SEO & Content Strategy Can Deliver Great Results
Travel agencies, Tour Companies and travel management software firms can easily double/triple bookings and build a solid loyal customer base.
However, if their website traffic is weak and poor quality, it will be tough to squeeze revenue out of that small funnel.
Sometimes, you need a wide funnel for more traffic and leads, and keep pounding away until your site dominates. Those with domination in mind are truly smart. Because anytime you dominate Google rankings, your business can soar.
The key point to be made here in this post is that volume exposes your tour company or travel agency business in many different ways to different niche audiences and eventually you reach your most prized target customer. Google fences off these prized customers, and they know you’re trying to reach them. You’ll need to be a dominant site to get access. After you achieve volume and credibility, the doors will open to reach these prized customers too. Patience, confidence and promotion are required.
Mind-Boggling Traffic Volume is There if You Want it
When I performed SEO for Delta Hotels, I did it with this domination in mind. At one point, it was almost impossible to do a hotel keyword search of any kind on Google without seeing Delta Hotels. That’s omnipresence and I love that kind of result. I doubled their traffic at that time from 1.2 million visitors per year to 2.5 million.
That massive traffic spawns so many marketing possibilities from email signups to better ppc performance to more customer loyalty from travelers (who aren’t that brand loyal anymore). Persistent top of mind (top rankings) is a great place to be (thanks Google).
Because sometimes even the best marketing strategy, content, brand, and offer isn’t enough. Sometimes you just have to have the traffic volume. And as Richard Branson and the Pareto principle suggest, 80% of your success will come from SEO and great content. Definitely be wise and do that.
I’ve produced blog posts which have brought in a million visits. What could you do with 1,000,000 visitors? How could we parlay that into more? The traffic is just the beginning of the possibilities.
Major Travel Portals Grabbing up More Traffic
Expedia, Booking.com, Hotels.com, TripAdvisor, TourRadar and others live by volume (see graphic below). They spend millions to dominate on Google. They know that there is a certain dollar amount spent that creates a critical mass event which helps them dominate the Google rankings. They keep spending on SEO and content and promotion until they hit it.
At that point, these companies push everyone else out of the picture and take more of the available search traffic for themselves. If competitors can’t rank, they don’t exist.
As you can see, more of the traffic is moving to the big travel monopolies. When you throw money around, you get heard, liked and shared more. The red line is Tripadvisor.com, known for their helpful content — 50 million visitors per month worth $88 million/month to them!
And look at the estimated value of that SEO-driven traffic for the other top sites. Well worth the money spent to get it. But you know, big companies are sloppily optimized and don’t really capture the value they could. That sloppiness is your opportunity.
Google’s Putting Small Travel Companies through the Wringer
But this has been going on for two decades now. And SMB travel agencies and tour companies must kick it up a notch in both qualiity and strategy. No “technical SEO foolery” is going to turn it around. No gimmicks will work including Generative AI content. Instead, big traffic comes from painstakingly and sincerely creating the best unique value for visitors, influencers, customers and your beloved brand ambassadors. And via strong promotion.
The great thing about promotion is how it generates leads right away and powers up your brand and content visibility online. If your content is going to produce leads and sales, it has to reach the interested market. No one will like it or share if they never see it. And as you know, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin are throttling free reach.
Spending on social media has dropped too because it’s too expensive for the quality of leads.
Billions are going into promotion, but most often it produces one-time visitors with no long-term sustainable and trusted presence.
If this is your situation, it’s wise to go back to the drawing board with a legitimate SEO/Content Strategist who understands branding and real value generation. Too many companies have jumped into Generative AI Content schemes only to get crushed as Google purges itself of this repetitive low-value, depersonalized nonsense.
The fact is, Google’s looking for the authentic, human-produced content that resonates with their human travel consumer customers. So the challenge for small travel company owners is about how to build excellent travel content, appeal to Google’s algorithm, avoid being considered AI junk, build the brand, make impact, and move the traveler through to purchase.
Affordable Expertise Dedicated to Your Company
If your competitors are grabbing up all the available search traffic, you’re in a dicey situation. If you look at my travel marketing services, you’ll see an easy to comprehend selection of packages.
Rest assured I add whatever I can to help. This way, you don’t need a pricey agency. You can hire the specific additional talent you need on a contract basis. Graphic designers, web designers, influencers, videographers, and branding consultants are available to fill in the gaps.
They’re not needed every day, only when you have projects that require their timely and professional level skills. That’s budget efficiency which is important when you don’t have millions to spend.
I wouldn’t suggest waiting for better deals. There’s too much fake out there now, and most agencies want outlandish monthly fees for mediocre output.
Stick with my advanced SEO and travel content strategy, build the right travel marketing team and get the massive funnel that helps you win big.
Call me, Gord at 416 998 6246. There’s no time to delay!