SEO Case Study: Restaurants in Siem Reap Cambodia

khmer restaurant siem reap

Article  last updated on August 2019

 

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE INDUSTRY

 

With almost 1000 restaurants listed on Trip Advisor, Siem Reap is becoming a popular food destination in South East Asia with a broad range of cuisine for all budgets. You can find Khmer, Thai, Indian,Chinese, Korean,Japanese but also French, Mexican, Italian,Turkish and Greek restaurants.

With so many restaurants, visitors have a hard time making a selection especially as most do not stay very long (3 nights in average). To make the search even more difficult, businesses are often relocating due to soaring renting prices and from time to time , some are closing down their operation.

 

 

GOOGLE OR TRIP ADVISOR ?

 

Instinctively, many visitors  are turning to Google Search and Google Map to find the best places to eat in Siem Reap. Trip advisor listing and  local web directories are dominating the top search results  like “restaurant siem reap” or “best restaurant siem reap”.

 

The online marketing strategy of the food businesses  in Siem Reap is quite different than the one of the   luxury spas : restaurant owners especially at their early stage of operation, are relying heavily on Trip Advisor to bring customers, either by using a free or a paid listing. As far as free listing concerned,  being on the first page  1 is clearly an competitive advantage, but the most difficult is to keep your ranking as competitors will not have any problem writing negative reviews to put you down. Although not all restaurants have a website, they do not take advantage of what SEO can bring to the table (no pun intended)…

 

We found out that  few restaurants (3) used Google Ads pay-per-click campaigns to drive traffic to their website which is much lower in percentage than luxury spas. Consequently the Cost-per-click (CPC) for many keywords is under USD 0.5.

 

A  SEO audit conducted on several websites  showed that many websites are not SEO friendly and unless they pay for ads they are not visible on a search done with search engines.

If the restaurant is famous, some traffic will come to the  website because potential customers are typing the restaurant’s name on Google but if the site is not optimized organic traffic will be non existant.

 

Many opportunities exist for restaurants in Siem Reap to improve their website traffic. With a good SEO work, it is possible to outrank competitors and even Trip Advisor. It is also a more sustainable approach that paid ads on Google . Because they work in different ways, SEO can be complimentary to a free or paid listing  on Trip advisor.

If you are a restaurant owner, please get in touch for a free consultation in Siem Reap
If you want to advertise for your restaurant on this page please contact us

 

 

changkran khmer fine dining siem reap

Changkran Khmer restaurant, enjoy fine dining Khmer cuisine in a traditional wooden house away from the crowded city center

 

 

HOW DOES THIS PAGE RANK ON GOOGLE? (mobile search, google.com.kh)

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Siem Reap Massage | Best spa in siem reap

siem reap massage, oil massage siem reap

Last updated on August 2022

GET YOUR SPA  BUSINESS TO THE FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE TODAY

IF YOU ARE A SPA OWNER IN SIEM REAP, PLEASE READ BELOW OR CLICK HERE TO GET A FREE CONSULTATION

SIEM REAP MASSAGE | GET MORE CUSTOMERS USING GOOGLE ADS

You can rank very quickly in Google by buying keywords through Google Ads.

To drive traffic to their websites, 4 spas are paying for Google Ads (also known as pay-per-click campaigns) in 2022 which is similar than 2018 but with 80% less tourist. We expect to see more spa paying for ads in 2022 and therefore increasing CPC ( Cost-Per-Click).

In 2018,  the   CPC  for massage related keywords in 2018 ranged from USD 1 to USD 1.5. Since several keywords are required to drive traffic to your website, you will have to pay $200 to $300 per month for Google Ads.

With Google Ads,  your competitors can also buy the same keywords and position themselves above you if they pay more. Companies like Trip Advisor/Viator always pay ads to be at the top of Google’s search results. More than 90% of people do not click on Google Ads and prefer to go down the page to organic results.

SEO FOR SPA BUSINESSES | GET CUSTOMERS WITHOUT  GOOGLE ADS

SEO services in Siem Reap can help you get customers without spending a lot of money on Google Adwords. In digital marketing, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which helps websites rank higher.

You should appear as many relevant keywords as possible on the first page and even within the top three which get the bulk of the clicks.

On Google, you’ll often find Trip Advisor, Viator, and Travefish at the top of the search results for “siem reap massage”.  These are very authoritative websites trusted by Google that is why they tend to rank higher than non-optimized websites. With SEO however, it is possible to place your website ahead of them on the page results.

Siem reap spa’s websites are visually appealing, but are not optimized for search engines, which is why they rank on the bottom of page 1 or page 2.

More than 10% of the massage spas in Siem Reap do not have a website and rely on Facebook and Trip Advisor to attract customers online.

