How to Improve SEO for Travel Agencies
Learn all about SEO for travel agencies and what you need to do for specific positioning strategies to work for this type of business.
Toñi Rodriguez
2 years ago
When we want to travel, the first thing we do is search the Internet for prices or offers for our next trip. Right? And the first thing that appears are offer pages with “hotel plus flight,” “possible accommodations and transport,” etc.
That’s why SEO is so important for travel agencies. They must be present on the Internet and well positioned in the top results of Google to attract those customers.
In this article, we will see how you can achieve this by working on all SEO aspects.
Stay tuned because we’re starting!
SEO for Travel Agencies
When searching, for example: “weekend price in Rome”, the Online Travel Agencies appear first, that is, the main OTAs like Booking, Airbnb, Expedia... and then you might see websites that target long-tail keywords with less competition, like: “Practical guide for a weekend in Rome”.
Let’s see what these keywords are and how to optimize SEO to stand out among so much competition.
A good idea is to start by conducting a SEO audit, as it will give you an idea of how the project is doing and the actions and strategies to start with.
Keyword Strategy: Long Tail Keywords
We continue with what we mentioned in the previous section to see what the keywords are and how to work on this long-tail keyword strategy.
A keyword study is a process that consists of identifying what keywords users use to find, in this case, a travel agency.
We analyze the market niche we are targeting, the target audience, the competition, and the keywords they are ranking for.
Based on this analysis, we will obtain a list of keywords with their search volumes that we will use to integrate within the content of the articles and in the headings, meta descriptions, etc. with the aim of improving visibility and attracting quality traffic to a website.
So then... What is a long-tail keyword study?
Long-tail keywords are more specific and detailed words or phrases than the main search terms.
For example, as you can see in the previous image: “travel agencies” is a main keyword and has a lot of competition, making it harder to rank for this term.
While long-tail keywords are more specific and detailed, such as “travel agencies near me”.
These words, by targeting more detailed searches, tend to have less competition compared to the main keywords. And, although they have low traffic, it will be highly qualified.
This long-tail keyword strategy helps the agency's website to rank in the top results for those specific searches.
Therefore, we can affirm that a good SEO strategy for travel agencies would be to use the main keywords, complemented by long-tail keywords. This will help us achieve traffic with a high possibility of conversion for our travel agency website.
For the keyword study, you can use AI tools for SEO that will make the task easier.
Blog Content Strategy and Search Intent
Once we have identified all the keywords, we are going to write on the blog of the travel website.
The ideal is to create a content strategy with all the keywords that resulted from the initial analysis.
That is, we are going to write based on what users search for when they are going to travel.
Direct questions that users commonly ask, such as:
“Best flight deals at Christmas”
“Tour packages to Rome”
“All-inclusive travel deals to Disneyland Paris”
“Visa requirements in the United States”
“Weather and temperatures in Rome at Christmas”
“Car rental in Tenerife”
In the travel agency's blog, you can also include questions about things we can do in certain locations. For example:
“What to do in wherever” “What to see in any location” “What typical food to eat in ..” which will bring us very valuable and qualified traffic and visits.
In this way, we position terms that will generate business for our travel agency.
In this case of SEO for travel agencies, the content strategy can be focused on local blogs. This will not only bring you local links and local relevance, but it will also help you reach a local audience interested.
Link Building
If you do not work on this part of SEO, no matter how attractive your website is and how good the content is, it is most likely that you will not rank.
You will need help: “links” which are a ranking factor. Therefore, creating and managing a profile of incoming links or backlinks is another task on which to base the SEO strategy for travel agencies.
Quality links that you can acquire at Unancor. We have a new tool that is more than a tool; it is a weapon to make “Match” with your ideal medium.
We have the ideal quality media and blogs for your business website; related to the travel agency sector, such as newspapers, industry portals, specific blogs...
So come on, schedule a meeting with our SEO guru.
Working on link building will improve your travel agency's SEO. It sends signals to Google about the authority and relevance of a website and helps rank pages in the top results of Google.
Appearing in authoritative media = Brand reputation and online traffic
This allows for more visibility (impressions), increases organic traffic (clicks), and consequently, an increase in business goals and sales.
Local SEO for Travel Agencies
Local SEO can be a sales channel for travel agencies as it focuses on optimizing your online presence in local searches.
This strategy is very important because it will bring to the travel agency's website:
- Visibility, as local SEO helps highlight your business in local searches, attracting potential customers from your area.
- Quality traffic, by targeting local people interested in traveling, it increases the quality of traffic to your website.
