The Significance of SEO in the Travel Industry

September 15, 2015
Jess

Today, around 227 million people are in work thanks to the travel industry. Incorporating tour operators, independent and chain hotels and accommodation companies, airlines, cruise lines, car rentals and more, it’s not hard to see how and why the industry as a whole generates 9.8% of the world’s GDP.

These are some impressive numbers, but as with many markets of such substantial proportions, there is some real competition out there. There are lots of methods out there to make companies stand out from the crowd, but arguably few are as effective as search engine optimisation.

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Imagine a manager during their lunch break, dreaming of a week on a beach and unlimited Margaritas, or an intern mentally planning a weekend city break with friends. What will they do next? Most likely they’ll visit Google and search for inspiration. If your company appears on page one, bingo! You’re then in the running to grab their attention, showcase your offers and deals and potentially even convert them into customers. If not, you’ve lost them before. It doesn’t matter how good value your packages are, or how spacious your new plane is, or how good the food is at your restaurant, if nobody knows about it.

You should remember, however, that tackling SEO for laptops and desktops is no longer enough. Earlier this year, publishers of research and analysis from the digital industry Econsultancy reported that “By 2017 more than 30% of online travel bookings by value will be made on mobile devices.” If the stats are this high for actual conversion, imagine how high they are for potential customers merely browsing packages, rentals and flights on their phones and tablets.

Consider this alongside Google’s announcement earlier this year, regarding the fact that they would begin penalising companies whose websites are not properly optimised for mobile usage.

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It has also been predicted by GSMA Intelligence that by 2020, 3.8 billion of the world’s population will be mobile Internet users. This is about half of the population of the entire world.

In order to get on top of these stats and get their deserved share of the markets, companies in the travel industry would be wise to seek advice about Travel SEO from the professionals. Search engine optimisation, and digital marketing in general, at present is such a fast advancing industry itself, changes and updates are being made on an hourly basis.

Your strategy needs to be tailored properly. There’s little point having consumers searching for flights to Australia reaching your site if you specialise in internal European flights! External agencies can also handle both the on-page and off-page optimisation, meaning you’re firing on all cylinders and your brand will be as far reaching as possible.