SEO for marketplaces and booking sites: where to start

For marketplaces and booking sites, search engines can be the biggest source of new visitors, but only if listing and location pages are built so Google can find, read and understand them. These are the foundations to get right.

Give every important page its own address

Each listing, category and location that people search for should be a real page with its own URL, not content that only appears after a search or a click. If Google cannot open the page, it cannot rank it.

Write unique titles and descriptions

A title like 'Apartment in [City] | [Site name]' repeated across thousands of pages tells search engines little. Add what makes each page different: the type of place, the area and a key benefit. Then write a short description that gives people a reason to click.

Avoid thin and duplicate pages

• Do not publish empty category or location pages with no listings.
• Add real content to important pages, such as a short guide to the area or category.
• Use canonical links so the same page reached through different URLs counts once.

Control your filters

Search filters can create millions of URL combinations. Decide which few filtered pages deserve to be indexed (for example a city plus a property type) and stop search engines from crawling the rest, so they spend their attention on pages that matter.

Add structured data

Structured data (schema markup) tells search engines what a page is: a product, a place to stay, a review, an FAQ. It can make results richer and clearer. Add it where it accurately describes the page.

Make it fast on phones

Most visitors arrive on a phone. Compress and correctly size images, avoid heavy scripts and serve pages quickly. Speed helps both rankings and bookings.

Link pages together

Link from category pages to listings and back, and between related locations. Clear internal links help visitors move around and help search engines discover and understand your pages. Submit a sitemap so new pages are found quickly.

Measure and keep improving

Use Google Search Console to see which searches bring people to you and which pages have problems, and review it regularly. SEO is ongoing work rather than a one-off task.

We handle SEO for the sites and apps we build, and for existing ones: technical fixes, page optimisation, metadata and monthly follow-up. Get in touch and we will look at where you stand.