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SEO for Travel Blogs: Improve Rankings & Increase Traffic
February 28, 2024
10 mins
If you’ve landed here, it looks like you’re ready to take your travel blog to the next level. The key to getting more eyes on your site and attracting more readers is all about nailing Search Engine Optimization, or simply put, SEO. It doesn’t matter if you’re just getting started or you’ve been blogging for years. Understanding SEO will never hurt when you pour your efforts into any venture on the World Wide Web.
We’re here to share some easy-to-follow SEO tips, tricks, and strategies that have worked wonders for many successful blogs. Ready to boost your site’s traffic with some proven SEO moves? Keep reading!
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the most relevant marketing tool for making a travel blog show up when people search for things online. Imagine someone planning a trip to Paris and searching for "best cafes in Paris" on Google. If you've written a post about Paris cafes and used SEO strategies, like mentioning "best cafes in Paris" a few times and sharing useful tips, your blog might pop up in their search results.
Travel blog SEO involves:
For a travel blogger, this means writing posts that answer travelers' questions, using phrases they might search for, and sharing your posts on social media to get more people to visit your site. It's like leaving breadcrumbs online that lead back to your blog, so more adventurers can discover your travel tips and stories.
You can either master SEO on your own if you’re curious how to attract more readers, or, if you’re planning to monetize your blog, you can invest into professional SEO services to ensure the outcome you desire.
Either way, Promodo is here to help.
As mentioned before, SEO brings lots of perks for travel blogs, shining a spotlight on your stories so more readers can find you. Here’s how SEO makes a difference:
Here are some proven SEO tips from our extensive experience that are perfect for both new and existing travel blogs, helping to attract more readers in 2024.
… and how you can satisfy their queries.
In other words, find the keywords people use while researching travel-related topics, and think about the ways to provide more valuable information than other resources on the Internet.
SEO keywords for travel blog can be different and they can serve a variety of purposes.
Short-tail keywords are broad and often highly competitive. They include general terms like "travel guide" or "vacation tips." These keywords cast a wide net but face stiff competition from numerous other travel blogs and websites.
Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are more specific and less competitive, making them invaluable for travel bloggers. Phrases such as "best cafes in Paris for breakfast" or "budget travel tips for solo travelers" target readers with precise interests, leading to higher engagement rates.
Local keywords are essential for capturing the attention of travelers interested in specific destinations. Including the names of cities, landmarks, or attractions, like "New York City attractions" or "hiking trails in Colorado," can significantly improve your blog's visibility to those planning visits to these locations.
Incorporating a mix of these keyword types into your blog posts, titles, and meta descriptions is the best strategy. This way you will be able to target specific demographics with the very specific keywords, while also reserving the chance to earn high positions for competitive phrases.
For instance, a blog post titled "10 Budget-Friendly Eateries in Rome" that includes phrases like "cheap meals in Rome" and "affordable dining in Italy" will target budget travelers looking for affordable dining hacks in the Italian capital. Apart from that you can still attract people who searched for “eateries in Rome” and “dining in Italy”. Even if those readers aren’t necessarily looking for money-saving tips, they can still get interested in your other content and stay on your website for some time.
Here are the most popular tools people use for keyword research:
Ahrefs (they also have a free keyword generating tool)
Pro tip:
Remember that people are getting used to voice search, so don’t shy away from incorporating entire sentences like “Where to have cheap lunch in Rome” in your articles.
As a travel blogger, revisiting and optimizing old posts is not just about keeping your content fresh; it's a strategic move to boost your blog's SEO performance and drive more traffic. Over time, the relevance and competitiveness of keywords can shift, and search engine algorithms evolve. What was once a highly visible post might now be buried under newer content, both on your blog and across the web. By updating old posts with current SEO practices, you can breathe new life into them, ensuring they continue to attract and engage readers.