- Credibility and transparency, for example, with reviews you demonstrate your credibility and transparency. We will see this in the next point.
And... How to improve local SEO in your travel agency?
For this, we have the advice of Edu Laborda, someone with a lot of experience and very skilled at doing cool things in local SEO. He explains how to work on local SEO for travel agencies.
Google Business Profile (GBP)
Having a properly configured and complete Google My Business listing is essential to start your Local SEO strategy. When a user searches for your physical or online travel agency, the first thing Google shows is the Business Profile listing.
Once the listing is created, it is very important that it is verified.
Complete all fields, NAP (name, address, phone) such as address, phone number, opening hours, categories, and links to your website.
Use relevant local keywords in the content you publish, providing useful information to the user.
Additionally, now in the listing you can include services. In its description, you can share links to blog articles or links to offers from your travel agency.
Edu Laborda quotes us directly, a good tip to apply:
Something I have been doing for a while with tour companies that could work is to include the agency's URL in monument listings.
And when people see what monuments to visit, they can see the specific URL of the agency to give you everything done.
What does Google say about local SEO?
Another important point is the “openness” of businesses which adds and gains weight in local SEO and recently Google announced on X (Twitter) that:
The team tells me we’ve long used “openness” as part of our local ranking systems, and it recently became a stronger signal for non-navigational queries. This might change in various ways, as we continue to evaluate the usefulness of it, however.
Translated from English: The team tells me that we have long used “openness” as part of our local ranking systems and it recently became a stronger signal for non-navigational queries. However, this could change in various ways as we continue to evaluate its usefulness.
That is, it will improve the local SEO of businesses that are open at the time of the search. For example, if I search for “travel agencies near me,” the travel agencies that are open at that moment will appear first.
Reviews
Ask your clients to leave testimonials of their experience in the reviews of the Google Business listing, as they help to gain trust from future clients.
As a fact: “ 75% of users trust a company more if it has positive reviews online.” Source Tecnohotelnews.
They are also considered a local ranking factor, and as proof, companies with high ratings in their reviews tend to have better positioning.
It is worth noting that you should respond to all comments, even the negative ones. With a little tact, you can get the customer to change their mind and return to your business. For this, you can, for example, offer them a discount for the possible incident caused.
Themed local links
Links from relevant local websites can have significant weight in local SEO, even if they are not of great authority, but they must be of the same theme, in this case, travel, tourism...
In this regard, at Unancor we can also help you, as we have a specific filter for local media with which to “make Match” with your travel agency.
Online Directories
Register your travel agency in specific directories of the hotel sector and chambers of commerce in your area.
This will improve your business's online reputation. If your travel agency is small, you can register on tourism-review.es, tratra.travel, es.tourism-review.org, among others. This will bring you visits interested in your services.
Website Usability
Having a usable and easy-to-navigate website will facilitate SEO for travel agencies and, therefore, visibility and an increase in customers.
The first impression when entering the website is crucial; not only should the design be nice, but the process should also be completed in a few clicks: viewing offers, making a reservation, contacting customer service...
Include call to action to generate trust with the customer.
And regarding technical SEO aspects, ensure the website is not slow, has no broken links, and has SSL security certificates.
Social Media
Social media, although not directly a factor for SEO ranking, sends signals about your activity that indicate your content is useful (the times it is shared, likes, and comments).
Useful content that adds value helps generate backlinks, as users are more likely to share it.
That is, by sharing your content on social media, it will improve online visibility and contribute to improving organic search traffic and thus attract new customers.
Additionally, it improves the reputation and brand recognition of your travel agency.
Another idea you can use is to encourage your followers' participation with giveaways, asking them to share content while tagging the travel agency.
Social media is an excellent communication channel for your business. You can provide good customer service using social media and active listening through them. Responding quickly and effectively to comments or possible questions they may have is a point in your favor.
Do you have to be on all of them? You don’t have to be on all social media, only on those that you will manage actively and believe, after analyzing, that your audience is on.
Need help with your Link Building strategy?
Our team of experts is ready to help you boost your project with personalized strategies
Contact us nowHow to attract customers to your travel agency? Conclusions:
If you want to improve the SEO ranking of your travel agency, what you need to do is apply what we have explained in this article: Content focused on the search intent of your clients, local SEO is very important, quality themed link building, support yourself on social media...
And, although you have to keep an eye on everything Google is saying, don’t pay too much attention because what it says one day, it may say something else tomorrow. So let’s hope it doesn’t change its mind too much in 2024.
We hope this article has been helpful, and if there is anything else you are interested in knowing about SEO for travel agencies, we will respond in the comments.
Thank you for reading.
