As a tourism business owner, you’re likely always searching for the best ways to reach customers and to be seen in the right place at the right time. Tourists have many options at their disposal, but most will turn towards online research via Google to decide what services to choose for an upcoming trip. One of the best ways you can count on more customers is by focusing on your tourism SEO (search engine optimisation) efforts.
SEO helps make your business more visible online so tourists find you when they’re searching for local activities or accommodation related to your business. Tourism SEO includes a variety of efforts you can implement on your website to appear higher up on the search engines. Though SEO takes a while to gain momentum, it’s the best and most affordable way to gain long-term traffic and bookings.
1. Optimise Your Google Business Profile
One of the easiest ways to increase your tourism site’s Google ranking is by optimising your Google Business Profile. You can think of your GMB listing as an improved version of the classic Yellow Pages. Google considers the information on your page to decide when it’s appropriate to show your business for local searches.
Make sure your listing includes the following information:
- Accurate name, address, phone or other contact information
- Up-to-date business hours
- Include common questions and answers
- Quality client reviews
- A valid list of services
Google continuously adds more features to Google Business Profiles, so it’s important to stay up to date. With more information, tourists can find you when they’re searching for local activities, hotels or other services that relate to your business. Google Business Profiles offer many features that encourage action, such as the map listing so visitors can find you as well as an easy booking tool to schedule reservations.
2. Get More Links to Your Website
Link building is one strategy that significantly helps improve tourism website rankings. Google relies on domain authority to determine if websites are trustworthy and credible, and the number, quality and relevance of backlinks determine your authority. Backlinks are any links to your site from a different site. If other sites with high domain authorities mention you, especially if they are relevant to your business, it shows Google that your information is trustworthy and users can benefit from it.
For more information, see this excellent guide on the importance of backlinks.
Link building can include outreach to local suppliers and partners, as well as guest posting and digital PR. If you have a resource guide that other sites might link to, such as a guide to hotel decor, cold outreach may help you distribute the link. You can also offer to write guest posts for other blogs that link back to your website.
3. Optimise On-Page SEO
Perhaps the most important aspect of SEO is making sure to focus your site content around specific search terms. Everything from your blog post, service pages, travel guides and more should help solve a question or search term that customers might use online. To decide which target keywords to use for your content, you can use free SEO tools like Google search trends. Alternatively, you start searching for a specific word related to your tourism business in the Google search bar to discover some other search terms that people are searching for.
There are lots of guides on on-page SEO out there. But the essence is to focus each of your web pages on specific terms, which are called keywords. Along with your copy and headlines, incorporate the keywords into the image alt tags and meta tags. Be sure each of your web pages is focused around specific keywords. If you run a tourist attraction, for example, you can build a service page focused around search terms for tourist attractions in your city, or things to do in your city. Your page text should include all the relevant search terms while also providing helpful information for the reader.
4. Improve Your Site’s User Experience
Website design also plays a role in SEO for tourism websites. If your website offers a poor user experience (UX), visitors may bounce off and look elsewhere. The more your visitors leave, the lower Google will rank your site. Make sure your website uses standard user experience (UX) practices, like easy navigation and user-friendly fonts and colours. Your site should be easily accessible on desktop and mobile while delivering information in a clear, concise design.
5. Promote Your Site and Content on Social Media
Though Google doesn’t factor social media performance into rankings, social media is still a great tool to source more tourism website traffic from potential visitors. Social media gives potential clients an easy way to see if you offer credible services, and more clients can find you through social media as well. Some examples of how to use social media include posting client testimonials and high-quality photos. If you run a holiday park, you can feature customers who enjoyed their time and post photos of the park’s most beautiful areas. Traffic is a factor in SEO rankings, so a successful social media strategy can easily translate into greater tourism SEO success.
6. Stay on Top of the Competition
SEO is a constantly moving target. You could be ranking #1 one day only to fall to the second page of results the day after. To maintain your momentum, always keep an eye on the competition. If your direct competitors are creating website content about topics you haven’t covered yet, consider how you can do it better. Remember that competing means you’ll need a better keyword strategy, user experience, social media presence and more. Responding to the actions of competitors and updating your strategy regularly is essential for tourism SEO performance.
7. Improve Your Website Performance
Your website’s technical performance plays just as much a role in SEO as your content. Google is sophisticated enough to rank poor-performing websites lower. At the end of the day, it wants to connect its users with the best experiences and solutions. As a tourism business owner, you may need to consult with a developer to dive deep into all your site’s technical issues.
Yet, there are some simple improvements you can make on your own. For one, page speed is an important factor in Google’s algorithm. Test your page speed for free using Page Speed Insights to see how it performs. This tool from Google will provide guidance on thing you can do to speed up your website. If your page speed is too slow, you can make some optimisations by uploading smaller files and making sure your template and plugins are up to date so they use the latest web standards.
How to get Started Using Tourism SEO for Better Rankings
If you’re ready to improve your tourism SEO, the first step is creating a strategy. Using the right tactics we mentioned, consider what makes sense for your business and which efforts to prioritise. From there, build out a framework that you can follow each business quarter. Keep in mind that SEO requires constant improvements and takes time to show results. Contact us at Coast 360 if you need help developing and implementing a new SEO strategy for your business.