Moreover, optimizing old posts is an opportunity to improve user experience, a crucial factor in SEO rankings. This includes ensuring all links are working and images are properly tagged. You might also consider adding new, high-quality images or embedding videos to make the posts more engaging. Take these steps to make your travel blog more appealing to search engines, and provide more value to your readers, encouraging them to stay longer and explore more of your content.
Start with going through your articles and searching for new keywords that might be relevant to their topics. Include the new keywords in the articles and maybe even update some of the information. For example, add a recently opened place to that list of affordable diners. Update the meta descriptions to include these keywords.
Congratulations, your old posts resurfaced on the search engine result pages.
Featured snippets are those concise, informative blurbs that pop up at the top of Google's search results when you ask a question. They're a quick way to get the answers you're looking for without having to click through to a website. When your travel blog's content lands in one of these coveted spots, it means you can share insights directly on the search results page.
Securing a spot in featured snippets is a game-changer for travel bloggers for a couple of key reasons. Firstly, it boosts your visibility and credibility since Google is highlighting your blog as a go-to source for travel information. Secondly, it grabs the attention of users right away. Since your content is front and center, it's more likely to drive additional organic traffic to your blog.
Landing in featured snippets doesn't always go to the top-ranking pages but to those that Google deems most relevant and well-structured for the searcher's query. Writing compelling answers to the questions people may ask is that 20% effort that brings 80% results.
Technical SEO is a more advanced, but important component of a comprehensive SEO strategy. At its core, technical SEO involves optimizing the infrastructure of your website so that search engines can crawl and index your content more effectively. This includes making sure your site has a logical structure, uses secure connections (HTTPS), and features optimized URLs, titles, and meta descriptions. Additionally, creating a sitemap and utilizing robots.txt files can guide search engines through your site, ensuring that they understand which pages are most important and should be indexed.
Some time ago, Google introduced Core Web Vitals.
Core Web Vitals are a set of specific factors that Google considers important in a webpage's overall user experience. These include loading performance (Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP), interactivity (First Input Delay, or FID), and visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift, or CLS).
For travel bloggers, this means ensuring that your travel stories and photos load quickly, your site is responsive and interacts without delay, and the layout remains stable as the page loads, preventing elements from shifting unexpectedly.
For evaluating the technical performance of your blog, we recommend asking for an audit. Technical part of SEO isn’t easy and fast to learn, and as a newbie, you risk overlooking some critical nuances.
If you’d still like to do it on your own, use our free SEO health checker to help you take into account all the details.
Optimizing your travel blog for mobile is crucial because a growing number of travelers rely on their smartphones for everything from inspiration to navigation. People often plan their trips and look for travel tips on the go, so a mobile-friendly blog ensures that your content is accessible and readable on smaller screens. This can greatly enhance the user experience, leading to longer visit times and more engagement. Also, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-optimized sites in their rankings, which means your travel blog could rank higher in search results, bringing in more traffic and potential revenue.
Now, let’s see if your blog is optimized for mobile devices:
Ensure your blog's design adjusts smoothly to different screen sizes.
We already mentioned it a few times, but it doesn't hurt to remind it once more.
Use large, legible fonts and organize content with clear headings.
Ensure navigation menus are easy to use on a touchscreen.
Optimize images for faster loading without sacrificing quality.
Make buttons and links easy to tap with a finger.
Use HTML5 instead, as Flash isn't supported on most mobile devices.
Regularly check how your blog looks on various smartphones and tablets. Also various browsers.
Use mobile-friendly pop-ups that don't cover the entire screen.
Incorporate local keywords as mobile users often search for location-based content.
By following this checklist, you can make your travel blog friendly for users on mobile devices, ensuring they can enjoy your content wherever their adventures take them.
Effective optimization of your travel blog is key to a successful travel business. By implementing the tips outlined in this article, you can boost your search engine rankings and visibility. Or, for even more impressive results, consider turning to the SEO experts at Promodo. With our experience and expertise, we can help unlock your blog's potential, ensuring it reaches a wider audience and brings profit.
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