Case Studies

The Client

The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts is an expanding chain of some of the finest five star luxury resorts and business hotels in India. The exquisitely luxurious Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts have a strong pan India presence with operations in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon - Delhi N.C.R., Udaipur, Goa and Kovalam. Located in key business and leisure destinations, The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts are a blend of aesthetic sensibility, modern amenities and truly reflect the essence of India.
The group has marketing alliances with Germany based Kempinski (Hoteliers since 1897); US based Preferred Hotel Group and are members of Global Hotel Alliance based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Brief

The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts has set the benchmark in tourism & hospitality sector with its tradition of providing a unique experience of the essence of India. The same was to be communicated and marketed on the digital medium.

The website was to be popularised with top ranks for The Leela as ‘luxury 5 star hotels’ on every search engine.  The objective was to establish the website as the most popular and frequented brand of the kind on Internet. 

The Approach

HGS Interactive proposed organic search combined with online reputation management and newsletters to promote the website for higher ranking in search engines.

The strategy was to identify and optimise top ranking keywords that users search for, while looking for a luxury resort. The SEO endeavour was made keeping in mind the prospective customers of the Leela – business class users and foreign tourists.

The Solution

• Increase traffic to website with a boost to search rank of The Leela.
• An intensive organic search campaign was done to push the ranking of The Leela to the top of every search engine. This involved effort at multiple levels starting with identification of top ranking keywords to an analysis of relevant keywords that would generate leads for online reservations & booking and implementing the same in website content.
• Tourism environment due to unforeseen circumstances (2008 Mumbai terror attacks) led to a decline in hotel reservations all over India. This was slowly recovered via lead generation campaign which involved search to increase the number of online bookings.
• Traffic monitoring to identify which sections are not frequently accessed by the users and analysis on factors affecting the same. A case-in-point would be the “Spa” section of the website which was originally named “Relaxation & Rejuvenation” and was not receiving much traffic. HGS Interactive proposed to rename the section to a more frequented search word – “Spa”. The result was phenomenal, as from being the least frequented section, spa shot up as the favourite section of the website.
• Keyword analysis – Regular keyword analysis to identify top ranking search keywords was conducted for The Leela website. This was done from time-to-time to assess the need for website content update for better search ranking.
• Systematic content update: The content of the website was revised as per keyword recommendations. Efficient use of tagging & description of each page was done on the website for better rank in search engines.
• Link building - Creating a web of links on page (interlinking website) & off page (linking with external sources i.e. www) to enhance search ranking of The Leela and gain link popularity.
• Regular directory submissions to various online directories like dmoz.com, etc., to keep The Leela updated and boost its search ranking.
• Internet marketing which involved Newsletter marketing
• Online reputation management via blogging on third party site to resolve queries and maintain brand image.

The Result

The response to The Leela SEO was par expectations. The revenues generated via online reservations shot up to 300% in the first year & saw a 100% increase in the second year. The ROI objectives of The Leela were met with efficient SEO.

The website got top rank in user search with coveted keywords like - business hotels India, Luxury hotels in India, 5 star hotels India, Luxury resorts India, etc. This gave a tremendous boost to traffic diverted to the website, as The Leela saw an increase in the number of visitors by 150 percent!
Targeted newsletters were sent out to an average of 100,000 customers per month with more & more guests signing up for the monthly newsletter ‘Leela Life’. HGS Interactive did an in-depth analysis of newsletter reports, based on which design based improvements were carried out in website & newsletter.

The overall objective of generating leads & popularity for The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts on digital platform was achieved with effective Search Engine Optimisation by HGS Interactive.