Google recently weighed in on the topic of mobile websites vs mobile apps on their adSense blog. The decision of where to put resources – time and money – in the mobile space should be made carefully, taking into account your needs and the needs of your potential customers. Their 5 main points to consider are:

1. Know your users. Take some time to research what types of mobile devices are being used to access your existing content. If most traffic is coming from feature phones rather than smart phones, then it doesn’t make sense spending money on developing rich and interactive content that will not be visible to the majority of your audience.
2. What type of content are you providing? Mobile websites require an active data connection, but mobile apps have the ability to store or cache data for your users so they can access it without an internet connection. Some content lends itself particularly well to offline usability, while other content requires constant online access.
3. How is your content being used? Mobile apps have the ability to access advanced features on smart phones, such as GPS, cameras, accelerometers, RFID chips and more. Site programmed in HTML 5 can make use of some of these, but if your mobile concept provides a unique and compelling user experiences integrated with the functionality of a specific device, then an app may be the best way to go.
4. How regularly will you update content? Content on a mobile website can be updated instantly (by you or your web developer) but mobile apps often require approval from 3rd party online storefronts, and then require the end user to download and install the updates.
5. What are your development constraints? Do you have an in-house team that can program iPhone apps, but not for Android or HTML5 for mobile (or vice versa)? Or does your go-to marketing company excel in one area, but would recommend outside resources for the rest? And once completed, do you have the resources required to update the different platforms as frequently as needed to stay fresh and relevant?

The increasing influence of mobile content is undeniable, and staying on top of the mobile game is important to make sure you are leveraging all possible sales opportunities and customer touch points for your brand. That being said, it is important that you use your resources in the area where they can have the biggest impact.

When making the decision to go mobile web or mobile app, a little research into your consumer behavior and your potential development constraints can go a long way in ensuring your success. Creating a strong presence that is uniquely you in one area of mobile web can mean a lot more for your bottom line than pushing beyond your means to cover every platform.

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Contributed by Mike Supple, Sr. Social Media Manager

Event: SMX Advanced Seattle 2012

Session: SEO Track – Schema & Authorship: 1 Year Later

Date:  Wednesday June 6^th, 2012

Time: 10:45 am – 12:00 pm

Location:

Bell Harbor International Conference Center
2211 Alaskan Way, Pier 66
Seattle, Washington 98121 USA

Topics Covered: 

It’s been a year since Schema.org, a joint alliance between Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, provided a common foundation for sites to provide microdata and enhance rich snippets. We’ve also had Google’s rel=author tag enabling content sites to help identify their authors on the site and across the web. Beyond these, other meta tags have either gained prominence or become less important. This session looks at how to get the most out of these opportunities. 

Speakers:

Benu Aggarwal, President, Milestone Internet Marketing (@milestonemktg)
Matthew Brown, Founder, AudienceWise
Rick DeJarnette, President, The SEO Ace (@rickdejarnette)
David Weichel, SEO Manager, CPC Strategy (@DavidWeichel)

Moderator: Elisabeth Osmeloski, Managing Editor, Search Engine Land (@elisabethos)

Registration Info:

http://searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced/register

Session: Seriously Social

Date: May 3, 2012

Location:
Red Rock Casino, Resort, and Spa
Las Vegas, NV

Topics Covered:
Hotel guests are driving the way lodging companies must interact with current and potential guests. We’ve arrived in an age where people have finally figured out how to utilize social media.  In this session, Milestone joins a panel of experts to discuss the different social media strategies hotel companies have adapted as communication tools. We’ll also share some real-life case studies that the audience can learn from and implement in their own strategies to connect with and create consumer level brand advocates.

For more event information, click here.

Event: 2012 AAHOA Annual Convention and Trade Show

Session: Online Strategies: Profitability and Visibility are Just a Click Away

Date: Friday, May 4, 2012

Time:  3:00 PM

Location:
Georgia World Congress Center
285 Andrew Young International Boulevard NW
Atlanta, Georgia 30313

Topics Covered:

Get up to speed with the very latest trends and best practices when it comes to utilizing the power of cyber space to drive business, and the possibilities are endless! Milestone’s CEO, Anil Aggarwal, joins a panel of prominent industry thought leaders to show how hoteliers can maximize their online distribution system.  

For more event info or to register, click here.

Why you should use negative keywords:

• To Ensure your ads do not show up for competitors
• Make sure your ads are highly relevant to the searcher
• To be fully cost effective with your PPC budget

End goal: Run a focused PPC campaign, by having your ads show up for highly relevant searches, thus saving money while at the same time attracting those who are most likely to convert.

How to find negative keywords:

• Keyword Research Tools (e.g. Adwords, Wordtracker)
• Search Query Report*
• Using a search engine to see predictive search terms

*A report showing keywords that were searched for when the ad was triggered.

How to apply negative keywords in Adwords:

• Login and go to the Keywords Tab within your campaign
• Scroll down to the bottom left and click “Negative keywords”
• Choose between ad-group level or campaign level

In order to make the most out of your PPC budget, it is essential to use negative keywords (and refresh the list on a monthly basis) to ensure you are targeting the right market segment; one that is most likely to convert.

