Creating a digital footprint for your company in the travel sector will only become more crucial over time. The tourist sector is more expensive than ever, and more people are using digital channels to plan their vacations.
One of the key factors in the online success of some of the largest names in the tourism business is search engines. For websites that successfully implement their SEO strategy, organic search actually leads to more traffic than any other digital channel, with the occasional exception of direct traffic.
Online success requires a top-10 search engine ranking in an environment where competition is escalating. Your SEO must be strong in order to accomplish this. Read this post all the way to the end if you’re curious what SEO is. We’ve created a thorough guide about SEO and how it relates to the travel sector.
What is SEO & how does it work?
The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to have your business’s website appear at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. For instance, the website that is most optimised for the keyword “things to do in Chicago” will show up first when a visitor searches for that phrase. It will therefore receive the most traffic as a result.
Important SEO factors:
Almost every business may benefit from SEO. The following are some essential factors that support SEO’s position as one of the most crucial elements of any digital marketing strategy:
- Search engines are used by 81 percent of online shoppers to find goods and services.
- A physical store will be visited by 72% of persons who perform a local search as a result of that search.
- On search engines, 78% of local queries result in an offline purchase.
- Websites that appear first in a Google search result are the recipients of 34.36 percent of all clicks on that result.
Why is getting to the top of SERPs important?
Imagine that you run Disney World trips. According to the aforementioned statistics, there is a good likelihood that customers will look for your business online, more especially by using search engines. To be found by customers, you must successfully implement an SEO plan that will place you at the top of search results.
How does SEO apply to the travel industry?
Google claims that more than any other internet marketing channel, leisure travellers start their vacation planning by using search engines. Search engines are the second-highest source of information that goes into online trip planning for business travellers.
Both leisure and business travellers rely largely on the websites and apps for maps as a source of information. Local SEO is important because about 51% of travellers use location-specific search terms when they first start to plan their trip.
In addition, for online trip planning, leisure travellers are increasingly using search engines before branded websites or applications. This occurs as a result of search engines’ efforts to win users’ trust by only offering the most accurate results.
Advantages of SEO marketing in the travel industry
An ongoing inbound marketing technique is SEO. This implies that unlike with PPC, you won’t notice results right away. However, there are some significant benefits that come with successfully implementing your SEO plan.
- Generate qualified leads
To begin with, SEO enables you to increase relevant website traffic. More qualified leads will consequently visit your website. Consider once more that you run Stonehenge excursions. Visits to your website from people who are not looking for this service are quite improbable. Due to searcher intent, or more specifically, what a user is looking for when they enter their query into a search engine, this occurs. - Relatively cost effective
Next, SEO is more affordable than Pay Per Click, the second-best digital marketing method (PPC). Using PPC, such as Google AdWords, is a practical marketing strategy. Through keywords and user intent, you will target relevant traffic much like SEO. Long-term, however, is a lot more economical choice than long-term.
Your Pay Per Click campaign budget is a constraint. If you run out, you’ll eventually lose visitors and see a decline in conversions. In essence, you will stop appearing in search results the instant you stop paying for adverts. On the other side, if you cease using SEO, you will still get visitors as long as search engines still rank your website as one of the top 10 reliable sources of information for the phrase you’re bidding on. - High certainty to growth
And finally, implementing a strong SEO strategy helps ensure company growth. Let’s use the Disney World example once more and suppose your website receives 3,000+ monthly visitors. Your visits may be highly qualified leads given the nature of SEO. Imagine the volume of reservations you will get from such a steady stream of targeted visitors.
The main disadvantage of SEO is the time commitment. But once you’re at the top, it’s doubtful that you’ll quickly see a major decline in your position. Google (and other search engines) trust your website to be the most reliable source of information for a specific keyword. There is little chance that your rating will change significantly.
How to utilise SEO for your travel website
- Keyword Research
Any effective SEO plan must begin with keyword research. KW Finder or SEMrush are tools you need to use to locate keywords you can compete for. Make sure your chosen keywords are very pertinent to your business when conducting your study.
Let’s use the keyword “tours to Disney world” as an example. - Website Structure
After performing keyword research, you can start to consider the architecture of your website. Your business strategy should be considered while building the framework of your website, something you should have done when doing keyword research. Keep in mind that everything should be pertinent to what you do.
Let’s imagine that your company only offers tours to Miami. You can use the homepage to target that keyword, and your website will probably be quite small. But what if your company offers tours to several different cities? Then, using your homepage to target more generic keywords, such as “tours from Denver,” would be an excellent option. After that, you can use subpages to focus on keywords that are particular to each place where you run tours, such as “tours to Miami.” - Content Optimization
You must optimise the content you write for your numerous web pages for both the user experience and the keywords you want to rank for. On-site optimization is the term for this. It’s crucial to familiarise yourself with the following on-site optimization components as a starting point:
Title tags, meta tags, URL slugs, alt tags
In-depth and eligible content
Keyword density
Page loading speed
URL structure
Calls to Action, and more…
You focus should be at creating relevant and engaging content - Link Building
Getting other websites to link to your website in order to raise its authority is the essence of link building. Why? Consider your website to be a research paper for a university. When writing your paper, you should establish claims and then cite reliable sources to support those claims. You offer your study paper legitimacy by doing this.
A website functions similarly in many ways. It’s time to advertise your content to authoritative and pertinent websites when you’ve finished creating it. Your website’s credibility is currently being built. Visit any travel blog or website that interests you as a trip operator.
Link building methods
Guest posting
Writing incredible content
Great images
Link roundups
Broken link building - Write Blog posts
A fantastic technique to get more targeted visitors to your topic is through blog postings. You may also show off your expertise and inspire trust in your website visitors by writing blog entries. One of the initial steps in the travel process is research. By offering visitors free information, you can introduce them to your business at this preliminary purchasing stage. A post about the “history of Stonehenge,” for instance, could help draw targeted traffic and possibly convert site visitors into clients later in the sales cycle.
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