7 SEO Copywriting Mistakes That Are Hurting Your Hospitality Business

It goes without saying that any hospitality business owner wants to increase their client base. One primary concern of all business owners is finding new ways of increasing their audience. The content on your website is paramount to attracting new clients, but it’s easy to make copywriting mistakes that deter new customers.

Below, we outline seven copywriting mistakes that frequently hurt your chances of converting customers and growing your business:

1. Your Copy is Just Meaningless Adjectives

Instead of calling the views from your rooms “breathtaking,” try telling your clients why they are so breathtaking. Can you see lush green nature or sizzling beaches with the azure sea grazing the shore? Maybe there are beautiful cliffs nearby where a guest can see the expanse of their surroundings or your hotel is built facing a nearby manmade landmark? Tell them about these wonders. Describe how they will feel when they see it. Avoid all clichés of the hotel industry and make your descriptions more specific.

2. No Personality

People choose to stay at hotels that feel both familiar and exciting. Are you a small, independent hotel? Are you a part of a hospitality chain? Do you usually host families or groups of younger people? What activities do you have to offer? These are all important differentiators of your establishment that make your brand stand out. Figure out what your hotel’s key features and values are and focus on that. Don’t pander to the tastes of different audiences with descriptions that might be complete opposites, you’ll end up contradicting yourself and watering down your angle.

3. Not Knowing Your Audience

The first thing you need to do is to understand your ideal audience.  Are they younger or older? More tech-savvy or traditional? Do they travel alone or with others? Are you appealing to families? Understand who your target customer is and your copywriting job becomes much easier. Natalia Hayworth, a content writer at Uktopwriters and Bestaustralianwriters, says that “your copy should be niche-specific because if it’s too vague you’ll be losing your target clients. If a website user isn’t interested in your niche-specific copy, they aren’t important traffic anyway.”

It’s okay for you are writing to target a few unique but overlapping groups, like fitness fanatics as well as business-people who want to relax and unwind, but don’t include those customers who your hotel doesn’t have the resources to host. 

4. Not Focusing on the Right Pain Points

You need to address your clients’ pain points in your copy, just like a salesman would if they met with the clients face-to-face. So, let’s say your clients are parents with young children that want to have some fun on their own but also want their kids to be entertained? Their pain points will include concerns like the safety of their children while they are not in their care, whether there is a dedicated program for children at the hotel and if the food menu caters for children.

For example, if your hotel is a leisure hotel with a dedicated luxury gym and spa area — while the gym equipment and spa facilities are unsuitable for children, you can assure the parents they can enjoy themselves in these areas while their children can play safely in the surrounding grounds.

Even if your hotel doesn’t fully meet these pain points, feel free to boast about the amenities and perks of your hotel’s surroundings. 

Perhaps your clients are avid hikers. If you upsell the local hills, cliffs, nature parks and even potentially any indoor climbing walls in the nearby towns and surrounding area, you can sell the hotel as a post-hike haven instead.

Address these selling points in your copy, right from the start and focus on what your clients want.

5. Exaggerating

It’s okay for you to state the facts about your establishment and it’s okay to praise certain elements that are extremely attractive to your customers. But telling your clients that you have fairy tale views when all they’ll actually see when they arrive at your hotel is the neighboring building, is lying. If you exaggerate in your copy and make sweeping statements that aren’t true, expect many negative online reviews and even a lawsuit or two. Make sure everything you write is honest, even if this ends up a bit understated. You want to delight, not disappoint.

6. It’s Too Lengthy or Unclear

When it comes to copy, research shows that less is more and one of the most common errors is having too much copy. If you have too much copy on your site, you risk talking your clients into a sale and then right back out again.

“Your copy should include only information that will convince potential clients to get your product. Keep it clean and orderly and avoid making it look like an essay or no one will want to read it,” said Cynthia Chestnut, a marketing manager at Essayroo and Bestbritishessays.

7. Forgetting About SEO

No matter what some articles say on the internet, SEO is alive and well and that’s the way to show up at the top of Google’s search results. SEO matters, so you need to think about your keywords when you’re writing copy. Use tools like Moz’s Keyword Explorer or SEMrush to find out what keywords are used by your audience.

The potential benefits of creating high-quality copy for your business’s website are enormous. If you’re writing your own copy, remember that your focus is to sell your brand and your products and to engage your target audience, so focus on these tips to increase conversions and build your client base.