Sell All Rooms, Everyday! AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK to enhance your Hotel success through Website Design, Internet Marketing & Social Media Optimization Jigna Patel & Priti Patel About The Author Jigna Patel is an Internet Hotel Marketing veteran with over 3 years experience in successfully consulting global hoteliers on implementing effective Internet Marketing strategy. Jigna’s passion is to enable independent and franchise hotel owners to use the power of Internet and Search Engines and win the Internet Marketing Game. She works with missionary zeal on educating Hoteliers and Small business owners on harnessing the power of their website. She has done her graduate studies in Commerce and Business Management from University of Mumbai. Priti Patel is a creative artist gifted with special skills to create attractive and result-oriented websites. Priti artistically blends her natural creative talent with her proven expertise on technology to create stunning websites. Her work has built the brand equity of many independent and franchise hotels. She enables even a small hotel owner to get a website that will compete with luxury hotel. Her passion is to put the advances in technology to the service of small business owners. She has completed her graduate studies in Commerce and Business Management from University of Mumbai. Feedback CGS Infotech SEO Service has substantially increased hit and helped godrej to sell its projects. – “Business India” CGS Infotech offers Indian trade & Industry an unique opportunity to be successful. – “Daily News & Analysis (DNA)” We found that CGS provides reliability & consistency. This is reflected in the proactive & creative input that we receive from your team. – “Jasubhai Digital Media Group. Digit Magazine” “This is to let you know that we, at HDFC Realty, are satisfied with the services rendered by you.” – Amit Joshi – HDFC Realty Mumbai, India. “They have done a great job, their design and development team is fast, efficient, and quality is outstanding.” – Dennis Patel – General Manager Best Western, Minden, LA, USA. “I have recommended their services to all my relatives and friends and everyone has appreciated my suggestion.” – Anil Patel. – Rodeway Inn. CA, USA. “I am happy with your company. Your company has achieved significant success in designing and promoting website for hotel owners.” – Bhagubhai Patel – President, Surti Leuva Patidar Samaj of SC, USA. Also By Jigna & Priti Patel The Art & Science of SEO Link Building Google Adwords – Goldmine or Death Trap Email Marketing – Turn 1 Dollar into 57 Dollar Book Title Sell All Rooms, Everyday! AN EXTRAORDINARY BOOK to enhance your Hotel success through Website Design, Internet Marketing & Social Media Optimization Copyright Notice The right of Jigna Patel & Priti Patel to be identified as the Editor of the work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 2008 Acknowledgement The project of this nature is possible only with the help of dedicated team. So many people influenced this book that it would be impossible to mention them all. We would like to mention the names of all the people who took this journey with us. First of all I wish to acknowledge our mentor Ms. Anjali Gandhi for her detailed and painstaking review of the book and making important changes. We want to express of gratitude to Ms. Hema Rathod for her precision and accuracy in co-ordinating with difference agencies for the successful publication of this book. We want to thank Mr. Sharad Bhatt for his creative work in designing the cover-page and type-setting expertise. We appreciate the extraordinary commitment of Santosh, Sarveshji, Jiteshji, Jayesh Gajjar & Radhika is providing strong support in creating this book. Finally, we want to thank over thousands of global clients who gave us the extraordinary opportunity to work on their businesses. It has been truly an experience of profound honor to create a new level of success for so many companies around the world. We want to thank all staff members of CGS Infotech for its empowerment and inspiration. - Jigna Patel & Priti Patel. Dedication This book is dedicated to every Hotelier with a big dream and strong commitment to grow in the hospitality industry. Sell All Your Rooms, Everyday! Contents 1. Introduction to Website Design 2. Key Issues in Website Design 2.1 Multidisciplinary Requirements 2.2 Flash 2.3 CSS Versus Tables 2.4 How it Looks vs. How it Works 2.5 Accessible Web Design 3. Website Planning 3.1 Purpose 3.2 Audience 3.3 Content 3.4 Compatibility and Restrictions 4. Search Engine Optimization 4.1 What is online marketing? 4.2 What is Search Engine Optimization? 4.3 What is dynamic optimization? 4.4 What is link popularity? 4.5 Why should you consider internet marketing? 