Small hotels can be the most inventive.


THE BAD NEWS OF 2.0

First: for hotels it either didn't work, or they never started with it.

Content Management sounds like a nice tool, but very, very few hotels in the world have the time to actually to do something with it.

Very often, it resulted in hotel websites that were simply not attractive: texts were sort of thrown on the site.

Which, with content being so important in SEO, was not very good marketing.

Secondly: just how many hotels actually made use of the possibilities that YouTube or other platforms or social networks had to offer?

Thirdly: YouTube may be popular world wide, it is also not making money. Google paid over 1.6 billion dollar for it, ... but is not making money with it.

Financially (not in terms of popularity or technology), Web 2.0 was a failure.

Small hotels and Web 2.0 and 3.0

The jargon used by Hotel SEO specialists, can often be incomprehensible. Web 2.0 , Web 3.0 and already talk of Web 4.0... terms that often do not mean anything, but are good to be aware of.

WHAT IS WEB 2.0 ?

First, there was the Web. No further explanation needed.

Web 2.0 was the term used when the Internet became interactive.

Platforms such as YouTube or FaceBook are the big names - they allow visitors to amend information and interact.

As a result (for a short while) websites with "content management" suddenly became very popular - hotels wanted to have a website they could amend themselves and, perhaps, where visitors could leave comments.

That is not really Web 2.0, but does go into the same direction.

AND... WEB 4.0?

Imagine. From FaceBook at work you already switch the heater on at home.

No, your PC as well as Car radio as well as Cell Phone will already know your schedule, and make sure your heater is switched on at the right time.

Web 4.0 is what they name "future music", and by no means a confirmed event. However, the foundations are being layed as we speak.

AND WEB 3.0 ?

This is also named the Semantic Web.

Web 3.0 takes into account that a word is not just a word, but also comes with a meaning and feel.

Personalized search engine results will already know your taste and preferences from earlier searches.

WikePedia will no longer be saturated with the brief opinions of every passer-by, but also be automatically monitored by experts of the domain...

In other words, it will try to bring intelligence and order in the current chaos.

The current prediction is that Web 3.0 will start become a phenomenon by 2010 and last through to 2020.


Hotel Search Engine Optimization

Technology & Marketing

Remember that marketing technology is not the same as marketing itself.

Marketing is how you make use of the available technology.

Hotel websites that rank high, do often do so because they are based on creativity and a good feel for the Internet... over having the right budget and software.

 

Now... what does this all this mean for a hotel?

Do you already get tired by the thought of all those times that you will again have to start with a new website, again a new strategy?

Sure, it does come with our rapidly changing times that being vigilant and aware is important.

However, many of the above evolutions do not necessarily have any implication for a hotel website. It is not because it is NEW, that you "should have it". (See the failure of hotel websites that started with content management).

Secondly, visitors of websites will always and everywhere prefer quality over anything else. Creating a website with excellent content... will always be the smartest step you can ever take.

The Internet provides lemons... make lemonade.