Using Internal and External Links To Boost a Hotel’s SEO

Link-building is a critical element of SEO for hotels that improves the user experience and lends a website authority, increasing its search visibility. Internal and external links are on-page SEO tools that can earn websites backlinks—valuable off-page ranking factors that build your site’s reputation and authority. When your content creation includes internal and external link-building, your hotel will enjoy the benefits of a comprehensive SEO strategy.

How SEO Link-Building Works for Hotels

To build links well, hoteliers must select high-quality internal and external sources for links that provide Google the information it needs to rank page content and to offer site visitors value through additional resources. When links improve the user experience, page views and dwell time increase. External links help show you’re an authority on the topic, and citing sources with links increases readers’ trust in your content. Google uses these factors to indicate a content’s value and position it accordingly on the search engine results page (SERP).

Benefits of Internal Linking for a Hotel’s SEO

Internal links are a must-have feature of a hotel’s website because they provide foundational navigation that site visitors and search engines rely on. Permanent navigational links, including those in the site’s footer, sidebar, and main menu, guide users to particular pages. These also provide a footprint for search engines to understand the hierarchy of main pages, subcategories, and articles. Contextual links, which usually appear within page copy, offer additional information related to the topic and give visitors and search engines a seamless path to a related page.

Improving Navigation

• User Experience: Internal links enhance user experience by guiding visitors to relevant content within your site. This helps the visitors discover additional information they may be interested in, encouraging them to stay on your site longer and explore more pages.
• Site Structure: Well-placed internal links help users navigate through different sections of your website smoothly, which can lead to increased engagement and reduced bounce rates.

Enhancing SEO Through Link Building

• Search Engine Understanding: Internal links assist search engines in understanding the structure and hierarchy of your site. By linking to relevant pages, you help search engines determine the importance and context of different content.
• Distributing Link Equity: Internal links distribute link equity (or “link juice”) throughout your site. When hoteliers frequently link to the most important pages, they are deemed of higher importance and ranked higher in search results.

Assisting Search Engines With Indexing

While external links offer search engines contextual clues about content, internal links provide most of the intel needed to index a hotel’s website. When you publish content, the page needs to be indexed to appear in relevant search results. Indexing refers to how search engines discover and catalog your new content. Search engines crawl websites to find new or updated pages, analyze the content, and then add that information to the search engine’s database. These bots navigate the site using internal links.

Indexing is one of the most important factors in SEO link-building for hotels, and here’s why:

• Discovery: Approximately 83% of new pages are indexed in the first week as long as there’s internal linking in place to point to the page. One option to expedite this process is to submit a sitemap to Google detailing all your linked content.
• Search Engine Ranking: For a page to rank in search engine results, it needs to be indexed, and ranking well requires optimized content. Improving the SEO on your hotel’s site by updating internal and external links can trigger Google to re-index a page and reevaluate its relevance to high-value search terms, boosting the content in the SERPs.
• Relevance and Freshness: Search engines prioritize fresh and relevant content. Submitting your content for indexing helps ensure that the latest information about your hotel, such as new promotions or updated amenities, is available to users as quickly as possible.
• Visibility and Traffic: Cross-linking pages create a web of related content that shows your hotel’s authority on a topic. When Google indexes these pages and notes the content as credible and comprehensive, it increases the chances of the pages being served to people searching for hotels or related services, driving more traffic to your site.
• Page Relationships: While a good site map can help supply all available pages to a search engine for indexing, a solid cross-linking strategy of internal and external links can also help Google’s algorithms understand site structure and page relationships. This topic cluster can demonstrate your hotel as a credible source for a specific topic and improve your rankings.

Effective Internal Linking Strategies for a Hotel’s SEO

Simply using internal links isn’t enough. SEO link building for hotels must effectively communicate context and relevance and inform search engines of the site’s hierarchy. Here are some tips for a hotel’s SEO strategy regarding internal linking:

Link to Relevant Pages

• Descriptive Anchor Text: Use descriptive and keyword-rich anchor text for your internal links to show how the destination is relevant and to meet visitors’ expectations. Anchor text helps users and search engines understand the content on the linked page; avoid generic phrases like “click here,” which don’t describe the destination or its relevance to the topic.
• Contextual Relevance: Make internal links fit seamlessly into the copy to offer an easy path to more information without feeling forced or out of place. When links occur naturally, the reader isn’t confused by the resource and appreciates the opportunity to explore the topic further.

Maintain a Logical Hierarchy

• Site Structure and Hierarchy: Organize your internal linking to reflect the hierarchy of your site. Link from high-level pages (e.g., accommodations pages) to more specific pages (e.g., offers or blog posts) to establish a clear navigation path and signal the importance of pages.
• Navigation: Follow the hierarchy to keep pages within a few clicks of the home page to help users and search engines reach additional content without excessive digging. A clear, logical navigation can minimize unnecessary clicks and keep high-priority content within easy reach.

Choose Quality Links Over Quantity

• Link Quantity: Avoid overloading a single page with too many internal links, as this practice can dilute the link equity and potentially confuse users. Focus on a balanced number of internal links that enhance the content’s relevance and navigation.
• Quality Links: If an internal link points to a page that’s only tangentially related (and more distracting than helpful), it won’t add value to that page. A hotelier should evaluate internal links carefully to confirm that they offer appropriate support or answer a visitor’s question.

