Hotel SEO: The Best Free SEO Tools For Hotels On A Budget
Last week, I read a statistic that honestly made my jaw drop: The average ROAS for small businesses spending less than $3,000 a month on Google Ads right now is 1.5 to 1. That’s barely breaking even.
As the author sadly concluded, Google Ads is just “not for small businesses anymore.” (Search Engine Journal)
Ad prices aren’t just spiking on Google, they’re rising as much as 108% on social media platforms, too.
This is why now’s an awfully good time to focus on organic search.
And unlike advertising, a successful hotel SEO strategy can be surprisingly affordable to execute!
For a good place to start, I’ve curated a list of FREE SEO tools for hoteliers, organized into four basic categories:
Free Tools For General SEO Health
Free SEO Tools For Keyword Research and Ideas
Other Free, Useful SEO Tools
Tools For Measuring SEO Performance
Free Tools For General SEO Health
1. Google My Business
Google My Business is essential for any brick-and-mortar business wanting to attract customers through online search. Hospitality businesses, including hotels and restaurants, should claim and complete their Google My Business listing as soon as possible.
To rank higher on their search engine, Google needs to know what your business is, where it is, and how customers can reach you.
When you set up a free account and “claim your business,” you’re basically feeding all that important information about your hotel directly to Google!
2. Moz Local Listing Score
GMB isn’t the only “directory” type listing your hotel can appear on. You want to be keeping track of other places your address and contact info show up online.
One of the easiest, free ways to do this is to use the Moz Local Listing Score.
A free check will give you a nice long list of places you’re listed online. If you do have the budget, they also offer a paid solution that manages it all for you. When you upgrade to Moz Local, you can plug in your info once and let their tool distribute that across 100s (if not thousands) of online business directories.
In a nutshell, local SEO for hotels is basically this: A consistent location and contact information signals to Google that your business is legit and physically located where you say it is.
3. Ahrefs Broken Link Checker
Checking for “broken” links is a relatively quick and easy way to audit your hotel’s SEO health.
Run your website through Ahrefs’ Broken Link Checker to find any “dead ends” from your site’s inbound or outbound links. If you do find any, simply correct the URL, find a new source to link to, or remove that link entirely.
4. Ahrefs Backlink Checker
Another great (free) SEO tool from Ahrefs is their Backlink Checker.
While a “broken” link is basically a link that doesn’t work, a “backlink” is something you DO want to see. Having links to your website from other high-quality websites signals to Google that YOU are credible, too.
It’s kind of like when someone you trust or admire vouches for a product. It’s a signal of trust.
You can use this free tool from Ahrefs to quickly find other websites that are currently linking to you, and how. You’re limited to 100 websites with the free version, but it’s still valuable info! (Psst… you can also look up your competitors’ websites to see where THEY have backlinks, too…)
5. SEO Site Checkup
In terms of general SEO health, this last one is an all-rounder.
Run your website through SEO Site Checkup to get a simple health score and basic audit. The tool gives you a high-level overview of many common issues impacting your SEO, like page loading speed and keyword usage.
Speaking of keywords, that’s our next category of tools!
But first, here’s a quick tutorial showing you how to use some of the keyword research tools I’m about to mention:
Free SEO Tools For Keyword Research and Ideas
6. Google
As far as free keyword research tools go, you can’t go wrong by going straight to the source!
I walk you through this in the tutorial video above, but you can find some keyword ideas using Google itself.
Related Searches, the “People also Ask” snippet, and even the search bar’s auto-complete can all give you an idea of what other people are searching for related to your topic.
This strategy is really Keyword Research 101, though. There are a number of other FREE methods that give you way more information and insights.
7. Answer The Public
If you liked the last method, you’ll love Answer The Public.
ATP basically aggregates all the possible combinations generated by Google’s auto-complete, including common questions, comparisons, and prepositions — as in, “(the topic you searched for) near (a place or neighborhood).”
This free tool is a quick, easy way to generate a nice long list of keyword ideas. That’s great for your brainstorming phase, but you’ll still want to look at whether people are actually searching for this.
And if they are, can you even compete for it?
To figure that out, you’ll need a more advanced keyword research tool, like my next recommendation.
8. KWFinder
Just a heads up before I go any further, this is a paid tool. It does, however, have a free 10-day trial.
So if you’re trying to find keywords to target and you don’t have budget to spend, sign up for a free trial with KWFinder and knock out as much research as you can in 10 days. 🤷♀️
Doing keyword research properly requires more than brainstorming. For starters, you need to know how many people are searching for that phrase each month — is it even worth your effort?
For more tips about this specifically, you’ll want to read my full post on hotel keywords, also linked below.
Read Next: How To Find The Right Keywords For Your Hotel (I’ve linked to a few budget-friendly tools here, too!)
