (not just PDFs)
• Location pages — For multi-location restaurants
• Event/private dining — Occasion-based content
• About/chef story — E-E-A-T signals for food expertise

Schema Markup

• Restaurant schema — Including cuisine, price range, serves cuisine
• Menu schema — Structure menu items for potential rich results
• LocalBusiness — NAP, opening hours, payment methods

Venues face intense competition from directories. The strategy: target specific queries directories can't serve as well:

Keyword Strategy for Venues

• Occasion + location — "Wedding venue [county/area]", "conference venue [city]"
• Specific features — "Barn wedding venue", "venue with accommodation"
• Capacity-based — "Wedding venue for 150 guests", "intimate wedding venue"
• Style-based — "Rustic wedding venue", "modern event space"
• Exclusive use — "Exclusive use wedding venue [area]"

Content That Ranks

Content directories can't replicate:

• Real weddings/events — Case studies with photos (permission required)
• Supplier recommendations — Preferred photographers, caterers, florists
• Planning guides — "Planning your wedding at [venue]"
• Seasonal content — "Winter weddings at [venue]", "Summer garden parties"
• Virtual tours — 360° content for research-phase visitors

Visual SEO

Venues are highly visual decisions:

• Image optimisation — Descriptive filenames, alt text, WebP format
• Google Images — Significant traffic source for venue discovery
• Pinterest — Particularly for weddings; optimise pins for search
• Video content — YouTube optimisation for venue tours

Local SEO for Venues

• Google Business Profile — Category: "Wedding venue", "Event venue"
• Local citations — Tourism boards, local business directories
• Reviews — Encourage post-event reviews on Google

Technical SEO requirements specific to hospitality websites:

Site Speed

Hospitality sites are typically image-heavy. Speed optimisation is essential:

• Image compression — Modern formats (WebP, AVIF), responsive images
• Lazy loading — Load images as users scroll
• CDN — Content delivery network for global visitors
• Third-party scripts — Audit booking widgets, chat tools, tracking

Mobile Experience

Majority of hospitality searches are mobile:

• Mobile-first design — Primary experience, not afterthought
• Booking flow — Complete mobile booking without friction
• Click-to-call — Prominent phone links for reservations
• Maps integration — Easy directions from mobile

Multi-Location SEO

For hotel groups and restaurant chains:

• Location pages — Unique content per property, not templates
• Centralised vs distributed — Consider subdomain vs subfolder strategy
• GBP management — Consistent but location-specific profiles
• Internal linking — Cross-promotion between properties where relevant

International SEO

For properties serving international guests:

• Hreflang — Language/region targeting for international versions
• Currency handling — Localised pricing display
• Translated content — Key pages in major source markets' languages

Content marketing builds topical authority and captures research-phase traffic:

Hotels

• Destination guides — Comprehensive area information
• Itineraries — "48 hours in [location]", "Weekend breaks"
• Seasonal content — Christmas markets, summer festivals, autumn breaks
• Experience content — Spa guides, dining experiences, activities

Restaurants

• Chef content — Recipes, techniques, sourcing stories
• Seasonal menus — Menu launch announcements, ingredient stories
• Occasion content — Birthday dining, anniversary restaurants
• Local sourcing — Supplier stories, farm-to-table narratives

Venues

• Real event galleries — With client permission, detailed case studies
• Planning content — Timeline guides, budget guides, supplier guides
• Inspiration boards — Mood boards, styling ideas, trend content
• FAQ content — Common planning questions answered

User-Generated Content

Leverage guest content:

• Instagram hashtag campaigns
• Guest photo galleries (with permission)
• Review highlights on website
• Wedding/event testimonials

Hospitality SEO success is measured in bookings and revenue, not just rankings:

Key Metrics

• Direct booking revenue — Revenue from organic traffic
• Direct booking share — Percentage of bookings not via OTA/aggregator
• Cost per booking by channel — SEO vs OTA acquisition cost
• Organic traffic by intent — Brand vs non-brand searches
• Local Pack impressions/clicks — Google Business Profile performance

Attribution Considerations

• Research to booking gap — Visitors may research on multiple sessions
• Cross-device journeys — Research on mobile, book on desktop
• Phone bookings — Track calls from organic traffic
• Walk-ins influenced by search — Harder to attribute but real

Competitive Benchmarking

• Share of search — Visibility vs competitors for key terms
• Local Pack share — How often you appear vs competitors
• Review velocity — Review growth rate vs competitors
• Content gap analysis — Topics competitors cover that you don't

ROI Calculation

Compare SEO investment to OTA savings:

• Direct booking value × number of bookings = direct revenue
• OTA commission saved = direct revenue × average commission rate
• SEO ROI = (commission saved - SEO investment) / SEO investment

Our Local SEO services are built around this exact framework, designed for businesses that need predictable growth.

See how we applied this approach in our client case studies.