Tech Talk

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Definitely Doug 6/9/23: Hotels Fighting Trafficking: The Role of Technology
Posted: 06/09/2023

This week I want to address an important issue for the hospitality industry, albeit one that technologists have not historically had on their radar. They can potentially play a significant role in addressing the issue, which is human trafficking, and more specifically sex trafficking.

In my last column, I reviewed some key trends in autonomous mobile robotics for hotels, and dove into three categories of delivery robots in more detail – room delivery, food delivery, and heavy-lift robots. This week I will round out the topic with several other robot types and applications, as well as general guidance for evaluating, acquiring, and adopting mobile autonomous robotics. If you have not yet read part one, I recommend going back and doing so before continuing below, as some of the introductory material is important background to what follows.

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Best Practices for Hotel & Resort Operators in Pool Season 2023
Posted: 05/25/2023

With the arrival of warmer weather and summer fast approaching, hospitality operators are gearing up for another pool season. This year, technology is at the forefront of driving booking revenue and taking operational efficiency to the next level. Modern technology platforms (such as hospitality’s newest technology category – the Property Experience Management System or PXMS) are providing brand new capabilities that unlock new strategies and approaches to filling the pool with satisfied guests.

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The Growing Role Technology Plays in Hotels and Restaurants
Posted: 05/25/2023

In the past few years, hotels and restaurants have grown into hubs for entertainment, leisure, and human connection. In an effort to best serve their guests, operators have begun rethinking their technological investments and working to adapt to recent shifts in consumer preference and operations. To ensure that guests have the best on-site experience possible, brands are increasingly looking to new technologies to make their experiences more convenient and comfortable. Advanced property management systems (PMS) and point-of-sale (POS) systems can increase operational and staff efficiency, while also meeting changing customer expectations for a high-value but relatively low-touch experience.

This week I will return to a topic I have covered before, because it has, within the last 12 to 18 months, become one of the hottest-growth categories in hospitality technology. That topic is autonomous mobile robots – specifically, ones that can move around the facility as well as perform specific tasks. Many of these products were launched pre-Covid but were often seen at the time as more of a marketing gimmick than a legitimate operational solution.

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Why Keyword Research is Critical for Your Online Presence

03/27/2015

by Nimesh Dinubhai

SEO has now evolved into an amalgamation of tried-and-tested SEO techniques, social media optimization and content marketing, but it doesn't mean the basics are no longer important. Keyword research is still very much the life and blood of your SEO campaign and is critical to your online presence. More than 61 percent of online users start the buying process with the help of Google – and the first thing they do is enter a keyword in the search bar.

It means keywords have been and continue to be the main bridge connecting you to the heart of your target audience and tells you about their purchasing behaviors, online motivations, wants, needs and more. Here are some interesting reasons why keyword research is still important to your online visibility:

To Help You Find the Money Keywords for Your Business

Your online presence will suffer greatly if you don't know the money keywords for your business, and that's what keyword research helps you do. With keyword research, you can discover what your targeted audience searches for. You can actually discover what terms and words they speak and use to search for specific products or services.

To Help You Optimize Your Site Around Your Trophy Keywords

You can no longer afford to 'stuff' keywords in your website and make it visible. Those days are long gone. It is essential to optimize your website around your trophy keyword that you can find through keyword research only. You can find phrases that may be related to the overall theme of your site content. You can use those trophy keywords in the page title, image alt text, heading and naturally throughout the page copy. You may also rely on keyword research to develop effective internal navigation system to establish your authority in business markets and industry niche. Doing all this will put your site in good standing with Google and other search engines.

To Understand Where Your Competitors Stand

In offline business, you can see what your competition's stores are like, what their services are, what their marketing is like, and so on. It works similarly online. What your competitors are doing, you should do it better. You have to know their website inside out and know all their targeted keywords on different pages of their website. Keyword research will help you do just that.

To Find and Develop Long-Tailed Keywords

Your keyword research helps you identify your trophy keywords – or the primary keyword that's usually a combination of a couple of short phrases. The thing is that these keywords will have a high competition and are usually tough to rank organically. To get you started and to get a better bang for the buck, you can use keyword research to identify the best long-tailed keywords, which are relatively more specific terms for your industry, product, or service. If "Ford Mustang" is the primary keyword, "used Ford Mustang convertible" is the long-tailed keyword and is usually easier to rank organically. Google AdWords Keyword Planner is a good way to start your keyword research for these specific terms.

To Find Keywords that Generate Traffic Volume

Ranking for your trophy keyword is usually more expensive because the competition is on the higher side, but you can conduct keyword research and find keywords that may not be your audience's first choices but would later turn out to be useful traffic generators. It is important to improve traffic because it usually translates into faster and better realization of your ROI. You can also rely on your keyword research to find such keywords that would help establish targeted traffic for particular categories on your website.

To Help You Save Money by Running Targeted SEO and AdWords Campaigns

You need to conduct keyword research to identify how difficult it is to rank for particular keywords in organic search. Google Keyword Planner is a great way to identify your competition, find the most suitable keywords, and see what the suggested cost per click is going to be for an AdWords ad. You may consider going for long tail keywords with low cost per click to get in the race without having to shell out a lot of money. You need to maintain a right balance of higher competition but lower cost per click for all your ads.

Connecting with prospected audience using keywords is still central to online marketing. Even with algorithm changes such as Hummingbird that tailors search results to meet users' requirements, keyword research continues to be an important key to online presence and success. Working with a professional SEO company may be a good idea because they conduct extensive keyword research and help you improve your online visibility in an effective way.

About The Author

Nimesh Dinubhai
President
Websrefresh

Nimesh Dinubhai completed his studies in 2003 and launched Websrefresh to help businesses grow their ROI. He also owns two Arizona hotels, one of which earned the Historical Hotel Award in 2014.