9. Buzzsumo
Now, this next tool is not exactly for keyword research but it does help you come up with relevant content ideas.
Once you have some keywords in mind, run them through Buzzsumo to see what kind of content (think news stories, blogs, videos, infographics…) already performs well.
This will help you focus on creating content that’s more likely to get shared, earn backlinks (see #4 on this list!), and generally rank well in search engines.
Here’s what the Moz SEO Toolbar looks like in action, featuring The June Hotel in LA.
Other Free, Useful SEO Tools
10. MozBar
If you’re just starting to get the hang of hotel SEO, you’ll want to have this handy Chrome browser extension installed.
MozBar is one of the most popular, free SEO toolbars. While you’re browsing the web, the extension gives you helpful information about other websites — or even the search engine results page itself.
The free MozBar shows you some basic backlink metrics, but it’s also an easy way to see a website’s overall domain authority and page authority scores.
Wait, what are those?
Watch this short hotel SEO tutorial on finding your “authority” scores.
(That link opens YouTube in a new window, by the way, so you can always come back to finish reading! 😉)
11. Mention
One of the easiest ways to keep track of your brand name online is to sign up for free Google Alerts.
Another way is to sign up for Mention.
Why should you do this? Again, it’s all about those links! If your hotel (or one of your outlets) is mentioned online without a link, Mention gives you a quick alert you can follow up on — simply ask the writer or website owner to add a link to the most relevant page on your website.
Even a free Mention account can also catch a few extra things a basic Google Alert can miss, including untagged mentions of your brand name on Twitter or Instagram. (While you might not be able to get a link, engaging with these mentions should be part of your hotel social media strategy anyway.)
12. Semrush Writing Assistant
Another great free SEO tool is the Semrush Writing Assistant.
Folks with websites built on Wordpress are probably already familiar with helpful SEO plugins like Yoast or Rank Math. These plugins can guide you to follow best practices while you’re updating your website, directly in the CMS.
The Semrush Writing Assistant is kind of similar.
What makes it different (to me) is that it’s also available as an add-on for Google Docs. If you’re not working directly in the CMS, it’s super easy to use while you write your hotel website content in a Google Doc.
Like I’ve said before, plug-ins and add-ons don’t “do” SEO for you, but they can help you remember best practices and optimize a page step-by-step.
For more help with this, download a free copy of my hotel SEO checklist below. ⤵
Free Tools For Measuring SEO Performance
13. Google Analytics
Once again, it’s a good idea to start with with the source!
While some website builders like Wix or Squarespace come with their own analytics, you’ll get a lot more information (and more accurate information) by using Google Analytics.
Best of all, it’s free!
As you create a hotel website, make sure that some kind of website analytics is included.
If you’re just getting started with marketing in a hotel, understanding how your website performs is so important. You need to be able to see what marketing channels are driving the most traffic, leads, and of course, bookings.
(Just in case, here’s the official Google Analytics setup guide.)
14. Google Search Console
If you’re setting up Google Analytics, well, you’ll need to set up Google Search Console, too.
I know, I know… it’s kind of annoying that you need to manually do this to connect all of your search data to Google Analytics, but I digress…
Google Search Console is kind of the bread-and-butter free SEO tool — it’s not the most intuitive thing ever, but as a hotel marketer, you should really try and get comfortable using it.
Since it’s actually connected to the source, it’s also considered the most reliable source of Google SEO data.
Companies like Moz, Ahrefs, Semrush, and others have all built their own excellent SEO tools — but at the end of the day, Google Search Console is the best place to get accurate insights.
15. Bing Webmaster Tools
It’s true that Google has well over 90% of the global market share, but there are other search engines worth paying attention to — Bing is one of them.
Bing is the second-largest search engine in the world with just shy of 3% global market share, so let’s talk about it.
Well, actually… there’s not a whole lot to say.
Bing is a slightly bigger player in the United States, so if that’s a market your hotel is targeting, you should go ahead and set yourself up on Bing Webmaster Tools.
It’s basically Bing’s version of Google Search Console and honestly, they’re very similar. Like GSC, it’s also FREE.
Really, all you need to do is set it up properly once, and then you’ll probably never look at it again. 😅
Final Thoughts
So there you have it: my roundup of free SEO tools for beginners! In my opinion, these are the best options if you have zero budget to spend or are just getting started learning SEO for your hotel.
You can still get a WHOLE LOT done with only these free resources in your toolbox!
Of course, you’ll always be somewhat limited with what results you can achieve using only free tools. And you may find that the added convenience (and additional info) is worth spending some budget on.
Here’s where you’ll find my top recommendations for the best hotel marketing tools, including my favorite SEO tools for different budgets.
Oh! And of course, I have one more freebie for you… Get your copy of the free hotel SEO checklist below. ⤵