Paris—May 16, 2013—FastBooking, one of the world's leading e-marketing and online technology solutions providers for the hospitality industry, announces the availability of its SEO Package, a new stand-alone service for independent hotels to monitor and improve their SEO practices to increase website traffic, online reservations and revenue.

"SEO is the main entry point for a hotel's website. Eighty-five per cent of users rely on search engines to locate hotel information on the web and, in 2012, 56% of hotel website revenue came from search engines," says Damien Balbo, FastBooking Director of Products and Services. "Search engine results clearly deliver direct bookings which is why it's so important to stay ahead of the SEO challenges."

There are other reasons hotels should monitor SEO. Organic search result rules change regularly thanks to evolutions of Google algorithms (Penguin/Panda…). Falling behind is not an option; a hotel that ranks off the first two search results pages is effectively invisible to travellers. Hotel search is also closely linked to destination search meaning hoteliers should adopt a destination-focused, local search engine strategy.

FastBooking SEO package starts with an exhaustive audit of the hotel SEO practices tracking 30 KPIs including traffic, semantics, linking and technical aspects of the website. This deep analysis results in reliable recommendations which FastBooking can assist hotels to implement. "Our approach is methodology-based and up-to-date with the latest search engine releases," says Damien Balbo. The main objectives of the audit are to identify how the site can be improved. Every report section of the audit concludes with specific proposals and priorities for improvement. FastBooking further assists hotels in implementing the recommendations to achieve immediate improvements in performance and traffic.

According to Damien Balbo, search engine optimization isn't a one shot task, but must evolve as search algorithms evolve. "Regular monitoring and adjustments are necessary to maintain SEO visibility and drive bookings to the hotel website."

About D-EDGE

D-EDGE is a SaaS company offering leading-edge cloud-based e-commerce solutions to more than 17,000 hotels in over 150 countries. Combining technical excellence with digital marketing expertise, D-EDGE brings a holistic hospitality technology infrastructure under one roof. The integrated range of solutions covers all stages of hotel distribution which encompasses Central Reservation System, Guest Management, Data Intelligence, Connectivity Hub, Digital Media, and Website Creation. With a team of 500 experts located in over 25 countries, D-EDGE provides localised support, services, and tools. With its global network of 550+partners, D-EDGE’s ever-expanding ecosystem is a positive place to do business and grow. D-EDGE is a subsidiary of Accor, a world-leading hospitality group consisting of more than 5,300 properties and 10,000 food and beverage venues throughout 110 countries. For more information visit www.d-edge.com.