Independent Travel Agent SEO | Search Marketing Strategy · 2020-02-18 · Travel Agent SEO Organic...

www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO

An independent travel agentsearch marketing strategy

David Burdon


Experience

• Stena Line, Cosmos

• Created the Somewhere2stay.com brand

• 8+ years specialist involvement in search

• 300+ search engine marketing projects

• Travel SEO for hotels and niche tour operators

• SEO & PPC training for SMEs to Multinationals

• Working in highly aggressive search categories


Approach

• Theory

• Practical observations

• Recommendations

• Discussion


Search Practicalities

• No silver bullets.– If it sounds to good to be true….

• Google organic search is getting much tougher

• No.1 for a small term beats No.11 for a big term

• Relevance more important than quantity

• Good search practise is incremental

• Wide range of free resources

• Almost everything is trackable and measurable


SEM Over-Site


Theory: SEM Over-Site

Five Stages

• Pre-Site – Planning stage

• On-Site – Website content

• Off-Site – Link building

• Post-Site –Results,feedback

• Plus – Maintenance, corrective actions, competitor response, tuning.


Search Strategy Objectives

• Assert influence over the value chain

• Reduce reliance on individual supplier, destination, package or mode

• Maximise unit booking margin

• Minimise unit booking costs

• Minimise unit customer acquisition costs

• Outrank both inter-type and intra-type competitors for selected terms.

• Become the dominant local agent website


Search Strategy Planning

• Campaign structure– Organic Search– Paid search– Referrals– Direct

• Clear understanding of search types– Brand vs generic– Destination, accommodation, activities– Local vs national– Seasonal and temporal– Informational and transactional

• Each treated differently from search perspective


Play to your strengths

• “Own” your Location– County

– City or Town

– District

– Location may be ambiguous

– Postcode

– Local airport


Play to your strengths

• Find your speciality– Destination

• Country, region, resort, accommodation type, specific property – Lifestage

• Singles, couples, families, post kids, retireds– Lifestyle and activity

• Ski, diving, golf, walking, camping, exploring, cultural– Events

• Weddings, honeymoons, stag parties, sports– Price point

• Luxury, upmarket, mid-market, budget– Accommodation type

• Hotels, apartments, villas, all-inclusive, gites– Package type

• Packaged, bespoke, component, ancillaries


Google’s Search Flavours

• Google comes in many flavours:– Web– Places– Map– Image– Shopping– Blog– Real-time

• Each has a role to play


Google Local Search


Google Map Search


Google Shopping Search


Google Web Search


Google Place Page - 1


Google Place Page - 2


Outsmart your competition

• Define who they are– They are probably nearby

– Search for them

• Work out how they compete with you– Strengths

– Weaknesses

• Avoid head-on competition

• Find ways to do things better


Keyword Research

• Get a baseline– Establish existing traffic levels and sources

• Use a good (Free) analytics package• Track actual keyword activity

– WYPFISNNWYG– Beware broad match (Semantics)

• Google, Yahoo, Word Tracker data• Check out competition• Trade volume for relevance and quality• Synthesise all components


Top Travel Agent Terms

480 independent travel agent10

480 UK travel agency9

720 travel agent London8

720 travel agency in London7

720 travel agent UK6

720 online travel agent5

1,000 travel agency London4

1,600 travel agency UK3

40,500 travel agency2

60,500 travel agent1

UK Searches Keyword


Organic (Free) Search


Organic (Free) Search

• Prioritise Google – 88% market share– You will need off page activity e.g. inbound links

• Learn lessons from other engines– Yahoo most “on-page”– Bing a predictor of future Google ranking

• Be patient with Google– Do the right things and monitor progress– May take two to three months– Check indexing and long tail terms– Solid long term rankings is the priority– Avoid all “spammy” techniques – otherwise you will

pay in the long run.


Organic Search – Key Elements

• Keywords– Keyword selection– Less is more

• Alignment– URLs– Meta tags– Copy– Images

• Inbound Linking– Anchor text– Relevance– Indexing


The Agency Website

• CMS template driven system – SEO limitations• Website aesthetics• Location• Destination• Fares• Package vs. Seat only• Accommodation type• Holiday types• Off page has few constraints


Pay Per Click

• Clear Campaign Structure– Campaign settings

– Display network?

– Segmentation• Build campaign around customer types and needs

• Generic versus “activities” and “seasonal”

• Resort and property specific

– Ad groups

– Tailored copy


Improving Conversion Rate

• Match types– Exact match preferred but used in conjunction with

phrase and broad match.

• Negative keywords• Beware low click through rates• Quality score – aim for 7/10• Specific landing pages• Variable Geographic Focus

– By town or city– The Polygon


Geographic Targeting

Used for non-destination specific terms.


Feedback

• Dynamics of enquiries, bookings etc?

• Track conversions, traffic and rankings– Look for blockages

– Look for winners

• Distinguish between seasonal variations and ranking variations.

• Distinguish between paid, organic and referrals

• Never forget you’re a travel agent – put commercial pragmatism over search perfection.


Integrated Search

• Integrate paid and organic search• Integrate search with other tools in the marketing mix:

– Advertising– Directories– CRM– Local promotion

• PR – Especially on-line• E-Mail – Data collection

• Newsletters

• Branding – Capture the destination and accommodation positioning as part of the brand.


Return on expenditure

• Total website marketing costs

• Search marketing costs

• Total revenue

• Total revenue from search

• Cost/Revenue per visitor

• Cost/Revenue per search engine visitor

• Cost/Revenue per paid visitor


No Cost Recommendations

• Register your website with DMOZ - £0• Secure your Google Place page - £0• Optimise it - £0• Generate reviews - £0• Create a Blogspot blog - £0• Create a Wordpress blog - £0• Put analytics in place - £0• Join a link exchange scheme - £0• Join LinkedIn - £0• Set-up a Facebook wall page - £0• Join Twitter - £0


Parting thought

• Turn search engines into revenue engines

David Burdon – Simply Clicks

Independent Travel Agent SEO | Search Marketing Strategy · 2020-02-18 · Travel Agent SEO Organic...

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