How to navigate the new AI search landscape
To win the AI search game, you first need to understand its rules:
From Keywords to Conversations: AI search engines like Google's AI Overviews (SGE), ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini respond to natural language queries. They provide summarised answers and cite their sources, moving beyond simple lists of links.
Trust and Authority (E-E-A-T) Reign Supreme: AI models prioritise content from experienced, expert, authoritative, and trustworthy sources. This means your factual accuracy, credible sources, and strong online reputation are more critical than ever.
Structured Data is Non-Negotiable: AI agents rely heavily on Schema.org markup to understand your details—amenities, pricing, availability, reviews, location, FAQs, and more. Accurate and comprehensive structured data is crucial for accurate AI-generated responses.
Quality Content is King (Still): AI craves comprehensive, helpful, and unique content that thoroughly answers user questions. Thin or duplicate content will likely be overlooked.
Omni-channel Presence Matters: AI pulls information from everywhere: your direct website, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), review platforms, social media, and even travel blogs. Consistency across all these channels is key to building a robust digital footprint.
"Direct-Only" Benefits Shine: AI may highlight incentives for booking directly with your hotel, such as exclusive pricing, loyalty perks, or flexible cancellation policies.
Personalisation is Here: AI can now tailor recommendations based on individual user preferences and historical data, making the guest experience even more bespoke.
The shift to AI search is a significant one, but also a tremendous opportunity.
Here's how to ensure your property is front and centre:
Prioritise "People-First" Content: Create high-quality, comprehensive, and genuinely helpful content that directly answers potential guest questions.
Ensure you have Structured Data (Schema Markup): This is absolutely crucial for AI to understand and present your property's details accurately.
Actively Manage Your Online Reputation: Solicit reviews and respond to them consistently across all platforms. A strong positive reputation is a major AI ranking factor.
Diversify Your Digital Footprint: Don't just rely on your website and major OTAs. Be present and active on social media, travel blogs, YouTube, and relevant forums.
Optimise for Conversational Search: Think about the natural language questions guests might ask AI. Build out FAQs and provide clear, concise answers.
Ensure Technical SEO Health: Fast loading speeds, mobile-friendliness, and crawlability remain foundational for any search visibility, including AI.
Regularly Monitor AI Overviews: Test AI search engines with relevant queries to see what content and sources they cite for your property and competitors.
The team at Massey Online Management is here to help. Reach out to us today to discover how our Digital Marketing solutions can help you stand out in the crowd.