...where near that. What can we do?"Naturally, the first thing I do is look at their web site. Someare visually stunning, especially on a high speedconnection...beautiful "flash" movies (loading, loading,loading), navigation buttons that do pirouettes, music...andusually a mega investment has been made (please give me the nameof that sales person, I have some sand that I would like them tosell for me in the Middle East)...and barely an extra room nightto show for it.Why? Because...

... the site turns up on page 17 on Google, Yahoo! orMSN when you search for a suitable keyword or phrase (usually"destination + hotel" eg "Sydney hotel" is the most popularsearch term in most cities).70-80% of online activity is people searching forsomething...all those lost souls who are eager to buy your hotelrooms, if only they could find you...in fact in one recent case,when I was searching for the prospective client's hotel by it'svery own name their web site turned up way back on page 8 ofGoogle. You and I both know that when we search, if it ain't onpages 1 or 2 or at a pinch page 3, we're just not going to lookfurther...and neither does anyone else.If you retain nothing more from my article please remember this:search engines are blind to images (and deaf if you play musicon your site) and especially can't see "flash" movie files orthe text in those fancy navigation buttons (these are imagestoo)...a search engine is a code and text driven binary agentthat reads written instructions and words...so without the rightcode in the "back" of your site and the right text and densityof keywords on the "front" pages of your site...you just won'tturn up in the first few pages of search results.Don't get me wrong...there IS a place for great visuals anddynamic, inspiring content AFTER you have got them to your site.The overuse and abuse of these dynamic elements is indeed ahurdle to your search engine results, but once the user hasarrived, then you need some "bells and whistles" to convert theminto a sale (more about conversion in one of my next articles).Some web sites I see, even for premium properties, are just dogsthat were last updated in 2003 (because every time they want achange their designer charges like a wounded bull); and lots ofothers are in-between but because the sites are not activelymanaged, they still don't turn up in the first few pages.Believe the research data! With 25% of revenues arriving viaonline channels and a further 25% being influenced by theironline experience but booking via another channel, you just haveto get your head into this space. Can you imagine what wouldhappen if you ignored your convention market or stopped dealingwith the travel industry...as a first step, at least sign up tomy weekly "best of the best" e-mail(www.hotelmarketingworkshop.com/register/), so you can start todevelop your knowledgebase in this vital area.Over the next couple of articles I'll address some of the otherquestions that I usually ask such as: what e-mail marketing theyare doing and how, have they investigated the Pay-per-clickoptions at Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing or MSN(coming soon) or how easy is it to book on their site. I'll alsotouch on conversion but let's focus in the short term on drivingtraffic to your site.So, what can you do? Invest in the Search Engine Optimisation ofyou site... the art and science of maximising a web site'sranking in the "natural" Search Engine Results for a key phrase.There is a lot to understand but if you visit our web site youwill find some very useful tips and specific things that you cando to optimise your hotel web site...or of course you could giveme a call or send me an e-mail and I would be more than happywalk you through the basic principles.And you know what? I never get calls from hotels that have asmart, well designed but not too "tizzy" site. One that isedited in-house utilising a user-friendly Content ManagementSystem. Sites where you can easily navigate around withoutneeding a helmet lamp and pick, that have fresh, recent contentand special value-added packages; where you can actually book inreal-time through a secure connection and get an instantconfirmation. And when you need to make an online enquiry, it iseasy and doesn't ask for my shoe size and twenty othercompulsory fields before begrudgingly sending off the data, onlyfor it to take two days for someone to respond...These sites already turn up in the first few pages, offer agreat user experience and these hotels actively manage theironline presence...they are well on their way to achieving andexceeding those 25.0% of revenues online that the researchpeople are telling us...and, pardon the shameful plug but, quitea few of them are our clients!