The Ultimate Guide to Airbnb SEO! (2024 edition)
When we think of traditional SEO, youâd want to start with a full website optimization plan that includes a technical audit and on-page optimization. Airbnb SEO is slightly different due to the nature of what we can see, and what we can control. In terms of our Airbnb listing itself, we donât control what can be done with the on-page technical search engine optimization, but thatâs not the end of the story. In fact, on-site SEO is only partially needed for a SERP boost. If it were that easy – any website could rise to the top with little to no effort!
What is Airbnb SEO?
Simply put, optimizing your Airbnb listing and link to increase your keyword search engine rankings, both on and off the Airbnb platform. This would include a mix of on-page listing optimization and building backlinks from high quality, relevant websites.
How do I optimize my Airbnb listing for search engines?
The effectiveness of using search engines such as Google to help guests find your listing is an important but overlooked marketing effort. What we want to capitalize on are the millions of users that type in relevant keywords to find their staycation or vacation rental on search engines such as Google.
Furthermore, there are several scenarios in which you can use Google as a filter for specific needs and features that you require with an Airbnb that arenât yet offered directly by Airbnb’s onsite search tool.
At the time of this writing, Airbnb offers a relatively simple search bar to input your destination, with a recent inclusion of âtopicsâ as a means of discovering stays by category, launched in 2022. Once clicking on a listing you can see its features and proximity, including whatâs around it, but this search is quite limited in comparison to what weâre used to on a search engine.
Before you dismiss the idea that people use Google for Airbnb searches, rather than going directly to their website, consider this phrase type search;
I’ve personally used this search query when my wife and I were looking to be next to the train station for a night, so that we could quickly get to our next destination while avoiding additional transportation costs and unforeseen delays. I think the point here is well made.
How do I optimize my Airbnb listings on-page for SEO?
While we donât have the ability to change much on the Airbnb side, we do have the ability to change some key elements as it relates to what search engines use to rank pages. Header titles and Descriptions are key elements of a webpage well optimized for search result placement consideration.
Letâs take a look at the Airbnb Header elements that we can use for SEO;
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1. Page header and H1 title
Search engines use Title tags as an indicator of what the page content is about, and the flow of the content as seen by the visitor. Think of these as chapters of the important part of your website, indicating what search engines should focus on. Titles are also used in a websites search snippet.
Airbnb uses your listings headline as both the page title and the H1 title tag, signifying that your listing title is just as important for search engine display as it is on the Airbnb website.
Here’s how it looks on Google.
2. H2 title tag
These title tags are used to indicate the main subject of the article or page, and are usually mentioned in the H1 title description. Airbnb uses the auto generated âwhat and whereâ part of your listing as the H2 title, denoted in bold lettering just under the image carousel.
3. Page description
A meta-description can be provided to search engines containing an overview of the page’s content and intent and is generally whatâs used as the description of the page in search results.
Airbnb uses a different method to generate the page description in the form of âmeta contentâ. This field is often used for dynamically generated content but when used properly (i.e. a few lines or less) and with the absence of meta description, will be used to gather the pages overview.
In the most recent iteration of the Airbnb listing description you may have noticed that only 4 lines of content appear visually, with the rest hidden behind a âShow moreâ link. Airbnb’s way of decluttering the screen for the user experience since expanding the amount of text that can be used in the listing description. This is in fact the meta-content tag that they render for search engines, making that brief introduction an important element in the SEO optimization of your listing.
In addition to the few lines of text Airbnb also prepends a date stamp, property type, and snapshotted price.
Keyword Optimization
There are 2 types of common searches; Short-tail keywords and long-tail keyword phrases.
A short-tail keyword example would look something like âAirbnb in Parisâ, while a Long tail keyword would be âAirbnb with pool in Cormicy Franceâ. These are pure examples of what we are looking to optimize our listing links for, depending on your features and location.
Long-tail keywords or âsearch phraseâ can be harder to achieve high rankings for depending on the competition of websites but specific low hanging fruit, often referred to as âniche phrasesâ, would certainly be easier. Think about phrases that users would type in relevant to their stay and to your offering such as the train station example I used earlier with the location near the train station. This is the best strategy in my opinion to pick up extra search traffic with a low volume of competition.
Here are some additional common SEO techniques that you can use on any webpage to build up your listings âlink juiceâ;
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1. Build backlinks
High quality, relevant backlinks work for any SEO campaign. Look for websites that specifically contain content about traveling to the area of your listings location, or discuss your property’s niche. This could be a travel guide, a curated listing site, a mention of special events in the area, or a complimentary referral site.
Ask the site owner or curator if they will include you in an article or directory, or use a common SEO technique to find broken backlinks in existing articles and ask the site to replace that link with your own.
2. Post on Social Media
While link juice from social media sites donât directly affect your ranking on search, they do have added value and additional benefits to support your listing. Social media posts and the authority of the poster are taken into account by manual search evaluators employed by google. While we donât know much about how this information is used, it is mentioned in Google’s Search Quality Rating guidelines. In addition when a user searches Google for a specific account name or brand, social sites will sometimes display content or posts related to that search directly in the results pages. See this example from twitter;
The final benefit seems obvious but itâs the extra exposure that you could get from posting on social media, considering the views, shares, and potential link backs to your posts.
Remember to track your listing clicks when posting your Airbnb marketing campaigns on social media. Hereâs a great article by SEMrush if youâre interested in learning more about how Social Signals affect your SEO
3. Build a supporting website
Something that I call a âshowcase websiteâ is where you build a landing page or few pager website that showcases your listing, then use links or embedded widgets to lead Guests to your Airbnb, VRBO or booking.com, etc – to book the property.
The benefits here are that you can support your listings without a full direct booking website or a booking engine integrated, but still have something to support your listing outside of the OTA. In our use-case, this helps your listing pages SEO, and furthermore still if you start a blog.
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4. Start a Blog
If youâre not ready for a showcase website, consider starting that blog I mentioned and support your Airbnb by writing helpful and interesting articles to attract would-be guests.
Youâll want to choose topics that are relevant to the area of the property, including activities, places of interest, special events, or perhaps write about the property itself – if itâs historical or interesting.
Be sure to follow SEO best practices while blogging which includes proper structure, search engine friendly titles and descriptions, and donât forget to link relevant keywords and calls-to-action to your listing pages or OTA links.
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5. Guest post
Sticking with the blogging theme and the backlink building, you can look for relevant blogs and article websites that would be suitable for placement of your Airbnb as a referral accommodation. Reach out to the websites that allow guest blogging and ask to write an article for them about a topic of interest related to your type of destination stay. Be sure to include a link back to your listing!
Measuring the success of your marketing efforts can even be done with our Airbnb link tracking tool, which enables you to create unique listing links that track the clicks and referral sources.
Measuring Results
You can keep track of your SEO efforts by periodically checking on your link building strategy and Airbnb listing search engine rankings. For backlinks you can use a free tool such as the ones offered by ahrefs or Moz, which is also included with our Airbnb SEO service.
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For SERP placements, where your listing is positioned on search engine results pages, you will need a rank checker tool or an Airbnb SEO service that provides keyword rank reporting, We provide this as an add-on to our Airbnb link tracking tool, or via our paid SEO service.
Final thoughts
This article contains (almost) everything I know about Airbnb SEO and Iâm excited to share it! The layout of Airbnb and technical requirements of search engines such as Google change periodically, so I will be sure to update this post with any relevant information and changes that will affect the guide.
While this guide focuses exclusively on listing SEO for Google, if youâre interested in Airbnb listing optimization, please get in touch with us.
