How having the right hotel website can increase your search engine rank

The Cowra Country Gardens Motor Inn is a quaint hotel, offering guests the opportunity to enjoy rural experiences in Cowra, Australia and needed to increase search engine rank.

Owner-operator Thelma Gray recognised that as an independent hotel, the Cowra Country Gardens Motor Inn needed a website that was functional, visually-appealing, and informative to prospective guests.

However, limited resources and web design skills left Thelma with a web provider that didn’t understand the importance of a well-designed website.

The Challenge

Thelma knew that she needed to develop customer trust and improve her online presence – and the best way to do that is by developing a world-class hotel website.

Recognising that she needed a website that allowed her to compete with corporate chain hotels in Australia, she began searching for a web design provider that was affordable but also reliable.

The Solution to Increase Search Engine Rank

That’s when she discovered SiteMinder’s Canvas. After learning more about the easy-to-use tool, Thelma knew that she had found the web provider she needed for her independent hotel.

With Canvas it was entirely possible to create a beautiful website with visual elements without sacrificing time, money and effort.

Canvas would allow her to:

• Create a personalised website that would provide her past, present and future guests with up-to-date information about her boutique hotel
• Design a website that was not only functional but also pleasing to the eye
• Highlight the features and amenities of the Cowra Country Gardens Motor Inn
• Emphasise the fact that Cowra was a destination town in Australia – promoting the entire region while featuring the hotel as the premier accommodation in the city.

Best of all, Thelma didn’t have to become an IT expert or a web design specialist.

Instead of relying on a slow-moving web provider to update her website when it needed new features, photographs, videos or fresh content, she is able to use Canvas to make the quick changes.

The Results

Just four months after the new website went live in June 2015:

• The Cowra Country Gardens Motor Inn jumped four spots in the Google search rankings across four different search terms, including ‘Cowra hotel’.
• Bookings increased more than 100% in August.
• In September, bookings increased by more than 25%, which is significant since the Sakura Matsuri event is held in Cowra annually during that month.

The website not only helps promote the hotel and everything that it has to offer, but it is also attracting more people to Cowra, which is beneficial for all local businesses.