Why doesn’t our website come up when users are searching for “Pet-friendly hotels in Cape Cod”? Quite often as a business owner or manager of a hotel property, you may ask a question to your digital marketing team. Let me explain why it is not happening. In this article, we will look at how Google sees a search query. The concept of non-branded keywords with examples. Why your hotel does not rank for non-branded keywords like “Pet-friendly hotels in [destination name]? And how can you rank for such non-branded queries?

If you’re more of a visual learner & want to know the gist of this article in under 3 minutes, watch the video below.

But if you want to know the details of how you can rank your hotel website, be sure to read the full article.

Why your hotel website will not rank for “pet-friendly hotels in [destination name]”

Keep in mind, I will not go into technicalities over here. I am trying to write this article thinking a business owner or a CXO is reading this. Understanding the high-level concept of ‘search’ will help a business owner/decision maker be more empathetic towards their marketing team. That inevitably would lead to better discussions between them & their marketing team/partners. Ultimately leading to better results for the business. Having that context in mind, let’s move forward.

How does Google look at a “user search query”?

As you can clearly see from the search term “Pet-Friendly Hotels in Cape Cod”, Google is asked to provide an answer to this question.
Let’s break that question in a grammatical(syntactical) manner or in other words, how does a search engine interpret this question? “Pet Friendly”, “Hotels”, “Cape Cod”.

• Pet Friendly – an [attribute].
• Hotel’s’ – [lodging type].
• Cape Cod – [destination name].

For Google, the search term is to find a [lodging] in [destination name] where [attribute] is satisfied.
Now Google uses its latest & greatest technology to give out a no. of results. It shows the results in a pagination format. i.e. the most relevant results are shown on the 1st page. The 2nd page contains lesser relevant results followed by the 3rd page & so on.

2 different categories of search results

1. Sponsored Results
2. Non-Sponsored and/or Organic Results

The Sponsored results are basically ads. This is where Google (the company) makes money.

Organic results are those that Google thinks might be relevant to a user for the search term “Pet-Friendly Hotels in Cape Cod”.
As can be seen, the results are showing booking sites, followed by content-heavy sites.

Here we have to ask a question to ourselves. Why is Google showing such results? None of the results actually point to a “hotel” website which are pet friendly.

Then why is Google showing a user such results?
There are multiple reasons for that. No one knows exactly what metrics Google considers before ranking a website. Yet there are quite a number of factors known that Google uses before ranking a webpage.

Probable list of search ranking metrics.

• Domain Authority
• Domain Ranking
• Backlinks
• Website User Experience
• Content & Relevancy
• There are multiple other factors that Google considers before ranking a webpage. The above list is just a few of them.

Having said that what if a non-‘tech’ person has to understand why Google is ranking a set of websites?

To understand how Google ranks websites let’s understand what are the fundamental types of search queries.

Types of Searches

Branded & Non-Branded Queries

Simply put a search query that has a brand name associated with it is labeled as a branded query. Whereas if a search query does not contain any brand name, just the query itself, it would be termed as a non-branded query. The image below can show the difference between branded & non-branded queries.

Short-tail & Long-tail Keywords

Any Google search keywords are segregated into 2 categories. Is the search short & crisp? Or is it a detailed query for which Google has to find out exact specific answers? Both short-tail & long-tail queries can be branded & non-branded in nature. As a general rule of thumb, Google advises websites to be optimized for long-tail keywords. That way the website keeps a higher chance of ranking.

With the above information in mind, let’s look at the search query again.

“Pet-Friendly Hotels in Cape Cod”

Google is looking for “hotels”, not 1 single hotel which is pet friendly in nature. That inadvertently makes Google rank travel & content websites rather than ranking a single hotel website. The reason is quite simple. Travel websites are listing hotels that are pet friendly. It matches more of the search intent of the user.

Another aspect of the search is the concept of “non-branded query”. In the search term, there is no particular hotel name present. So the search query is “non-branded” in nature. For such a non-branded query google is looking at all websites which can provide authoritative information on “Pet-Friendly Hotels in Cape Cod”.

Your hotel website would not be having authoritative information on the list of pet-friendly hotels in Cape Cod. It would mention that your property is pet friendly in nature. Yet, looking from Google’s perspective, it is supposed to give results to a user which has a list of “Pet-friendly [hotels] in Cape Cod”.

I hope I have been able to explain why ranking for a non-branded query is a tad more difficult than it looks.

Is it impossible for a hotel to rank for non-branded queries?

It is possible. A hotel website can rank for non-branded queries. Just the queries need to be a little different. Let’s see an example.

This search result is showing a property website in the 6th position. That is on the 1st page of a Google search.

Let’s understand this search term from a semantic perspective.

Search Term – “closest hotel in cape cod near sandy neck beach which is pet friendly”
Closest – [attribute]
Hotel – [Lodging Type]
Cape Cod – [Destination Name]
Near – [Secondary Refined attribute]
Sandy Neck Beach – [Destination Name]
Pet-Friendly – [Tertiary Refined Attribute]

With more attributes & a detailed query, google is ranking a hotel website that is indeed the closest to Sandy Neck Beach. Bear in mind Google is not only looking at the website before ranking it, it is also looking at the Map location of the property & how close it is to Sandy Neck Beach. Thus ranking the website for a non-branded query.

