Digital Marketing for a Business in Eilat: The Guide for Business Owners
Digital marketing for a business in Eilat rests on six steps done in order. A complete Google Business Profile. A fast website that brings inquiries. A paid campaign aimed at the tourist already in the city and at the Israeli planning a vacation. Organic promotion that matures over time. Presence in the answers the AI chats give. And keeping the customer who already came. In this guide we go through every step, with a link to the article that digs deeper into it and a table that matches the investment to Eilat's seasons.
Why Eilat is different from any other city
Eilat lives on tourism in a way no other city in Israel does. According to the State Comptroller's report from September 2025, about nine out of ten businesses in the city depend on tourism. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), as of September 2025 the city has 52 tourist hotels with 10,954 rooms, which is about 19% of the hotel rooms in Israel. From January to August 2025 the city's hotels recorded 4.7 million overnight stays, which is 33.8% of all hotel overnight stays in Israel per the CBS. We collected all the numbers with their sources on the Eilat tourism numbers page, which is updated every quarter.
These numbers create a double marketing reality. You have two audiences that are nothing alike. A resident who lives in the city year round looks for a service close to home and compares local businesses. And opposite them, a visitor who comes for a few days, searches from their phone when they are already on the hotel strip, and decides fast. The resident will type the name of the service with the word Eilat. The visitor will type what is there to do now, or near me. They arrive at different times, they respond to different messages, and a marketing plan that does not separate them wastes money on both.
It also matters where that visitor comes from. In 2025 about 750 thousand passengers went through Ramon Airport, and only about 7,500 of them on international flights, according to an annual summary published on a local news site based on Israel Airports Authority data. In other words, your audience is almost entirely Israelis arriving by car or on a domestic flight. You build most of the marketing in Hebrew for the Israeli planning a vacation, and add English based on what you actually see on the ground.
The third difference is the extreme seasonality. In 2024, hotel occupancy in Eilat rose from 66.4% in the first quarter to 87.9% in the third quarter per the CBS. From January to September 2025 occupancy stood at 67.8%, against 52.7% nationwide. Demand comes in waves around Passover, the summer and Sukkot, so later in this guide every step also gets its place on the calendar. Digital marketing for a business in Eilat without a seasons table is half the job.
Step 1: Your Google Business Profile
We start with the Google Business Profile because it is the digital asset with the best ratio of effort to result. It is free, it shows up in Maps and in local search, and it is exactly what the tourist sees when they type from their phone what is nearby right now. A business without a complete profile simply does not exist for someone who is already in the city. And in Eilat, someone who is already in the city is a large share of most businesses' customers.
A good profile in Eilat is a lot more than a name and a phone number. The right categories for your field. Accurate hours for the season, for Shabbat and for holidays. Fresh photos from the current season. Reviews you ask for systematically and answer, in English too when needed. And a post before every holiday. A tourist who leaves the city after three days will not give a second chance to a business whose profile hours were wrong. How to build it right for the city's industries is covered in our article on the Google Business Profile for a business in Eilat.
The profile is also a measurement tool. Once a month, open its data and see how many people searched, how many called, how many asked for directions, and which searches they came from. These numbers show what the audience in the city is looking for right now, and they are the basis for the decisions in the next steps. A business that does not have a website yet can start measuring right here.
Step 2: A website that works
The website is the business's digital home. The Google profile brings the customer to the door, but the price, the availability and the trust are closed by the website. A website for an Eilat business needs to work on mobile first, because the tourist searches from their phone. It needs to load fast, show price and availability, and give a call button, WhatsApp and navigation in one tap. Everything it must include is collected in our website for a tourism business checklist.
How much it costs depends on the level. A landing page, a brochure site, or a store with a booking system are three different budget worlds. The market price ranges, the yearly costs and the red flags in quotes are covered in our article on how much a business website costs. The second question that comes up in almost every meeting is which technology to build with. We did the honest comparison between the approaches in WordPress or a coded website, and the short answer is that both directions can work for a small business if they are built right.
We build websites in code because that is how we control the speed and every detail. You can read about our way on the website building in Eilat page. And no matter who you work with, measure the website by one thing. How many inquiries it brings per month.
Step 3: Paid ads on Google
Paid ads are the fast way to bring inquiries when there is demand, and to stop when there is not. In Eilat they work properly only when you split them into two campaigns. One for the Israeli sitting in the center of the country, planning a vacation, searching what to do in Eilat on Passover. And one for the tourist already in the city, searching from their phone what is nearby right now. Each gets its own keywords, its own ads and its own budget. We laid out this split step by step in our article on Google ads for a business in Eilat.