SEO Benefits of External Links for Hotels

External links help hotel sites by pointing to outside sources that build content credibility, add value to visitors’ experiences, and help Google understand the topic better. When a travel blog references a nearby attraction or travel forum and links to it, visitors can easily check out the external source to find out more and confirm the content’s information. 

Local tourism bureaus, travel forums, reputable influencer blogs, hospitality award websites, press coverage, and partner brand websites are good examples of external links that can add value to a hotel’s blog or amenity page and tie your website to a community of industry experts. Endorsing other sites also offers many SEO link-building opportunities for hotels.

Best Practices for a Hotel’s External Linking Strategy

Outbound links can boost a page’s rank and improve the site’s reputation if implemented according to SEO best practices for hotels. These show Google how your page relates to reputable sources and builds relationships with other sites that add authority to your content. Follow these best practices when using external links to maximize your results:

• Link To Reputable External Sources: Citing data and opinions from trustworthy sites can build credibility for a hotel’s site and boost its SEO (and linking to irrelevant or spammy sources can do the opposite).
• Choose Relevant, Fresh Content: A recently published article or study carries more weight than a page that’s a year old and beginning to stale; look for current external sources that offer timely information or evergreen content that won’t expire soon.
• Use Descriptive Anchor Text: External links should be marked by descriptive anchor text that cites the source and helps visitors understand the link destination.
• Be Selective: You still want to be viewed as an authority on the topic, and over-linking to external sources can have the opposite effect; it can also unnecessarily distract and interrupt readers.
• Monitor and Adjust: You can’t control the source and destination pages of external links, so these should be monitored to confirm that the destinations are operational and up to date.

Creating Link-Worthy Content

Consider adding images, infographics, and videos to enhance your articles and make them more visually appealing. When a searcher’s query results in an interesting graphic or video, there’s a higher likelihood they’ll engage with it versus a page with stock images or blocks of text. When high-quality content delivers value, visitors may explore other areas of your site to continue learning, share the animation or video with friends, or link to a graphic from their site, creating valuable backlinks.

How To Use Multimedia in Link-Building Content

Expanding external and internal linking beyond text-based opportunities can increase the value of your hotel’s content. Engaging visuals can drive more traffic to your site and increase visitor dwell times and interaction with multiple pages. Consider incorporating various multimedia into your hotel’s content to round out your SEO strategy:

• Diverse link types for visuals, videos, and graphics beyond text satisfy a variety of audiences who absorb information and engage with sites differently.
• Infographics, like a room comparison grid, and images showing different accommodations can make content easier to understand and retain.
• High-quality visuals, like videos and images, are more likely to be shared on social media, increasing the reach and visibility of your content. This can build brand loyalty and attract new visitors.
• Videos showcasing property features, amenity highlights, and tutorials for loyalty rewards enhance understanding and potentially lead to higher conversion rates.
• Engaging, interactive content like quizzes or videos keep visitors interested and interacting with your content, which can improve the hotel’s SEO.

Best Practices for Optimizing Multimedia

All multimedia elements must be optimized for the user experience and technical SEO. Here are a few ways to address videos, animations, and graphics to maximize their impact on your hotel’s link-building strategy for SEO results:

1. Descriptive Alt Text: Use descriptive and keyword-rich alt text for images to help search engines understand the content and context of the visuals. Alt text also improves accessibility for users with visual impairments.
2. File Compression: Compress image and video files to reduce load times without sacrificing quality. This helps improve page speed, which is a crucial factor for both user experience and SEO. Tools like TinyPNG for images and HandBrake for videos can assist with compression.
3. High Quality: Keep your multimedia content at a high caliber. Blurry or pixelated images and videos can detract from user experience and negatively impact engagement.
4. Professional Production: Create professional-looking, relevant videos to appeal to your target audience’s interests and needs. Deploy good production values, including clear visuals and audio, to maintain viewer engagement.
5. Optimize Titles and Descriptions: Use clear, descriptive, and keyword-rich titles and descriptions for your videos to improve their visibility to search engines. This helps search engines understand the content and context of your video.
6. Utilize Tags: Include relevant tags to help search engines and viewers find your video content more easily. Tags can include keywords related to the video’s topic, and broader categories that describe the content.
7. Video Transcripts: Provide transcripts for your videos to make the content accessible to a wider audience and to improve SEO. Transcripts help search engines index the video’s content more effectively.

For more on how to create content that ranks, check out the rest of this series.

Before you chase next year’s hotel marketing trends, implement solid link-building strategies for SEO to build a good foundation for ranking. If you aren’t sure where to start, contact TravelBoom. We’ll provide insight-driven solutions for content creation and optimization to increase your hotel’s visibility in search and drive direct bookings.

Alyssa Fate is the Client Success Manager at TravelBoom Marketing. Connect with Alyssa at LinkedIn.

About TravelBoom Marketing

TravelBoom specializes in developing and executing customized data-driven marketing solutions that drive direct bookings and growth for its clients. With over 25 years of experience in digital marketing for travel and hotels, TravelBoom leverages advanced data science and analytics to uncover insights and develop strategies that greatly enhance results for our clients and reduce reliance on third-party channels. TravelBoom is also host of the world’s #1 ranked Hotel Marketing Podcast and its quarterly Traveler Sentiment Study both of which can be found at www.travelboommarketing.com.