In previous blog posts, we have covered numerous aspects of optimizing your English website, including keyword selection, hreflang tags, FAQ pages, booking pathways, and handling reviews. However, verifying each of these elements individually can be quite burdensome. If there were a way to objectively assess "where your accommodation stands," you could prioritize your efforts more efficiently. This article will outline a specific method to achieve that.
Why Diagnosis is Necessary Instead of Just Intuition
The challenges of an English website can be difficult for operators who are accustomed to viewing it daily. Even if you feel that "there's an English page and it has been translated," the actual visibility in search engines, proper hreflang settings, and the usability of the booking pathway can only be fully understood from multiple perspectives. As you recall the checklists from previous articles, consider verifying the following items one by one:
- Is your accommodation type and area name appearing prominently when searched in English?
- Are hreflang tags correctly set for both Japanese and English pages?
- Are pricing, access, and cancellation policies clearly written in English?
- Does your FAQ page proactively address the questions of international guests?
- Is your booking form compatible with international address and phone number formats?
- Is your Google Business Profile available in English?
Verifying all of these without technical knowledge can be challenging. This is where a free diagnostic tool can be beneficial.
What You Can Do with HAKO Scan
HAKO Scan, provided by Studio HAKO, is a tool that allows you to assess your website's readiness for international search simply by entering your URL. The diagnostic results will give you an International Readiness Score and a preview of the issues you should prioritize.
Even without specialized knowledge, you can quantify your current status by just entering your URL, helping you move from a state of uncertainty to one with clear priorities on what to tackle first.
How to Utilize Your Diagnostic Results
Once you receive your diagnostic results, we recommend following these steps:
- Review the Score and Issue Preview: Start by understanding your current score and the overall picture of the identified issues.
- Address High-Priority Issues First: Instead of trying to resolve everything at once, focus on the most impactful items (such as clarity on pricing and cancellation policies that could lead to last-minute drop-offs).
- Incorporate into Monthly Reviews: By integrating regular diagnostics into the monthly improvement cycle discussed in “The Monthly Improvement Cycle for International Marketing,” you can continuously monitor changes.
Don't Stop at Diagnosis
Even once issues are identified through diagnosis, actual improvements (such as revising translations, localizing content, or redesigning booking pathways) may require specialized knowledge and resources. The free diagnosis is merely the "first step to understanding your current position," and you should also consider how to proceed with improvements from that point.
Conclusion: Start by Understanding Your Website's Current Position
Improving your English website can be overwhelming due to the many tasks involved, making it difficult to know where to start. Understanding your website's current status through an objective score is the first step toward efficient improvement.
Why not use Studio HAKO's HAKO Scan to assess your accommodation's international readiness for free? Based on the diagnostic results, we recommend combining specific improvement strategies discussed in this blog to make steady progress, one step at a time.