What is organic website traffic and why is it the holy grail for accommodation businesses?
Organic traffic to your website is considered the gold dust of digital interactions. While the term might sound fancy, it refers to a visit to your website or app by somebody who has searched and found it by using a search engine like Google or Bing.
When it comes to accommodation businesses, people who visit your website in this way are actively seeking a place to stay, making them likely to book your accommodation if they like what they see.
After a deep dive into data for the websites we managed for accommodation businesses in 2024, we found that just over half of the visits came from organic traffic. That’s well above the travel and hospitality industry average of 31% – a result we’re proud of. Organic traffic doesn’t involve paid advertising, but it does require an investment in effort to
ensure your website’s online presence is powerful enough to pull in the traffic you’re angling for.
In this month’s article, we explain why organic traffic matters and how to boost the number of people finding your website via organic search.
What makes organic website traffic so important to the success of your business?
Our data reveals that organic traffic not only makes up the lion’s share of visits to the websites we manage, but the people arriving in this way are 23% more likely than other visitors to view photos, check room availability, make a booking or submit an enquiry.
These are the visitors you really want because they are more likely than others – including those arriving at your site by clicking a link from another website or arriving via paid advertising – to interact deeply and to make a booking to stay at your accommodation.
Out of the 290,838 total number of visits to the websites we managed in the year to November 2024, the number of new users was 224,620 – a whopping 77%. Organic traffic brought in a significant portion of these new users, helping to make potential guests aware of accommodation offerings and creating opportunities for them to book.
According to the 2024 Organic Search Traffic Benchmarks Report, organic traffic makes up 31% of website activity in the travel and hospitality sector, while organic traffic for websites Seekom manages sits at a significantly higher 50.4%.
This is a result we are thrilled with – by funnelling unpaid, high-intent traffic to client websites, we can be sure we are delivering real value to their businesses.
How do you generate more organic traffic to an accommodation website?
Our approach to improving website search results focuses on key areas that help businesses show up more often when people search online. If you manage an accommodation website, there’s no reason why you can’t use the same techniques to your advantage.
Creating great content
We write helpful, interesting content that relates to what people are searching for. This means when someone looks for information about travel, accommodation, or services, the content is easy to find and appears in the right place.
Making your website easy to use
We design websites that are simple to navigate, work well on phones and tablets, and help search engines understand how everything connects. Think of it like creating clear road signs that guide both customers and search engines smoothly through your website.
Taking care of the technical stuff
We make sure websites load quickly, have clean and professional behind-the-scenes coding, and are set up in a way that search engines like Google or Bing can easily read and understand. Slow load speeds, messy code or poor website architecture can result in a website appearing lower down in the search results – often outside of the first page – which makes finding it more difficult. There are some important online tools you can use to achieve this including schema markup, Google Business Profile and similar platforms.
What is schema markup and how can it help you?
Imagine giving search engines a cheat sheet about your business. Schema markup is like that – it helps search engines show interesting and relevant information about your property when people search online. Instead of just seeing a boring website link, potential guests can see your business name, photos, ratings, or special offers in their search results, making people more likely to click on your listing. We’ve previously written about the value of schema markup in our blog – have a read if you want to harness it for your website.
Spreading the word online about your accommodation
We use several online tools to help people find your business more easily including, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Webmaster Tools and IndexNow. These platforms help us share your website and information across the internet, making sure you show up prominently in search results, including local ones.
The goal: Maximising your position on search engine results pages
When someone types "affordable motels near me" into Google or Bing, the page of results they see is a search engine results page (SERP). The higher your business appears on this page, the more likely people are to notice you and have a closer look at your accommodation offerings. It’s like having a well-presented shop in a prime location on the main road of a city – everyone’s going to notice you.
By focusing on the actions mentioned above for the websites we manage for accommodation providers, we help them show up more often in search results, thereby nurturing organic growth to attract more potential customers, and boost their business through online bookings.
Need help?
If you’re thinking that doing all this yourself sounds a bit too technical, why not let us handle the heavy lifting? Our team offers tailored strategies that combine content, structural, and technical expertise to drive organic traffic to your website and lift online engagement.
A growing number of accommodation businesses around the world trust us to take care of their websites with fully-managed search-engine-optimisation plans. Find out how you can too by contacting us today. We’d love to help.
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