Do you have a reputable travel agency but are failing to turn up in Google searches?
This is a common problem amongst small business owners, but one that can be easily fixed.
If you take the time to follow Google’s guidelines to help them understand a bit more about your business, you’ll have an online presence in no time.
Outlined below are six tips to help drive online traffic to your agency.
Note: If you want to test how optimised your website is for search engine dominance, get your free SEO Audit..
Identify any immediate issues
Be aware that not all web designers understand the basics of SEO. A few mistakes during development could prevent you from appearing in search engines.
Here are a few of the big ones:
You have no www (or non-www) redirect in place
When people search for a web address in Google, they type one of two things;
www.yoursite.com.au or yoursite.com.au - It’s important that each version redirects to the other, so that a potential customer can always find you online.
But importantly for SEO we want all traffic going to the one version to ensure we’re building optimal authority in your website domain.
Type both versions into the search bar. If your site comes up at both urls, Google thinks they are two separate pages, diluting your online authority and harming your search performance.
You have too many or too few pages indexed by Google
Check how many pages of your site are indexed by Google by typing ‘site:www.yoursite.com.au’ into the search bar. If you get only 8 results you don’t have enough pages indexed, and people will not take your site seriously.
If you have over 300 results, there could be a url structure issue. Google may be indexing different versions of each page on your site, again diluting your authority and affecting your search performance.
You have dodgy sites linking to yours
Nothing says ‘dodgy’ like multiple links from questionable sites. The travel agency is more susceptible to this simply because travel is such a popular subject with users.
To check if your site has a poor inbound link profile, use Moz’s Open Site Explorer tool.
After entering your site’s url, you will receive a rating under MozRank and MozTrust. If either are below 4, you may have an issue.
* If you’re looking for more indicators that you may have some issues then check out ‘DIY: The 3 Minute SEO Audit’.
Make sure your site is responsive
More and more people are using their smartphones to browse online, so it’s important to understand how your site performs on mobile devices.
If a potential customer has trouble browsing your site on their phone, you cannot rely on the fact that they will try again later on their desktop. According to Google, a user is highly unlikely to return to a site if it doesn’t work on their mobile device, and as a result, Google’s search engine prefers responsive websites.
Test your site using our responsive design testing tool (link)
* If you’re looking for more reasons you need a responsive website then check out ‘Why You Need A Responsive Website’.
Make sure your site is FAST
Did you know that 50% of users expect a site to load within two seconds, and will abandon it if it hasn’t loaded in three?
Google knows this, and if visitors leave your site because it is slow, their search engines will favour a faster site.
A slow site will not only affect your SEO results, it will also annoy your visitors, who may equate a slow site with bad service.
Implement Schema Markup
A few years ago, the key search engines agreed to implement a markup language called Schema. This shared language improves their ability to understand your site’s pages, so it’s important to implement it on your own website.
In some instances, Google will display rich snippets in their search results; extra links from your site, such as bio pics, event details and reviews, providing users with a better understanding of your business.
There are a number of Schema markups that a travel agency can use including:
- Person: Implement the markup language for your staff if you’re profiling them on your website.
- Local Business: Whether you have one or more office locations, implement the business contact info with Schema.
- Reviews: If you’re accumulating reviews on your website (and you should) make sure they’re marked-up with Schema.
Start producing content
If you’re not producing regular content, you are way behind the eight ball.
Quality content which is useful to your users is an important part of your SEO strategy. Not everyone jumps online to buy something straight away; we like to spend a bit of time researching first, and if your site provides helpful information, a user is more likely to purchase from you when they are ready.
Useful content is also a great way to keep users on your site, and if they think the content will help others, they will share it on social media, which will help to expand your reach.
When deciding what kind of content you should be producing, it is important to understand how your customers book a holiday; do they Google ‘Melbourne travel agencies’ or ‘holidays in Thailand’ first?
Understand your analytics
This is perhaps the most under-utilised SEO tactic among SMEs and I’m yet to deal with anyone in the travel industry who gives their analytics the attention it deserves.
Google wants to provide users with the best possible search result in the fastest time possible.
Your site’s analytics tell you how your visitors find you, which pages they browse, and how long they spend on each page.
Interpreting this information will help you understand what your users want. If you can provide this, they will spend a decent amount of time on your site and you will rank higher in Google search results.
So what are some of the things you should look for?
- Identify your most popular content and check if it has a high bounce rate. If it does, restructure it to encourage users to click elsewhere on the site. This can be done by providing links to your other pages.
- Check if mobile visitors browse your site differently to those using a desktop. Are there pages that mobile users leave quickly? Consider simplifying these pages to make it easier for these people to find what they want.
- Check page speed suggestions to understand which pages are loading too slow. Google Analytics will even show you what can be done to improve the speed of your site.
Conclusion
It is important to understand what your visitors want from their online experience and deliver it to them in the most efficient manner possible.
Do this and you will increase your chances of performing well in search engines.