SEO for Travel Marketing: The True Value of Organic Rankings

Search engines return results through two methods: paid searches and organic searches. AdWords are search terms that companies can pay to associate with Google search results (whether it’s relevant or not). For a price based on the number of click-throughs, the company’s web site will appear in one of the “Sponsored Links” columns — either at the top of the page, or in the right column. Paid searches can generate traffic and even help new sites build credibility, but are often overlooked by users or considered unreliable.

Organic searches (results generated from user-defined search terms) get a much higher click-through rate and are perceived to be more authoritative than paid links. People trust organic results and will use them. It’s worth the effort to optimize your site to benefit from organic search capabilities.

Clearly, developing a successful and attractive travel website for today’s sophisticated Internet marketplace requires more than a flashy interface or a repurposing of resort collateral. It requires an understanding of what consumers are searching for and how you can leverage Internet search technology to maximize site traffic. The effectiveness of your site hinges on the strategies and decisions you make right from the beginning.

Try this simple search testWhen you search for “saratoga family friendly accommodations,” Google wants to make sure that you get what you’re looking for, so the search engine carefully screens sites for content that matches your keywords. Unfortunately, the resorts aren’t doing their part to facilitate successful searches. On the first page of results from this sample search, only two in ten listings is for an actual resort or hotel web site. The other eight are DMOs, aggregators and repackagers who make my search more difficult and commodify the resorts competing for my business.