The Secret Of SEO For Travel Agents: Blogs Help Immensely
OK. There are actually more secrets. But, they’re aren’t really secrets but rather some solid advice on how your travel agency can end up ranking higher on search engine, especially Google, the gold standard.
I, found this article about search engine optimization (SEO) from Copyblogger about the most important components of building better search. Not surprisingly, a well-done (and consistently updated) blog can be a big part of the equation.
But there are some key things to consider about this — some of which you’re probably already doing, but may not realize it.
The first and most important way to get yourself up the search chain lies in “authority” and “trust.” If you are an authority on a subject, you can build trust and that can do well in search because of the way the technology is set up. All travel professionals are authorities in the business and it makes sense to keep telling that story over and over and over again.
Make sure you focus on your unique specialty. Some of you may call it a “unique selling proposition,” but the bigger picture is that you are making your story stick so that people keep coming back or decide to subscribe to your content. Copyblogger calls it “The Winning Difference.”
The second way to make sure you are creating a search-rich opportunity for yourself lies in the links and what’s called the “anchor text” for the links.
“Anchor text,” refers to the words you use to link back to other websites. Everyone has seen the dreaded “click here” highlighted back to a link. When you use this, you are among the millions (maybe billions) of sites that have done the exact same thing — so the search engines have no idea how to classify it. This means that terms like “click here” or “click this link to read” or anything like it will be ignored an your efforts could be wasted.
One of the goals of good search opportunity is getting as many relevant, keyword rich links back to your site from others, not just the dreaded “click here” links. This helps build that “authority” and “trust” piece and the search engines will notice and potentially bump you up the list because you have exhibited expertise and a strong following.
Additionally, you should always try to add compelling links wherever and whenever possible. You most certainly wouldn’t want to link to a competitor but if you can find interesting links that help support your blog, it can help. One of the great defaults is linking to pages on Wikipedia. They generally do not contain anything that would be detrimental to you. Also, make sure that you’re linking back to your site. This simple step can help amp up your relevance and it is an easy thing to do on all of your posts.
When linking back, have some kind of description that is relevant. For example, if you are talking about environmental travel and you are linking back to an impact study, you could link back by saying, “this is an important environmental impact study for the travel industry” — and highlight the entire passage and link it back.
Another example is based on what you have to offer as an agent. For example, you could write about Aruba, then have a link back to an offer group that is specifically for your travel agency — the goal being to facilitate direct bookings with your agency.
There are plenty of other pieces of great advice (that we’ll continue to share) when it comes to making an impact in search. But, for the meantime, take a look at your current blog and see if there are some things that you can do right away.
As always, Passport Online is here to help you with your blogs and other facets of social media. Get in touch with us and we’re happy to share what we know — and what we continue to learn
Related posts:
- Facebook Is Social Media (and Marketing) Power For Travel Agent
- 5 Things Travel Agents Can Put On A Facebook Fan Page Right Now
- Passport Online Takes Agent SociaLink Live
[...] The Secret of SEO For Travel Agents: Blogs Help Immensely This entry was posted in SEO, Search Engines. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. [...]