The common mistake is spending the same amount all year. In Eilat you move the budget to the weeks before the peaks, because the Israeli books the vacation in advance. A campaign that turns on the night before the holiday only catches those who already arrived. The budget mistakes we saw again and again with small businesses are collected in the Google Ads for a small business guide. And if you would rather have someone manage it for you, read how we work on the Google campaign management page. We measure every campaign by how much each inquiry costs, not by how many clicks there were.
Step 4: Organic promotion and content
Organic promotion (SEO) is the slow investment that turns into an asset. A paid campaign stops bringing inquiries the moment the budget runs out. A page that ranks organically keeps working season after season without paying for a single click. For an Eilat business that means ranking for the phrases its audience actually types. Not just the name of the field on its own, but the field together with Eilat, with the name of the beach or the neighborhood. There the competition is smaller and the searcher's intent is clearer.
The way there goes through a sound technical foundation, focused service pages, and content that answers real questions. What works in a city like Eilat and what does not is in our promoting a business in Eilat guide, and our working order is described on the SEO in Eilat page. Remember that organic matures slowly. A new page needs weeks to months to rank, so you do the content work in winter so it matures by Passover. A page that goes up in June will not make it in time for summer.
Good content is also the fuel for every other step. A page that answers a question well serves the paid campaign, the Google profile and the AI chats. Everything we wrote for business owners is collected on the guides hub page, and it is open to everyone with no form and no signup.
Step 5: The next generation. GEO
More and more people today ask a chat what to do in Eilat or which business to pick, and get an answer with names in it. Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work that gets your name into those answers. It is not magic and not a trick. The chats cite clear sources written in plain language, with data, with dates, and with business details that are consistent everywhere on the web. What that means in practice and how to start is explained in our what is GEO guide.
An Eilat business has a first mover advantage here. Very few businesses in the city work on this today, and whoever builds content now that is easy to cite, with sources and with mentions on local sites, takes an open spot. We offer this as a service, described on the GEO promotion page, and it sits naturally on top of the organic foundation. If you did step 4 seriously you are already halfway there. The result is measured too. Once a month, ask the chats the questions a customer would ask and check whether your name comes up, who does come up, and which source was cited.
Step 6: Keeping the customer
The cheapest customer is the one who was already with you. Israelis come back to Eilat again and again, so a family that arrived through a Sukkot campaign can come back on Passover without you paying for another click. The condition is that you saved their details with consent, and that you have an orderly way to reach them at the right moment with one message before the season. How to build that right and within the law is in our article on a WhatsApp customer club.
The second part of this step is operations. A business that manages bookings by phone and notebook loses information that is marketing gold. Who booked, when they came and what they ordered. A system that keeps the bookings in one place saves daily work and turns every season into a customer base for the next one. We compared the ways to take bookings in our article on a booking system for attractions, and you can read about the systems we build for businesses on the business systems development page.
This step closes the loop of the guide. The profile and the website bring the customer, paid and organic grow the stream, and retention turns what you already paid for into a steady audience. As the base grows you can lower your dependence on advertising at the peak, when prices are high, and fill part of the season with one accurate message sent at the right moment.
What to do when across the year
You do not do six steps all at once, and not at the same intensity all year. Eilat's seasonality decides when each step gets most of the attention. The table below maps the year by quarter, with the CBS occupancy data for 2024, and attaches to each period the steps to invest in.
Read the table by business type. An attraction or a water sports business lives off the summer and the holidays, so its paid budget concentrates there. A restaurant works year round with both audiences, so its profile and reviews matter every quarter. A business serving mainly residents will find its strong months precisely in the quiet rows, when ad prices are low and the competition is calm. The detailed version of the calendar, with 12 months, events and a budget for each month, is in the article on how to promote a business in Eilat. It is the natural companion to this guide.
| Period | Occupancy in 2024 per the CBS | What happens in the city | Where to invest |
|---|---|---|---|
| January to March | 66.4% | The quiet season. Residents and weekends. Passover bookings close in March | Foundation. Website, content and organic promotion (steps 2 and 4). Toward the end of the period, turn on the Passover campaign |
| April to June | 82.4% | Passover, Independence Day and Shavuot. Summer bookings close in June | Paid ads at full strength (step 3) and a profile updated with holiday hours (step 1) |
| July to September | 87.9% | Peak of the year. The school summer break fills the city for two months | Paid ads for the tourist in the city (step 3), fast response and collecting customers for the club (step 6) |
| October to December | 71.9% | A short peak on Sukkot, then a drop. Pleasant autumn and sports events | A Sukkot campaign, then back to foundation work. Customer retention (step 6) and a year in review |
Help that costs nothing
Not all marketing goes through a budget. Several bodies operate in Eilat whose job is to help the city's businesses with mentoring, training, funding and exposure. If you know how to connect them to your digital assets, you get real value for free or almost free. We mapped these bodies, and what to do with each of them in digital, in our article on business support in Eilat.
