18/11/13 // Written by admin

Travel Companies – Improve your SEO

In the hustle and bustle of the world today, more and more people are looking to get away from it all. Hence, the travel sector is booming! But only for those who know how to market themselves.

With constant advances in technology the search for holidays has gone digital. In fact, most Brits now book their getaways online. However, with the invasion of the huge online travel aggregators, travel companies must work harder than ever to compete.

SEO

SEO for travel companies is inherently international as it works to promote destinations and to customers across the world. At the same time it is also location based like no other market. To do well, a site needs to rank for location based queries and recommendations, merely ranking on the first page for generic terms such as ‘holiday’ will not improve your online market share.

Central to being successful is branding. Strong, consistent branding will help your site move up the rankings, increasing natural search traffic. This branding and natural traffic can be built by SEO on and off the page.

 

On-page

With Google placing more weight on usability, there are several ways in which sorting out your site can improve your rankings.

  • Make sure your landing pages are usable with a clear navigation structure. Translation options should be labelled on each page, or you will not rank in country specific engines.
  • With so many people looking online to buy their holiday, the user journey is crucial. If your site is complicated, customers will not book on it. Make it easy for them to browse your site and commit to a purchase.
  •  Do you want potential customers to find your site when they are originally looking for holiday ideas, or when they have a clear idea of their holiday? Understanding at what point your site should appear in a holiday search means that you can optimise your site to capitalise on the right traffic.

 

Off-page

  • Encourage your current customers to recommend your specific destinations by rating your holidays on sites like Trip Advisor or Lonely Planet. Benefits – great domain authority building links back to your site, and individual holidays listed on their sites. (Do make sure you avoid blog comment signature spam or you will be at risk of penalisation)
  • Post holiday advertisements on websites such as the Guardian and Telegraph sites, thereby increasing referral traffic and borrowing domain authority.
  • Use images and videos to engage your customers and create a buzz on social media.
  • Make sure you respond to all social enquiries, so customers see your availability – this will also help build brand loyalty.

 

These are just a few of many tips for improving your travel company’s SEO. What you must remember is that the SEO in your market is like no other. Even more so, your SEO should not be the same as all the travel companies in your market. Don’t try to match your competitors: your SEO should focus on marketing your difference not your similarity.

If you would like to find out more, take a look at our infographic below or get in touch!