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Contributed by:
Amanda Brinkerhoff, PPC Manager
Ashim Neogy, eStrategist 

Guest value of user-generated content: The ability to read and write reviews is beneficial for both potential and existing guests of your hotel, as follows:

• Potential guests: According to a study by the Opinion Research Corporation (ORC), 80% of travelers research the venue prior to booking; furthermore, 84% of Americans say that online reviews heavily influence their purchase decisions. Make sure the reviews that are out there are making a good impression!
   
• Existing guests: For those guests that have already visited your hotel and seek to speak their experience, whether good or bad, online reviews are a frequented outlet. By leaving reviews, they are providing you with the opportunity to 1) thank them for their visit and encourage a repeat customer; 2) identify the strengths and unique selling points of the property; 3) correct or address any concerns that they may had with their stay; and 4) build trust for other potential visitors.

 

SEO value of reviews:   With the ongoing convergence of user-generated content on social channels and search, users are no longer only using one method to find your property. The number of reviews you have on Google Places, the rating, and frequency of those reviews are correlated with the visibility of your listing according to research and local search ranking factors.

Furthermore, any additional activity generated around your property’s web equity, both on and off-page, can contribute to the freshness quotient and relevancy of your listing. In a nutshell, it’s worth it.

Brand value of reviews and responding to reviews: By ensuring that you are interjecting yourself in any conversation that may be generated around your brand, you can be sure to have a hand in driving its developing image and message. You are acting as the representative for your brand and hotel by responding and creating conversations with users that have taken the time to reach out – take advantage of this opportunity.

How do you drive and manage reviews? While it may seem simple, there is no better way to drive new reviews than to present an opportunity to leave reviews, and ask for them. Check out the step by step infographic for increasing reviews:

(For more information about how to generate new reviews, read Tips for Increasing Guest Reviews for your Hotel)

How to manage reviews: Given the variety of channels and frequency with which reviews are left, monitoring and gathering user-generated content across the web can prove to be cumbersome. With the recent release of eBuzz Connect 3.0, Milestone Internet Marketing’s social media and reviews monitoring solution, this challenge is addressed head-on. While rating systems can quantify a positive, neutral, or negative association with a review, the deeper sentiment of a review can often be ignored by alternative ORM tools. Ebuzz Connect crawls content for meaning, and analyzes it to then be integrated into brand strategies that facilitate innovative sales, operations, and marketing insights.  To find out more about eBuzz Connect 3.0, visit www.ebuzzconnect.com.

You can find the full transcript from Rob Snell here (http://www.robsnell.com/dear-bing-and-google-help-me-rank-better-2012-sxsw-transcript-matt-cutts-danny-sullivan.html).  Many speculations feared that the “OOPs” update is the beginning of the end for SEO, but looking more carefully at the transcript, we can pick up signals that this is just another update that helps the White Hat SEO guys and give the smaller business a better chance.

We do not know exactly what this “OOPs” update actually includes, but here are the items mentioned by Matt Cutts during the SXSW:

• Exchanged way too many links
• Too many keywords on page
• Anything that goes beyond a normal expectation (spams)
• He also re-emphasizes the importance of great content and great website design.

If we look at this list more carefully, it really isn’t any different than all the updates Google has been focused on in the recent years to improve search quality.  The ultimate goals of these updates have always been to improve user experience and ensure Black Hat SEO, Link Farms, Content Farms, and etc. do not rank better than sites with great content!

So where does SEO stands after the upcoming “OOPs” update? Matt clarified this on the later portion of the SXSW that Google does not hate SEO, and in fact values White Hat SEO because it help making the website more accessible, crawlable, and give you a better chance to succeed on the search engines.

What does all this mean to the hospitality industry?  It is too early to tell, but I speculate that after the update, we might see an even more balanced SERP between the luxury, historic, well-established, smaller chains, and independent hotels.  This does not mean the bigger hotels is getting penalized and the smaller hotels is getting benefited, it simply means that both will get equal chances of succeeding if they are both engaged in White Hat SEO tactics.

For more search updates and strategies to leverage such updates, “Leveraging the Latest Search Trends” is a great read.

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Contributed by  Chad Tsang, Sr. SEO Specialist

Top 5 ways to use social media for driving traffic to a new website:

1. Connect your website to Google+
   While the effectiveness of Google+ as a social engagement channel is debatable – they simply don’t have the conversation volume of Facebook or Twitter yet – creating a Google+ page for your business and verifying it with your website can have a positive impact on search results. Many businesses are late to the game, so by acting now, you can take advantage of the lower audience and rank very well in the instant search. Traffic also seems to be steadily growing on Google+, so optimizing your presence there now keeps you in position ahead of your competition.Right now the only Google+ page that comes up in the search for “+vel” is Velas Vallarta
2. Share links to your compelling content on all social channels
   Google and Bing have both publicly confirmed that social media signals impact search ranking. What’s also true is that your content can get crawled and indexed faster by search engines if you share it on your social channels – particularly if it is interesting content that gets shared by many other people.
3. Post your photos to Pinterest
   After moderate initial grown, Pinterest has recently rocketed to the #3 position in the social media war. For those not familiar with Pinterest, it is a social site built around sharing images and videos relating to user interests. By posting compelling property and local imagery on your website then sharing it on Pinterest, you can drive awareness and traffic to your site based on your unique visual selling points.
4. Contests
   Running contests on social media sites are a great way to create a lot of buzz about your brand. When planned correctly, contests and promotions can do a lot more for you besides gaining Facebook Likes. In the entry process, encourage the participants to explore your new website, or incentivize them to share links to the site. This can have a large impact on increasing the flow of social traffic, as can be seen in this case study of a contest for Hotel 1000 in Seattle.
5. Issue press releases and socialize them
   This last point may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s a simple step that is often underutilized. Make sure that you have a press release ready to go the day you launch the new website, and publish it on your site in your press room. Submit it for syndication to multiple news sites and share on all of your social channels. Don’t be afraid to think outside the standard social box here. There are many niche sites for PDF distribution (like Scribd.com) that can help get your optimized content in front of search engine bots where it will have the biggest impact on your organic traffic.

When it comes to building traffic to your website, nothing is more effective in the long run than traditional search engine optimization. That process often takes a lot of time and dedication, so supplementing your SEO with targeted social marketing efforts can help increase short-term traffic while boosting your long-term SEO efforts.

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Contributed by Mike Supple, Sr. Social Media Manager

1. Define your “location advantage”

For hotel industry, you still most likely focus on “local search”. Besides “city + hotel”, “city + resort”, often times, potential guests would start from “vacation destination search” such as “Yosemite National Park”. Therefore, hotels can define the location advantage and define which attractions can be enhanced with relevant content.

2. Research, Research, Research

Using “Yosemite National Park” as an example. When people search for this famous national park, what do they want to know? To figure out what’s relevant to “Yosemite National Park”, you might find interesting topics from travel sites or guests review sites such as Trip Advisor, Yelp, Yahoo Answers, etc.

3. Provide Unique and Relevant Content

Once learning about what the potential guests want, you might find many people discussing about restaurants near Yosemite National Park. Then you can provide local dining info on your hotel website to be more resourceful. If you have onsite restaurant, event better! it’s a good opportunity to talk more about your restaurant or awesome brunch.

4. More Opportunities

Besides local attractions, think outside of the box! If your guests are talking about “romantic room with New York City view”, then definitely mention about the great view on your accommodation page to promote the deluxe suites or rooms. Besides, think about local events, provide event information, map, and maybe create a special package to drive traffic into actual revenue.

After all, the best way to react Google updates and changes is to keep doing the best SEO practice by providing quality content with targeted keywords. With good content, you will be shared, liked, linked, ranked, and found.

Sources:

• Wall Street Journal: Google Gives Search a Refresh -

  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304459804577281842851136290.html?mod=ITP_marketplace_0

• Mashable: How Google’s Semantic Search Will Change SEO -

  http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/google-semantic-search-seo/

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Contributed by Alice Lee, Sr. SEO Specialist

Milestone’s winning entries are:

• Residence Inn Savannah Downtown – Outstanding website design and marketing (http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winner.asp?eid=8796)
• Crowne Plaza Hollywood Beach – Outstanding website design and marketing (http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winner.asp?eid=8826)
• Hotel 1000 Facebook Scavenger Hunt – Outstanding website social media campaign (http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winner.asp?eid=8807)
• The Renaissance Boulder Flatiron Hotel – Outstanding website design and marketing (http://www.iacaward.org/iac/winner.asp?eid=8829)

“We are honored to have won these prestigious IAC awards, which recognize our creative internet marketing strategies and strategic website designs,” said Anil Aggarwal, CEO of Milestone Internet Marketing. “It’s rewarding to go head-to-head with the top internet marketing companies in the country, and be awarded for our performance and impact. Our greatest reward is giving our clients the strongest presence and profits on the internet.”

Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards

Produced by the Web Marketing Association, the Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards honors excellence in online advertising, marketing and social media and recognizes the individuals and companies who are the top in Internet advertising. Representing all aspects of the advertising and Internet worlds, companies competed and entries were judged on specific categories, including: Creativity, Innovation, Impact, Design, Copywriting, Memorability and Use of the medium. Competition judges are experienced professionals with an in-depth understanding of state-of-the-art advertising design and technology and the objectivity to score entries according to a defined set of criteria.For more information on the IAC Awards, go to http://www.iacaward.org.

About Milestone:

Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of internet marketing solutions for the lodging industry. Milestone’s portfolio of services includes Hotel Website Design, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click Marketing, Social Media Optimization, eBuzz Connect™ Online Reputation Monitoring, etc. Milestone currently works with over 1200 hotels and drives over $550M in annual revenue for its clients. Milestone is a preferred vendor for several major lodging industry brands and works with some of the leading management companies. Milestone is also well known as a lodging industry educator for its Hotels to HTMLs internet marketing workshops and book. For more information, please visit www.milestoneinternet.com or call 888-350-8396.

If you are interested in attending the workshops, send an email to info@milestoneinternet.com.