The online industry is an exciting and fast evolving marketplace for the hotel and motel industry. With over 40% of consumers making their accommodation bookings on the internet, it is critically important for Golden Chain Motels to be well represented online.

Many consumers are using Google to source their accommodation needs as well along with aggregator websites like Wotif and Stayz. With regards to Google, Golden Chain has been carrying out search engine optimisation for the past 10 months in order to rank high for key accommodation and motel keywords Australia-wide.

The Google campaign entails identifying keywords having high monthly search volumes and then creating a campaign that assists Google in listing motels at or near the top of Google. This strategy is being implemented on both the Golden Chain website (eg through the blog) and via third party websites (eg Facebook, article exchange).

In addition to driving consumer traffic direct to the Golden Chain website, this Google campaign also serves to offset accommodation websites like Wotif who dominate the online marketplace. Currently, commissions on Wotif bookings are at 12%, but given their market dominance this may well increase in the future with direct adverse impact on motel room margins.

With this in mind, Golden Chain has sought to offset its dependency on third party accommodation booking sites and is actively marketing itself on Google to drive room bookings across the whole motel chain.

Some interesting Google stats for Golden Chain:

The campaign targets 3,634 keywords, including:
- Accommodation
- Hotels
- Cheap accommodation
- Hotel
- Cheap hotels
- Motels
- Holiday accommodation
- Motel
- Cabins
- Hotel deals

Of the keywords being targeted, 328 are ranking on page #1 of Google with 82 in the top 3 positions, where the largest volume of traffic is received. Some highlights include:
- Motels Australia (#1)
- Motels in Australia (#1)
- Motor inn (#1)
- Motel Chains Australia (#1)
- Murray Bridge Motels (#1)
- Euroa Motel (#1)
- Motel Molong (#2)
- Motels (#2)
- Western Australia Motels (#2)
- Motel Australia (#2)
- Motels Accommodation (#2)

Organic branded keywords (traffic generated by keywords relating to the Golden Chain brand) have resulted in 40,206 visits to the website since the launch of the new website (1 March) to 31 October.
Non-branded keywords have generated 56,034 traffic to the website over the same period. The Google campaign has therefore generated a website visitor traffic increase of approximately 40% over brand terms.

The company Golden Chain’s engages to assist with the ongoing optimisation of our many motels Australia wide is Web Profits. They specialise in helping companies like Golden Chain succeed online by optimising every part of our digital strategy to drive room sales and to keep us ahead of our competition. www.webprofits.com.au