www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
An independent travel agent search marketing strategy
David Burdon
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
Approach
• Theory
• Practical observations
• Recommendations
• Discussion
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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
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SEM Over-Site
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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.
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
Play to your strengths
• “Own” your Location– County
– City or Town
– District
– Location may be ambiguous
– Postcode
– Local airport
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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
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Google’s Search Flavours
• Google comes in many flavours:– Web– Places– Map– Image– Shopping– Blog– Real-time
• Each has a role to play
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Google Local Search
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Google Map Search
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Google Shopping Search
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Google Web Search
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Google Place Page - 1
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Google Place Page - 2
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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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
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Organic (Free) Search
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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.
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
Organic Search – Key Elements
• Keywords– Keyword selection– Less is more
• Alignment– URLs– Meta tags– Copy– Images
• Inbound Linking– Anchor text– Relevance– Indexing
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
Geographic Targeting
Used for non-destination specific terms.
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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.
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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.
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
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
www.simplyclicks.com/Travel.htmlTravel Agent SEO
Parting thought
• Turn search engines into revenue engines
David Burdon – Simply Clicks