We’re at a stage now where we can agree we’re all in the same boat. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit tourism arguably the hardest of all the global economic sectors. The industry contributes an overwhelming 10.3% of global GDP and The World Travel & Tourism Council(opens in a new tab) currently says 75 million jobs are at risk in the industry, with 1 million people losing their jobs daily.
BUT we can’t always focus on the negative, as there are positive horizons with some travel experts(opens in a new tab) predicting tourism to come back stronger than ever!
Unfortunately, there is no scheduled end date to this pandemic but there are things that can be done in the meantime to prepare for the travel gates to swing open again.
So let’s talk SEO, its benefits, and what you should be updating on your website for now. It’s impossible to cover the entirety of SEO in one article, but we’ll start with an overview and follow up with some changes you can be making now.
The three pillars of successful SEO are:
- Structured & coded content: How does Google know what searches to return? Having a website that meets the criteria that these search engine crawlers look for in order to create a database of popular and relevant search results is paramount. But how do they decide what is relevant? Through analysis of precise web design and optimisation.
- Onsite content: Without words, there is no such thing as SEO. You need web page after web page of unique, remarkable, and optimised content. Don’t forget the word that constantly comes up, and arguably the most important SEO content aspect, keywords!
- Offsite factors: Perhaps the most difficult and commonly neglected, but equally important is link building. How relevant is your website to others? In short; having strong, relatable, and informative content will encourage others to link you on their sites. The more backlinks (people who link to your website) you have, the higher your level of trustworthiness and the higher the chance that search engines will value your site – thus ending in you ranking higher on the search engine result pages.
What can you be doing?
Consider restructuring your website. Ask friends, family, and coworkers to look through it and gather their feedback. Can they find the details they need right away? Are the prices clear on the tour pages? Are the important tour details clear and not buried in blocks of text?
Asking third parties, especially those with little technical background, what they think of your site is a great way to start a restructure. Think about it, most people who book a tour are not SEO, web design experts – talk to those that will use your site and make changes accordingly.
Optimise your content. Easier said than done. There are endless tips, tweaks, and changes you can make to optimise the content on your site and here are some ideas to get you started.
Is your content keyword optimised? It’s a delicate process and one that requires time and effort. Here’s a very basic overview: choose short and longtail keywords which focus on your target market > carefully implement them in your current text (do not keyword stuff) > track keyword success rate with Google Analytics & constantly fine-tune them.
Ensure your content isn’t padded out with repetitive waffle for a number of reasons:
- Having high-quality, structured, and relevant content will only help your on-page SEO. Google will also punish those who have repeated content on their site.
- Great, structured content will help with usability, readability, and credibility.
- Having that content will aid in generating more sales.
- No one likes to read huge chunks of irrelevant content.
Start a blog. A blog is a perfect way for you to include your keywords, create that high-quality, shareable content to hopefully generate more external backlinks, and overall attract more traffic onto your site! Check out our blogging service if you’re interested in starting a blog.
Backlinks. Important and arguably the hardest to secure. Here are a few ways to start the backlink securing process:
- Creating infographics – everyone loves visual graphs and creating a meaningful and trustworthy one, perhaps on a blog, could encourage some to share it.
- Guest blog – write a blog post for another company and don’t forget to include your site!
- Write testimonials – as long as you’re a customer of a site, write them a review and ask them to publish it with a link to your site!
Remember, sharing your content on social media is also very important, so get posting!
These are just a few SEO tips that can help your website climb the search engine results page just that little higher. If you have any questions, or you are interested in talking to us about how we can help implement these tips on a new website, don’t hesitate to reach out to us today(opens in a new tab). We’re travel and tourism experts and we’re here to help you.
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