SEO Analysis of two luxury Hotel Brands:
By Owais Hikmat
Introduction
SEO is an
important consideration for marketers because it helps their websites and
content to be found easier and indexed efficiently by search engines. In the
hotel industry, Ritz-Carlton and Shangri La must use the best SEO and keyword
phrases in order to compete for top ranking in search engines. Using keyword
sentences throughout their sites like luxury hotels, luxury resorts, luxurious
hotels, and luxury resorts and hotels, they are bound to index higher and
quicker on search engines. In the quest of the Top Luxury Hotel in Toronto, both
hotel brands must incorporate more detailed keywords into their websites that
further direct their customers to their websites with speed and efficiency. The
objective is to determine which of the two sites when compared has a stronger
SEO.
Screen Captures of both home pages:
SEO Considerations
|
THE RITZ-CARLTON®
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Shangri-La hotel
|
|
(The Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Company, 2016)
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(Shangri-La International
Hotel Management Ltd., 2016)
|
URL:
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http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Toronto/Default.htm
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http://www.shangri-la.com/toronto/shangrila/
|
Keywords used on each site:
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luxury hotels,
luxury resorts, luxurious hotels, luxury resort hotels, luxury resorts and
hotels
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Luxury Hotels and Resorts
| Official Site Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Our luxury 5-star Shangri-La
Hotel, Toronto provides comfortably appointed rooms, suites and restaurants
as well as excellent amenities
|
Frequency of Keywords:
|
Luxury; used
frequently (9 times and more), top; used often (6 times and more), hotel;
very frequent (30 times and more) and features; used frequently (9 times and
more). Downtown is used frequently (11 times & more) and Toronto is used
very frequently at 42 times on a single homepage.
|
Hotel is used very
frequently at about 14 times in a single homepage, luxury is used about
twice, boutique is used twice and Toronto is used frequently at about 8
times.
|
Locations of keywords:
|
Scattered throughout
the pages, mostly populated the “Hotel Overview” page.
|
Scattered throughout
the pages, mostly populated the “About the Hotel” page.
|
Keywords in URL:
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Keywords: Ritz
Carlton, Toronto
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Keywords: Shangri
La, Toronto
|
<title>
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Toronto Luxury Hotels
– 5 Star Hotels in Toronto | The Ritz-Carlton
|
Hotel in Toronto –
Luxury 5 Star | Shangri-La Hotel
|
<meta name=”description” content=“”/>
|
<meta
name="description" content="Discover The Ritz-Carlton Toronto,
a five-star hotel in Toronto conveniently located near performing arts
centers, sports arenas, and the entertainment and financial districts."
/>
|
<meta
name="Description" content="Our luxury 5-star Shangri-La
Hotel, Toronto provides comfortably appointed rooms, suites and restaurants
as well as excellent amenities." />
|
<meta name=”keywords” content=””/>
|
<meta
name="keywords" content="luxury hotels, luxury resorts,
luxurious hotels, luxury resort hotels, luxury resorts and hotels" />
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Our luxury 5-star
Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto provides comfortably appointed rooms, suites and
restaurants as well as excellent amenities
|
Site upload speed:
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Very fast
|
Very fast
|
Quality of written content:
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High Quality
|
High Quality
|
Quality of Visual Content:
|
High Quality
|
High Quality
|
Alt Text used:
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Captions used:
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Quality of Layout:
|
High Quality
|
High Quality
|
Call-to-action:
|
Yes. For example: Sign up, Compare rooms Stay connected and Learn
More.
|
Yes. For example: Book a Room, Get the best rates and Connect with us.
|
Anchor Text:
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Yes ….Lots of anchor text
|
Yes…lots of anchor text
|
Mobile Friendly:
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Yes, easy to access and also has the ability for landscape view once
phone is tilted
|
Yes, easy to access and also has the ability for landscape view once
phone is tilted
|
Content is “shareable”:
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Yes
|
Yes
|
Links to Social Media:
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Yes. Includes: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Foursquare,
Google +, Instagram, Mobile & Email
|
Yes. Includes: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google +, Youku & Weibo
|
SERP ranking results when using keywords from this
table:
|
1st place
Travelers’ Choice® 2016 Winner
|
2nd Place
Travelers’ Choice® 2016 Winner
|
Summary:
The
Ritz-Carlton’s strengths are its use of meta name “keywords” in its HTML; such
as luxury hotels, luxury resorts, luxurious hotels, luxury resort hotels,
luxury resorts and hotels. The keyword sentences “Toronto Luxury Hotels – 5
Star Hotels in Toronto | The Ritz-Carlton” are found on the top title of the
browser tab and creates good SEO. When searching for content using the
following keywords: Top Luxury Hotel Toronto, The Ritz-Carlton ranked #1 in
Google’s SERP results. I believe that Ritz-Carlton gained excellent SEO
advantage over Shangri-La was purely due to the fact of having excellent
<meta> tag “keywords” in their HTML.
Shangri-La’s
strengths are its use of a good <meta name="Description"
content="Our luxury 5-star Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto provides comfortably
appointed rooms, suites and restaurants as well as excellent amenities." The
keyword sentences Hotel in Toronto - Luxury 5 Star | Shangri-La Hotel are found
the top title tab of the browser. . When searching for content using the
keywords: Top Luxury Hotel Toronto, Shangri-La ranked # 2 in Google’s SERP
results. The two sites have this in
common that they both have great meta descriptions as well as keyword tags
using the title tab on the browser. They also share great SEO, high quality
content, good use of Alt Text, very mobile friendly, very shareable, excellent
social media access, have great call to action links, and very swift site
upload speed. They are different in that The Ritz-Carlton used very effective
SEO methods by having <meta name="keywords" content="luxury
hotels, luxury resorts, luxurious hotels, luxury resort hotels, luxury resorts
and hotels" />. Unfortunately,
Shangri-La didn’t have “keyword” in their HTML placing them second in the SERP.
Conclusion:
In the hotel
industry, The Ritz-Carlton and Shangri-La must highly optimize their websites
in order to cater to their customer’s’ every need. Using keyword sentences
throughout their sites like “Top Luxury Hotel Toronto” would definitely ensure
their chances of being placed higher in Google’s ranking systems. In my opinion
the overall winner of this SEO Search analysis is The Ritz-Carlton®.
APA Citations:
References
Shangri-La International Hotel Management Ltd.
(2016). About the Hotel. Retrieved from http://www.shangri-la.com/:
http://www.shangri-la.com/toronto/shangrila/about/
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. (2016). Hotel
Overview . Retrieved from TheRitz-Carlton.com: http://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/Properties/Toronto/Information/Default.htm
