Looking to gain more organic traffic to your website? (I think I heard you say yes!). Did you know that more than 50% of site traffic comes from organic search? And you can get really good at this or at least understand it so you can work with others to execute a plan for your tourism business. This is Part 1 of a series of Tourism SEO video tips for travel brand professionals. As I make some fixes on my own websites, I am going to show you how to do the same.
How can I help you improve your Tourism SEO?
I’ve been working in SEO to a large extent the last 7 years. I’ve worked with tourism professionals like you. I’ve done hundreds of hours of courses from the best in the industry like Backlinko, Moz, Google, Neil Patel and courses with the top bloggers in the travel industry. I’ve learned also by trying and testing things because these are the keys to improving your performance. I’ve also learned a ton and I keep up to date, since its constantly changes. I have 2 of my own websites – Marketing Website – Travel Life Media and the other is a travel blog – Travel Life Experiences – I’ve had some great success with my sites – getting on the top page of Google – and getting high quality traffic –100 fold over the years but I have to keep up with it. Watch out for this series here on our blog, or join our Facebook Group at Tourism Marketing That Works. I’ll be posting a number of Facebook lives and videos to help you optimize from the comforts of your home. Now if you choose to continue to do elements of SEO on your own while you have the time. or when travel picks up again you can also work with agencies to work on other elements to keep up the maintenance of it. depending on your time and patience – but its not something that you just love for leave it.
Tourism SEO What You Need to Know and Common Myths
Before we get started on these fixes in this video, I do want to mention a few important Myths about SEO and also some education because I can guarantee you have probably thought about these things, or had discussions with agencies or partners you’ve worked with.Common thing I hear is: “I don’t know anything about SEO but I know I need it.” Education will help you feel much more comfortable with your travel SEO it is not a wall of smoke and mirrors.
What is SEO? In simple terms please!
The practice of Increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search results. Notice how I didn’t just say Quantity — you want good quality too, because you want readers who don’t just land and then bounce off quickly and a better chance is that they are going to buy. and you get a better quality rating by Google. Here’s a great analogy: SEO is like a subway system – each website is a station and the search engine is like a subway car that moves between the stations and stores information – it is one part of a larger system.
Why Bother With SEO? — Instead of Doing Other Marketing Strategies
Three damn good reasons: 1. MORE THAN half of site traffic comes from Organic Search 2. Over 40% of all Online revenue is captured by search traffic
3. And you can save a tonne of money on paid ads (over time) and become less reliant on them.Tourism SEO can pay out for you long term with the future health of your brand.
Important SEO Goals:
– We want to please the search engines so we can get maximize our visibility, this means working alongside GOOGLE –and they know every trick in the book that has been used to cut corners (I have learned the hard way and hired businesses who cut corners to get results) — meaning SEO takes time – it also takes continous effort- experimentation and how to navigate around the rules and regs.Please trust me on this one — getting penalized by Google will be the worst thing that could happen to a business if you don’t follow the rules. – I have seen it in the tourism industry and it can HURT your business.
SEO MYTHS – Get these out of your mind!
1. SEO growth can be fast – no not true. And you want good, quality and lasting SEO for your business. As well, there are alot of different elements to SEO On page, On Site, and Off page – so there are alot of different strategies and tactics and it requires trying some things. 2. I have to be the top listing on Google to grow my traffic and visility – That is not true at all — getting to first page should be a top goal, however there are a number of areas on Google in particular to get visibiltiy – SEarch engine results page, there is also the Featured snippets section, People also ask section, and the knowledge panel on the RHS — and let’s not forget your Google My Business Profile – can play a big role with improving your ranking overall. 3. The Top volume keywords are the best words – not true at all — And if you choose a key word that is good – it doesn’t mean you can rank for it, because you have to look at the competitors and their Domain Authority of the other site. You can beat out your competition with also using related keywords throughout your content – don’t worry I will share what this all means in my future videos. 4. ROI for SEO can’t be meansured that is why I don’t invest in it. Wrong — Yes there is — and it requires looking at your data and coming up with goals in advance (improving your organic clicks) – However it isn’t as easy to see as say paid search.
What are your views on yourTourism SEO? Do you share these views or have a different point of view.
Let us know in the comments!
Missed a SEO training video? Watch the other SEO videos here:
Video 2: Tourism SEO missed steps by most companies
Video 3: How to do an effective keyword search