Fun Fact

Although Sandy Neck Motel does not allow pets it came up on the search ranking. That’s a visitor gained. Would it be of any benefit to Sandy Neck Motel? No, maybe not. if someone is searching for a pet-friendly hotel near Sandy Neck Beach in all probability the guest would be having pets. So sandy neck motel would not get business from the guest. But it did rank on the first page for a non-branded query.

It is for this exact reason selecting a set of long tail keywords for which your hotel would want to rank on the 1st page of Google is extremely important. You may get traffic yet the traffic may not necessarily convert.

It’s easy to say why doesn’t my website rank on the first page of Google for a search term like “Pet-Friendly hotels in [destination name]”? Right now with how things stand in all probability you would NOT be able to rank for such a “non-branded query”. But wait, is it absolutely impossible? No. It is possible.

3 solutions to rank for non-branded queries.

As I had promised below are 3 possible ways in which you can start ranking for non-branded keywords like “Pet-friendly hotels in Cape Cod”.

• Search Engine Marketing – Sponsored Ad (This strategy gives immediate results)
• Local Pack (This strategy requires a lot of effort from the hotel’s end)
• Content Marketing with a heavy focus on the keyword cluster of “Pet-friendly hotel in Cape Cod”. (This strategy requires time, money & patience. Yet has the most lasting effects for ranking on Google Search)

Search Engine Marketing (This one gives immediate results)

A quick way to rank for such non-branded queries is to start running paid advertisements. Remember how search results are shown in Google? Sponsored & Organic Results? If ranking for such non-branded search queries becomes difficult it is better to start running paid search campaigns. That way you would have the chance to come up on the search results, albeit in the Sponsored section. I will try to write an article in the following weeks to explain the concept of Sponsored Search Ads & when to use them. The only downside of paid ads is, the moment you stop them, you end up losing traffic & revenue. Essentially it’s like gas for your car. To make the car run, keep filling it up with gas.

Local Pack (This requires a lot of effort from the hotel’s end)

The key to ranking for such queries is in Local SEO. To rank for such non-branded queries it is extremely important that your Local SEO is at its “A” game. Although I would like to explain a thing or two about Local SEO in this article, I would restrain myself from doing that in this article. It would make this article rather long. Although there is no single answer to rank for local rankings, for starters it is advisable to have your local listing up to date along with following best practices. (Google My Business profile).

Content Marketing (This requires a combination of money, time & effort, yet has lasting impressions)

Content Marketing is the art of creating content around a specific set of topical authorities. To explain in plain simple English, for Google to start looking at your website to rank for non-branded queries your website has to signal that it has enough authority on those particular sets of keywords. Think of interviews of guests who had a great time when they came to your property with pets. Think of listing out other pet-friendly hotels in your area which are not in your competitor set. You can also have dedicated landing pages highlighting pet-friendly facilities at your property. Another great way of thinking when creating content around a set of topics/keywords is to consider a guest’s buyer journey. If useful & authoritative content can be created which addresses customer pain points, that is a great way to indicate to Google that your website should be ranked for such non-branded query searches.

If a guest gets to see social media posts of people having a great time at your property with their pets, it might be worthwhile to start posting more such content on social media portals. Have videos of pets having a great time while they are at your property.

I just listed a set of content ideas. Once you choose to go the content marketing route, although it may take a considerable amount of time before you start seeing results, the rankings would last you much longer than paid ads.

Conclusion – Ranking for Non-Branded Queries

Ranking for non-branded queries for a single standalone website is hard. There is no doubt about that. But it does not necessarily translate to the fact that it cannot be done. With smart tactics of utilizing the 3 kinds of strategies given above you increase your chances of ranking on the first page. Having virtual tours/video tours, you can showcase your property & its amenities on the website. That makes the website more informational & authoritative. Having a blog detailing guest experiences can greatly enhance your digital presence. Running influencer marketing campaigns can help get more visibility on social media along with gaining great backlinking opportunities. Thus making the domain authority climb up little by little.

You can always use paid media strategy to fill up the rooms. But remember the caveat to paid marketing. It’s a never-ending game. You pour in money to get the results. Yet, sometimes it is the only strategy that can work for your hotel.

Each hotel is unique in its own sense.

At the end of the day if your property can give superior guest service experiences you are bound to get good word-of-mouth marketing. Nothing works better than that. Sparktoro has a great article on how Word of Mouth Marketing works best for any brand. You may want to check it out here.

If you liked reading this article you may want to check out a recent piece I wrote about strategies to get direct bookings. You might also want to check out how a video marketing strategy can help your property position itself far superior to the competition.

I work as a customer success manager at a US-based digital marketing firm prior to which I had been running my own video marketing company. If you’d like to discuss a few things about how to get your hotel bookings up by enhancing your digital presence get in touch with me. Don’t worry. I won’t charge you anything. Maybe you sit with your cup of coffee & I sit with my tea over a Zoom session to discuss.

To finish it off I’ll state one quote from the father of advertising.

“Positioning should be decided before an advertising is created.”

David Ogily

Position your property in your prospective buyers’ minds the right way. You shall be ranking for all the right keywords. Direct bookings will follow thereafter.