4.6 How do search engines work? 4.7 Additional Suggestions & Ideas 5. Pay Per Click 6. Hotel Keyword Research for SEO & PPC 7. Hotel Link Building for SEO 7.1 Why Search Engines Measure Links 7.2 An Introduction To Link Building 7.3 Why Build Links? 7.4 How Do Search Engines Measure Link Quality? 7.5 Searching the Engines for High-Quality Links 7.6 Competitive Link Research 7.7 The Art & Science of Direct Link Acquisition 8. Travel Technology – An Introduction 8.1 Online Hotel Reservation 8.2 Global Distribution Systems 8.3 Hotel Technology Next Generation 9. Travel Reviews 10. Social Media Optimization 11. Hotel Online Success Tools 11.1 Permission Email Marketing 11.2 RSS and Blogs 11.3 Online Directories for Bed and Breakfasts 11.4 Local Searches - Why, What, How 12. Offline Hotel Marketing 13. Hotel Brand Management 14. Hotel Management & Guest Service Annexure-1: 15. Overview of Hotel Industry 16. Corporate Information – Choice Hotel 17. Corporate Information – Best Western 18. Corporate Information – Wyndham Worldwide 19. Corporate Information – Intercontinental Hotels Group 20. Corporate Information – Marriott International 21. Corporate Information – Hilton Hotels Corporation 22. Corporate Information – Expedia.com 23. Corporate Information – Travelocity.com 24. Corporate Information – Orbitz.com 25. Corporate Information – Hotels.com 26. Corporate Information – Tripadvisor.com 27. Corporate Information – Priceline.com 28. Introduction to CGS Infotech Inc. 29. Smart-SELL Package 30. Contact Us 1. Introduction to Website Design Web design is a process of conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media content delivery via Internet in the form of Markup language suitable for interpretation by Web browser and display as Graphical user interface (GUI). The intent of web design is to create a web site -- a collection of electronic files that reside on a web server/servers and present content and interactive features/interfaces to the end user in form of Web pages once requested. Such elements as text, bit-mapped images (GIFs, JPEGs, PNGs), forms can be placed on the page using HTML/XHTML/XML tags. Displaying more complex media (vector graphics, animations, videos, sounds) requires plug-ins such as Flash, QuickTime, Java run-time environment, etc. Plug-ins are also embedded into web page by using HTML/XHTML tags. Improvements in browsers' compliance with W3C standards prompted a widespread acceptance and usage of XHTML/XML in conjunction with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to position and manipulate web page elements and objects. Latest standards and proposals aim at leading to browsers' ability to deliver a wide variety of media and accessibility options to the client possibly without employing plug-ins. Typically web pages are classified as static or dynamic. Static pages don’t change content and layout with every request unless a human (web master/programmer) manually updates the page. Dynamic pages adapt their content and/or appearance depending on end- user’s input/interaction or changes in the computing environment (user, time, database modifications, etc.) Content can be changed on the client side (end-user's computer) by using client-side scripting languages (JavaScript, JScript, Actionscript, etc.) to alter DOM elements (DHTML). Dynamic content is often compiled on the server utilizing server-side scripting languages (ASP, JSP, Perl, PHP, Python, etc.). Both approaches are usually used in complex applications. With growing specialization within communication design and information technology fields, there is a strong tendency to draw a clear line between web design specifically for web pages and web development for the overall logistics of all web-based services. 2. Key Issues in Website Design A Web site is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. Designing a website is defined as the arrangement and creation of Web pages that in turn make up a website. A Web page consists of information for which the Web site is developed. A website might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page. There are many aspects (design concerns) in this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects may emerge. For typical commercial Web sites, the basic aspects of design are: The content: The substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with. The usability: The site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable. The appearance: The graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant. The visibility: The site must also be easy to find via most, if not all, major search engines and advertisement media. A Web site typically consists of text and images. The first page of a website is known as the Home page or Index. Some websites use what is commonly called a Splash Page. Splash pages might include a welcome message, language/region selection, or disclaimer. Each web page within a Web site is an HTML file which has its own URL.