Search - The Last Element

Google changes the recipe...again.

What are the implications for hotels working on direct distribution?

Because Google now weighs a variety of new and ever-changing variables in determining what to return for a search, some established SEM techniques no longer apply, or at least must be altered.

Google's algorithm now takes into account searchers' click history as well as their Personalized Homepage when it returns search results. The changes are designed to offer results that are more useful to the searcher, with each new user behavior becoming a new factor in future searches.

For search engine marketers that means the days of trying to divine that one secret formula for scoring high among search results are now gone. Now there are an unlimited amount of variations in search results even for a single search term, because search results in part depend on the click history of each user.

Also being factored into returning search results are the types of sites in users' Google Bookmarks, a social tagging tool analogous to del.icio.us. SEL speculates that Google Reader feed subscriptions or feed click history are not being used for Personalized Search, but the RSS aggregator could provide yet another data set for Personalized Search.

Web2.0 - fun, 5 minute video

Research and Reading for Class 16/02

We will wrap up Direct Distribution and move onto 3rd Party Distribution. For the class, please do a bit of online research...posting results in your blog.

1. Search for an independent hotel (non-chain) - any city, any style

2. From the top ten results, copy and paste the 3rd party links in your blog

3. Visit these 3rd parties to identify their target markets, and competitive advantage over hotel sites.

4. Prepared to present your findings and links in class.

Please read the following article:

Building a De-Commoditization Strategy in Hospitality

Be sure you understand the concept of comoditization...and why it is harmful to hotel pricing.

See you Friday!

Optimization Recipe

Here is a PPT to help visualize 'the recipe'.

Quick Quiz

A quick quiz on the class and reading material:

1. Why is direct distribution important to the hotel? Give 2 reasons.

2. What is the role of 3rd Party sites? List 2 sites.

3. From 'Succes in Online Travel', what is price deflation? How did 3rd party sites affect price deflation?

4. List 3 of the hotel specialty 3rd party sites, from the same report.

5. What is the key concept from your selected article for THIS week's blog post?