How do hotels earn quality backlinks?
Short answer
Hotels earn quality backlinks by being genuinely worth mentioning: partnering with local organisations, hosting or supporting events, publishing useful local information, being featured in travel and local press, and being listed accurately by tourism boards. Links should come from relevant, trustworthy sites because they chose to link to you. Buying or exchanging links to manipulate rankings is against Google's spam policies; if a link is paid — for example in a sponsorship — it should be marked with rel="sponsored". Focus on relationships and newsworthy activity, not link counts.
By Lodging Engine Editorial Team· Reviewed by Eric Zwanenburg· Last reviewed
Why links matter for hotels
Links help search engines discover pages and understand how well known a business is. Google lists links among the information behind local prominence. Relevant local links also send real visitors.
Policy-safe ways to earn links
- Tourism boards and destination sites — make sure you're listed accurately where they list accommodation.
- Local partners — restaurants, tour operators, wedding venues, event organisers who genuinely recommend you.
- Events — host, sponsor, or support local events; organisers often list partners.
- Useful resources — a clear guide to parking for a festival, accessible routes, or cycling routes may be cited by others.
- Press — renovations, sustainability work, history, or community projects can be genuine stories for local media.
- Associations — hospitality or regional associations you belong to.
What not to do
Google's spam policies describe link spam, including:
- Buying or selling links for ranking purposes.
- Excessive link exchanges ("link to me and I'll link to you").
- Large-scale guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor links.
- Low-quality directory or bookmark links.
Labelling paid and sponsored links
If you pay for a placement, sponsor something, or give a free stay in exchange for coverage, the link should use rel="sponsored" (or nofollow). This is Google's guidance for qualifying outbound links, and you can reasonably ask partners to follow it.
Measure what matters
- Referral visits and bookings from linking sites.
- New linking domains in Search Console's Links report.
- Quality and relevance over quantity.
Common mistakes
- Paying for "SEO link packages".
- Swapping links with unrelated sites.
- Press releases stuffed with keyword links.
- Forgetting to ask partners who already recommend you to link.
Checklist
- Listed correctly with tourism boards and associations
- Local partners asked to link where they genuinely recommend you
- One newsworthy story or useful resource per season
- Sponsored links labelled correctly
- No purchased link packages
Sources
- Spam policies for Google web search — Google Search Central
- Qualify outbound links for SEO — Google Search Central
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content — Google Search Central
- Tips to improve your local ranking on Google — Google Business Profile Help