In 2022 and since we first published this blogpost at the end of 2018, there is not single  website ranking on the top 3 of Google with  popular searches like  “siem reap massage” or ” siem reap spa“.

The long term advantage of receiving direct bookings from Google is that it is much more sustainable than paying for Google Ads or Trip Advisor. With SEO services, your site can stay on page 1 for many months, even years, and increase your business’ visibility and branding.

SPAS IN SIEM REAP | SOME NUMBERS

 

    • Only 3 spas and 1 in particular managed to leverage  brand searches  on Google to get significant traffic.

 

    • Out of 20 websites, only 4 are getting traffic from  Google  searches “massage siem reap” and “spa siem reap”.
    • Out of 20 websites, 5 do not get traffic at all from Google.

 

 

 SPAS IN SIEM REAP | A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

With more than 2.5 million visitors a year in 2019, Siem Reap, gateway to the temples of Angkor, saw a surge in the number of siem reap massage shops and spas in the last 5 years alone. There has been also a shift from cheap  to more expensive massage treatments in luxury spas.

In October 2018, we listed  about 15 standalone luxury spas in Siem Reap  and possibly another 15 in  high-end hotels. In 2019, we listed less spas in Phnom Penh than in Siem Reap and the trend is still the same in 2022.

Many  treatments are offered in these spas:  Khmer, Ayurvedic, Balinese, Swedish, Thai, hot stone, foot, herbal hot compress massages. Available also are body wraps with aloe vera, avocado, mango.

 

MARKET SNAPSHOT | SIEM REAP MASSAGE

 

End 2018 – March 2020

 

Few  luxury spas in Siem Reap found it difficult to find customers  offered deep discounts (30 to 50%) in a permanent basis. Others relied on travel agencies to fill out their bookings.

Trip Advisor is a good source of booking but the competition is fierce with close to 150 businesses alone  listed in the Spas & Wellness category in 2019. It it also  very difficult to stay on  the first page because of the inconsistency of Trip Advisor  review system. Your visibility will be drastically improved if you join  Trip Advisor Experiences (Viator product) but comes with a  20% commission fee…

 

 

March 2020 – December 2021

The pandemic had a dramatic impact on massages and spas in Siem Reap  and on the whole hospitality industry. Few businesses tried to stay open  following safe practices (temperature checks and the use of hand sanitizer upon check-in), but finally all spa venues shut down due to the lack of customers by the end of March 2020. All of them stopped their digital marketing activities as well.

After Cambodia opened to vaccinated travellers in November 2021, few massage shops opened, relying heavily on word-of-mouth amongst locals and Facebook advertising.

 

January 2022 till now

Many massages and spas reopened  and in  June 2022, we listed more than 20 standalone spas in operation in Siem Reap, which is close to the number of spa businesses  before covid. However, the big difference with 2019 is that the number of tourists in Siem Reap is now  less than 10%  to what it was before covid!

In 2022, more than ever, a responsive website with well-researched content and a solid digital marketing strategy including SEO will be critical to getting customers online.

SPA PACKAGES SIEM REAP

 

It is quite common among the spas in Siem Reap that spa packages with good value for the money  are offered mixing different treatments:

Traditional massage and facial

Body wrap and body massage

Body scrub and body massage

Foot massage and facial

Traditional Khmer massage and spa bath

 

SIEM REAP SPA | FAQ’S

Where can I get a massage in siem reap?

Most of Siem Reap’s massage and spa spots are located within a 3 km radius around Pub Street, where tuk tuks can take you between them.

How much is a massage in Siem Reap?

In 2022, prices of massage services in Siem Reap are quite affordable, and are down from 2019. A 1-hour khmer massage is usually priced between 10 and  USD 15.

What is the cheapest massage in Siem Reap?

In 2022, the cheapest massage in Siem Reap is a 1-hour foot massage which is priced between 4 and 6 US dollars.

what is traditional Khmer massage? (Khmer massage description)

If it is your first time in a spa in Cambodia, it is likely that you did not experience traditional Khmer massage before but that you are familiar with Thai massage.

Both massages are not using oil but the technique between Thai massage and Khmer massage is  quite different.  Thai massage is based on yoga stretches where as Khmer massage uses more trigger and acupressure points. Usually the massage therapist uses more strength for Thai massage than Khmer massage.

It is usually quite difficult to find a Thai massage in Siem Reap.

what is a day spa?

A day spa is different from a beauty salon if it has facilities like a sauna, steam room, or pool.

Day spas do not offer overnight accommodation. This is the difference between a destination spa and a day spa. A destination spa may offer similar services, including diet and exercise plans, wellness instruction, fitness coach or yoga classes.