Keywords. Backlinks. Optimisation. Meta copy. If you get confused when talking about SEO – then you’re not alone. The good news is you don’t have to be an expert in this field to still get awesome results. The reason? Because you can hire an SEO agency to do the hard work for you.
You’ll be glad to know that an experienced team (like ours) can help your travel business soar high above the competition when it comes to Google ranking and website performance.
Want to find out how? Sit back and relax as we take you through everything you need to know.
What is travel SEO?
Great question! Travel SEO is a strategy that involves optimising your travel website to rank as high as possible in Google search. To be successful, you need to nail everything from keyword optimisation and page load speed to your overall user experience. Doing so will help your brand appear in front of more people when making their travel plans online. As a result, you can expect to close more sales and sell a whole lot more products.
Travel SEO is a critical part of any marketing plan and you should always work with the best in the industry to ensure you get bang for your buck. But more on that later…
Why should I use SEO for my travel business?
If you want to stay ahead of the curve, then we strongly recommend implementing an SEO strategy. This is because the travel industry is hyper-competitive. And without the best visibility, you won’t be able to fight your way to the top. At the same time, holidaymakers these days expect a more customised and helpful service than ever before. So you need to craft smart, useful and targeted content that makes life easier for people searching from their computer or smart device.
This is what you can do with SEO:
- Boost your ranking across search engines
- Create engaging and super helpful content for customers
- Expand your digital footprint
- Attract new customers to your business
What’s the difference between SEO and PPC for my travel website?
A lot of travel agencies are unsure about how to increase their search engine visibility, particularly when they have to decide between SEO and pay-per-click (PPC). So which option is the best?
Well, it’s true. PPC ads are great for generating quick results. However, they don’t boost organic traffic in the same way that SEO does.
Implementing travel SEO for your website is a longer-term process that allows you to tinker and toy with your digital marketing strategy as the industry evolves. This makes it a smart choice for dedicated businesses. It’s highly cost-effective, too.
The bottom line? PPC ads will get you fast returns but they won’t help down the track. SEO, on the other hand, will pay dividends for years to come.
When should I start SEO for my travel website?
Yesterday! The best time to start SEO for your travel website is as soon as possible. Why? Because it’s an ongoing process that calls for thorough research and plenty of planning. In light of COVID-19 – and the damage the pandemic has done to the tourism industry – one of the best ways to bounce back and build a strong business is with SEO. Think of it as a way to create a fool-proof business. And a means to get a leg up on your competition.
ENLIST THE SUPPORT OF AN AWARD WINNING SEMRUSH PARTNER
When can I expect to see results once I apply travel SEO?
Truth time. SEO is not the fastest content strategy. But that can be a good thing! It’s important to remember that this marketing tactic takes time, and the payoff can be significant if you are prepared to sit tight and be patient.
You may not see much of a difference even after two months of a fully implemented SEO campaign. In fact, the consensus among experts is that it takes anywhere from four to six months before real results come knocking. Thankfully, you can keep an eye on things (and track progress through KPIs etc) early on to discover how much of your SEO strategy is bearing fruit.
Look for improvement in these areas to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts:
- Organic search traffic
- Impression clicks
- Backlink count
- Referrals from other websites
- Search engine ranking
- Conversions
Why partner with Impressive for travel SEO?
Without tooting our own horn, we’re pretty darn good at what we do. In fact, we’re one of the best in the business when it comes to travel SEO. Countless digital marketing awards and a long list of happy clients don’t lie, after all…
But how do we do what we do? Well, we have a wealth of SEO experience under our belts. We utilise the best tools and techniques. And we’re never afraid to push the boundaries of what’s possible. This means we deliver standout results that get your brand noticed. Every. Single. Time.
So look to us with confidence when it comes to everything from writing keyword-optimised content to improving page load speed and so much more.
Want some specifics? We can help with the following:
- Title tags, meta tags, URL slugs, alt tags
- Useful and relevant content
- Keyword optimisation
- Page loading speed
- URL structure
- Calls to Action
- Sourcing of backlinks
Travel SEO Case Study: Impressive x Australian Traveller: Rising from the ashes
Who is Australian Traveller, and what were their challenges?
Australian Traveller is an online travel publication with a head office in Sydney. They produce destination-specific content to help Aussies find their next holiday or weekend getaway spot. You can find content on where to stay, where to eat, what to do, what to see, and travel deals for both the most popular and lesser-known Australian destinations.
Australian Traveller and Impressive began working together in October 2021. Since May of that year, Australian Traveller had seen a drop in traffic growth – which was part of a sluggish organic growth that the business had seen since at least 2019.
What strategy did Impressive and Australian Traveller follow?
Objective: bring traffic back to the original baseline, continually improve organic traffic to the site (to hit 1 million visitors a month), and improve the overall domain authority.
Our strategy: the client had been pushing content out over the last 5 years, without conducting an audit of previously published content and seeing if there were any duplicates. They had also never looked into the technical health of their site.
To achieve our objectives, Impressive had to:
- Accurately understand what Google was crawling – by conducting a Crawl and Indexation Audit and uncovering if the content was worth being indexed
- Conduct an audit and prune site content – to remove low-value and out-of-date content
- Improve site speed and mobile usability issues
- Fix any on-page issues – this included things like meta titles, descriptions, URL lengths, H1 and general heading structures
Conducting these audits and reports revealed a massive level of work that needed to be done. Our SEO and content teams got to work on it.
What were the results of our work?
Increased clicks and impressions: after content pruning/auditing, fixing technical issues and improving crawl efficiency, we saw some very impressive results. Between May-July 2021 and May-July 2022, non-brand clicks have increased by just under 60,000 and impressions had grown from 15.8 to 19.7 million!
Increase in keywords ranked, major growth in organic traffic: when Australian Traveller was first onboarded in Oct 2021, their website ranked for a total of 61,977 keywords. Of those, only 4,949 keywords ranked on the 1st page. After working with the client for a year, the website ranked for a total of 128,265 keywords of which 15,982 keywords rank on the first page.
When we compared Jan-July 2022 to June-Dec 2021 traffic, organic sessions had increased by 70%, while users increased by 68%.
Content pruning successes: many of the original articles on the Australian Traveller website were optimised or re-written to target specific keywords. This plan saw a fantastic jump in organic traffic. A 2020 Australian Traveller article about the Stockton Dunes, for example, had only received 1 click between being published in Sept 2020 and Jan 2021. After implementing our content plan, articles like this one saw a huge increase in organic traffic – after updated Stockton Dunes in Jan 2022, the articles received 590 clicks over the last couple of months, and has been consistently showing in the top 3 spots up to October 2022.
Ready to get started? Book your free consultation today
Excited to begin your SEO journey? Get in touch with our friendly team. We promise to demystify the mysterious – and make your time with us truly impressive.
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