As we are nearing the winter holidays, the travel industry’s key aims are to getting the holiday-goers to choose their holidays and their company. In order to achieve this, travel Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an important tool.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) focuses on growing visibility in non paid search engine results. It has been shown that search engine traffic can determine an organisations success. “Targeted traffic to a website can provide huge amounts of publicity, revenue and exposure like no other channel of marketing. Therefore, investing in SEO can have an exceptional rate of return compared to other types of marketing and promotional work.”
A recent study by the European Travel Commission has found that “amongst Britons, the internet was the booking agent of choice for 78% of their trips.” Although travel agents still exist in the travel industry, consumers are realising that online companies are able to offer better deals than some of the big travel players, as they have none of the costly expenses.
Within the travel industry, the online focus is so prevalent that SEO should be of high priority for any travel businesses looking to be successful online. With search rankings so vital across such a broad range of the customer journey, ranking well for the word “holiday” simply isn’t enough. A customer may not necessarily be thinking about a “holiday” in that sense at all. Instead, they could be searching “bank holiday” or “Christmas holiday”. Hence, long tail keywords are more important in the travel industry; for example, “holidays in Sri Lanka” or “where is the best place to stay in Paris”.
Whilst researching different deals and travel companies, customers are more likely to visit other sites such as TripAdvisor, for reviews that they perceive to be unbiased. The main challenge for the travel industry, is understanding the value of being able to speak to potential customers in a way that is related to the stage of the customer’s journey of booking a holiday.
Social media also plays a huge part in travel SEO. In order for a travel company to rank well in search engine results, a website has to display a level of engagement. This can be found most commonly in terms of social media interactions such as likes, followers and retweets etc. Therefore, it is beneficial for a travel company to be active on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn to name a few.
The image on the left is a good example of this. As you can see, the image has generated 499 likes, 23 shares and 100+ comments. This level of engagement will be indication for large search engines that users are interested in the company and what they have to offer. Therefore, when considering which brands are more relevant and popular regarding holiday trips to Morocco, the company will rank well.
To summarise, although travel agents still have their place, travel consumers are more likely to take their customer journey online – from researching their holiday to sharing their holiday snaps after their home return. By recognising the importance of understanding the customer and exploring new and longer keywords that are relevant to holiday travels as well as using social media to increase the number of users, the travel industry has the opportunity to succeed online. It is therefore important that the travel industry should continue to grow using travel SEO.
References:
https://searchenginewatch.com/2016/01/21/seo-basics-22-essentials-you-need-for-optimizing-your-site/
https://www.hallaminternet.com/travel-seo-importance-seo-travel-industry/
https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo
https://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/world-overview/91-online-travel-market/?start=1
http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/41280/80-booking-holidays-online-finds-study