SEO, or search engine optimization, might just be the simplest and most affordable way for your travel agency to generate leads and capture new bookings.
But what is it, exactly? At its core, SEO is the process of optimizing a website to improve its visibility and ranking in search engine results (e.g., Google, Bing and Yahoo). The ultimate goal is to increase organic (unpaid) traffic to a website by making it more relevant and authoritative in the eyes of search engines.
If your website isn’t implementing an SEO strategy — or if you didn’t even know what “SEO” stood for before reading this — don’t stress. We’ve compiled easy-to-understand tips from SEO professionals that you can start using today.
Know Your Niche Market
The first step to optimizing your website for search is getting as specific as possible with your market positioning. Travel agencies will do well to target the types of customers they know how to best serve — and the narrower the niche, the better. By focusing on a specific niche, you can tailor your online marketing efforts to resonate with a highly relevant audience. This increases the likelihood of attracting visitors who are genuinely interested in your products or services, leading to higher conversion rates.
“At the very highest level, travel agents have a branding issue: They’re generalists who are selling the same thing,” said Brennen Bliss, CEO of Propellic, a digital marketing agency for the travel industry. “They say their differentiating quality is service, but if other travel agencies didn’t have good service, they wouldn’t be in business. You’re speaking into a void against huge organizations that can outbid and outcompete you unless you target a specific niche in the industry.”
Travel specialist Abbey Meyer, CEO of Sky High Travel in Saint Louis, Missouri, accelerated her business using SEO strategy. She began narrowing her scope and targeting the corporate incentive travel niche.
“Business is booming,” Meyer said, noting that the simplest thing the company did was change a few words on its website and use important words more frequently.
Determine Your Keywords
Understanding your niche will help you select keywords that resonate with your audience and reduce your competition online. And just so we’re clear, keywords are specific words or phrases that people enter into a search bar, such as “travel agency around me” or “Tahiti honeymoon specialist.”
Akeia Bryant, founder and owner of Washington, D.C.-based Passport Poppin has achieved success in her travel agency by ranking in Google search results for the phrase “Black-owned travel agency.” As of press time, Passport Poppin's website was populating among the top 10 results for the phrase.
Bryant suggests travel advisors consider their brand voice and think of key phrases that their ideal customers would be searching for.
“When I built our website with Wix in 2019, I was a complete beginner,” she said. “Recently, many potential customers have started reaching out, stating they found us on Google, and it has made me very proud. What I have done is make sure each page is repetitive and clear with the services we provide and who we are as a professional travel company.”
You’ve got to break through the noise, and you do that by finding keywords that are low difficulty, albeit low search volume.
Depending on your budget, there are several SEO keyword tools to leverage, including Moz Pro, Semrush and Ahrefs. And if your budget is non-existent, consider free tools such as Google Trends, Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner. Keyword Planner, for example, can show you how easy or difficult it would be to rank on Google with your proposed keywords and suggest similar phrases.
“If you're going from zero to one, you’ve got to break through the noise, and you do that by finding keywords that are low difficulty, albeit low search volume,” said Bliss of Propellic. “Target the terms of your niche that are narrow, and consider which destinations you serve best. Then, look for the terms that have a high enough search volume but aren’t super-competitive.”
It’s also good practice to conduct a Google search of your own using your proposed keywords to see what kind of results are generated. This will help you understand “user intent” — the goal a client has when they search for specific information on the internet.
Implement Keywords
Once you’ve landed on your keywords, the next step is optimizing your individual web pages to make them more relevant to a client’s search. This includes weaving your keywords into page titles, headings and body text, to name a few key areas. The goal is to work in the keywords as naturally as possible to avoid what search engines recognize as “keyword stuffing.” Search engines have sophisticated algorithms that can detect this practice, and they may penalize websites that do so by lowering their rankings.
Putting focus on the words you use in your title is a hot tip.
If you’re reading this and haven’t optimized your title tags with keywords yet, you’re not alone. According to Lydia Gilbertson — senior growth lead at Graphite, a digital marketing firm focused on SEO and content strategy — the most common mistake she sees small businesses make is overlooking title tags. A title tag appears in the browser's title bar and is also displayed as the clickable headline in search engine results, providing a brief summary of the webpage's content and influencing a client’s decision to click on the link and visit the page. This HTML element can be easily tweaked in most website builders, including Wix, WordPress and Squarespace.
“This is the heaviest optimization area for SEO,” Gilbertson said. “It’s not only what people see when they try to find you on Google, but also what's at the top of the page when you're on a given website. Putting focus on the words you use in your title is a hot tip, being that the title tag is the most impactful area, but be sure to prioritize the keyword order, as well.”
Start and Maintain a Blog
If you don’t currently have a blog on your website, consider starting one to showcase your expertise and provide tips to potential clients. High-quality content attracts visitors and encourages other websites to link back to yours.
“At Graphite, we always recommend that early stage startups build out a blog presence because it creates what we call ‘topical authority,’” said Graphite’s Gilbertson. “This means that Google would, over time, view you as an authority in the travel space, which in turn affects rankings.”
Authority is key for consumers, as well. From the perspective of a potential client, the more brand impressions they have from a particular travel agency, the more likely they are to convert.
“You're giving your audience insight, recommendations and best practices,” Bliss said. “Frequently, they will recognize that and want to learn more about the services and tours you offer. You can build trust over time with these readers — they're going to have multiple touch points with you, and that increases the likelihood that they will pay you to book their trip.”
If you already have a blog in place, you’ve got a head start. However, it's important to use keyword strategies so that your desired clients can find you. The same keyword tools you use to optimize the rest of your website can also help you come up with topics for future blog posts.
Leverage Your Google Business Page
If your travel agency operates in specific regions or serves local markets, make sure you set up your free Google Business Profile and keep it up to date with photos, posts and offers. An informative Business Profile can help convert those who find you on Google Search and Google Maps into new clients.
“Make sure that you're tagged correctly and Google's displaying your correct hours of operation,” Gilbertson said. “Local listings are heavily weighted on reviews, so ask past clients to leave a review, and at least have a couple on your profile to start.”
It’s good practice to comment on customer reviews to show that you’re responsive online and that you care about customer satisfaction and feedback. Through your Business Profile, you can also post answers to frequently asked questions or message directly with interested parties.
By implementing these practical SEO tips, travel agency websites can enhance online visibility, attract more qualified traffic and, ultimately, increase bookings and revenue. For those just getting started, these strategies can seem like a lot — and they are — but you don’t need to tackle everything at once. Small changes can create a significant impact.
“Instead of trying to do everything, do the few things that are going to move the needle,” Bliss said. “It took us eight years to figure out that we needed to lean into niche strategy before we tripled in size in a year. Remember that a hundred-watt light bulb can light up a room, and a hundred-watt laser can burn through metal. Be the laser.”