Advertising a business in Eilat also does not end with Google. The city has a dense map of local channels. Local papers, news sites, Facebook groups and business directories. Some cost money and some only take a phone call. A mention on a local site is worth double. Once as exposure to an audience, and once as a mention that Google and the chats see when they decide who to recommend. We mapped all the channels, with the audience and format of each one, in our article on advertising in Eilat.
An action plan for a business starting from zero
If you are starting today with nothing, do not try to do everything at once. The following order is built for ninety days and ranks the work from fast and cheap to slow and compounding. Each step leans on the previous one, and you can stop after each one and check that it works before moving on. The important principle is not to skip. A business that runs to paid ads before the profile and the website are ready pays for traffic that does not close, and wrongly concludes that advertising does not work.
- Days 1 to 7. Open or claim your Google Business Profile. Fill in categories, hours, phone and photos, and make sure the name, address and phone are written the same everywhere on the web
- Days 7 to 21. Ask every happy customer for a review and answer every existing review. In parallel, set a target. How many inquiries per month the business needs for the marketing to pay off
- Days 21 to 45. Build a website or fix the existing one. Fast on mobile, call, WhatsApp and navigation buttons, price and availability. One good page beats ten empty ones
- Days 45 to 60. Turn on a first paid campaign with a small budget on the phrases closest to money. Measure what each inquiry costs and turn off what does not work
- Days 60 to 90. Start the content and organic promotion work. A focused page for every main service and answers to the questions customers really ask. In parallel, save every new customer to a list with consent
- From day 90 on. Work by the seasons table. Push harder before a peak, ease off after it, and dedicate the winter to foundation work. Once a quarter, stop and check what brought inquiries and what did not
Sources and verification
The data in this guide comes from our Eilat tourism data page, which collects the numbers with their primary sources and is updated every quarter. Every figure is given as published at the source, with its attribution next to it, and anything that was not verified did not enter this guide.
- The Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). Hotels, rooms, overnight stays and occupancy in Eilat for 2024 and 2025
- The State Comptroller. The September 2025 report on the dependence of Eilat businesses on tourism
- The Israel Airports Authority. Traffic data for Ramon Airport for 2025, as summarized on a local news site
This is exactly what we do at SEO in Eilat. If you want us to go over it together for your business, write to us.
Frequently asked questions
There is no single right number, because the budget follows from what an inquiry is worth to you. Start from the reverse calculation. What an average customer is worth, how many inquiries you need per month, and how much it makes sense to pay for each inquiry. From there, build a small budget, measure the actual cost per inquiry, and grow only what pays for itself. In Eilat, how the budget is spread across the year matters more than its size. Most of it goes to the weeks before Passover, the summer and Sukkot.
The Google Business Profile comes before both, because it is free and fast. Then a website, and only then paid ads. A campaign that leads to a slow website, or to a page without a price and a contact button, burns money on traffic that does not close. If the existing website is decent you can turn on paid ads alongside the improvements, but not before them.
Depends on the channel. A complete Google profile and a paid campaign can bring inquiries within days to weeks. Organic promotion needs weeks to months for a new page to rank, so you start it in the weak season. GEO also builds up over time. The right mix gives fast inquiries from paid ads while organic matures in the background. In Eilat you also time the start by the season. Foundation in winter so it matures by Passover, and paid ads that turn on in the weeks before the peak.
The basics you can do yourself. A Google profile, reviews and a fast response are a matter of order and consistency. A website, a paid campaign and organic promotion take knowledge that is built over years, and there a mistake costs real money. The practical way is to do yourself what is close to the customer, and take professional help for what is technical. From whoever works for you, demand a monthly report with cost per inquiry, not just graphs of impressions.
Being precise at the moment the tourist searches from their phone. A profile with correct hours, a website that loads fast with a price and a WhatsApp button, and a response within minutes. The tourist is in the city for three days and decides fast, and whoever answers first with all the information closes. Right after that in importance comes seasonality. Push before the peaks, not during them.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is promotion whose goal is that the chats and the AI based search engines say your business's name when a customer asks them for a recommendation. You work on it with clear content that is easy to cite, with data and sources, with business details that are consistent everywhere on the web, and with mentions on other sites. It complements organic promotion, it does not replace it.
Want us to look at this for your business?
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