A presentation on SEO and Content Marketing given to businesses in the travel and tourism sector in June 2014. For more information please visit http://www.quba.co.uk/ or email info@quba.co.uk

1. Travel and Tourism - SEO

2. Session Objectives
- Thinking about SEO in 2014 and how it has changed
- Introduce key areas for focus
- Introduce key areas of opportunity
- Present some ideas for how to operate successfully in a
landscape dominated by resellers and aggregator sites
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4. SEO in 2014

5. Search Engine Algorithms
Still rely on LINKS to your site to assess the QUALITY of your website
Still rely on the WORDS used on your site and linking sites to assess
RELEVANCE
This hasn’t changed and isn’t likely to any time soon.
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6. SEO in 2014
What has changed is that search engines have stepped up their ability to
spot and take action against manipulation taking place to ‘game’ their
algorithms
This makes the requirements for success with SEO much different than 5 or
even 3 years ago ….
Up until 2011 lots of loopholes being used by SEO’s :
- link volume without quality worked
- keywords ‘stuffed’ in anchor text worked
- keywords ‘stuffed’ into page copy worked
- keyword ‘stuffed’ low value pages worked
This activity (or a history of this activity) can now bring penalties
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7. 7
Google Panda Updates
Penalise if your site has lots of duplicate and/or
low value content pages
Result = loss of rankings and traffic/sales
Even if duplicate and low value content is
unintentional you will be penalised.
Panda is indiscriminate.
Action Points:
-Ensure your CMS isn’t causing duplication
-Ensure every page on your site provides user value. If not improve the
content or ditch the page

8. 8
Google Penguin Updates
Penalise if your site has lots of links with the
same keywords terms stuffed into their anchor
text
This was a strategy heavily employed by SEO’s
in the past
Result = loss of rankings and traffic/sales
Action Points:
- Ensure your SEO is not building links stuffed with keyword rich anchor
text
-Ensure you don’t have old links stuffed with keyword anchor text because of
past SEO activity
-Look towards Content Marketing for gaining natural looking links

9. The Rise of Content Marketing

10. 10
Content Marketing
-Kills 3 birds with one stone:
- achieves links and brand mentions – search engines like!
- provides an additional traffic stream
- drives brand awareness
What is it?
The creation and promotion of branded content that is so
useful/helpful/interesting/entertaining/inspirational that people want to tell
others about it!
For best results your promotion needs as much effort as creation

11. 11
Content Marketing for Travel & Tourism
We’d suggest tailoring content to one or more different stages of a
customers trip/holiday...
-planning the trip
provide useful/helpful info on your site
e.g comprehensive things to do guides
-en-route/on holiday
e.g useful emergency and logistical information
e.g up to date local events schedules
-afterwards
keep the conversation going with UGC that inspires others:
e.g photo competitions
e.g ‘stories’
The key is to strive for content that is genuinely
useful/helpful/interesting/entertaining/inspirational or else it

12. 12
Tourism Australia do ‘Planning’ and ‘Afterwards’ content really
well……
Content for planning a trip:

13. 13
Content for :afterwards
Share user submitted photos…..

14. The Rise of Mobile Search

15. 15
Mobile Search
“I wouldn’t be surprised if mobile searches exceeded desktop
search queries this year”
Matt Cutts, Google, March 2014
Mobile search is being driven by the
increase in smartphones and tablets
for internet usage….

16. 16
Three key drivers:
-Global penetration of mobile devices is increasing year-on-year.
-People are using mobile devices at home in conjunction with offline
media like television and print
- People are using mobile devices to find local information (businesses,
offers, opening times etc etc).
Action Point:
-You should use analytics to understand how big your mobile audience is
and how fast it’s growing

17. 17
Study by Google, published Nov 2013
http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/research-studies/mobile-path-to-purchase-5-key-findi
Action Point:
- ensure your site provides a good user experience on mobile devices
Action Point:
- ensure you rank well in mobile search results. Search engine results are
different on mobile to desktop.

18. 18
Google have stated that they are starting to eliminate pages from their
mobile search results if the user experience on a mobile device is poor
Action Points:
- eliminate any slow load time of your pages on mobile devices
- eliminate issues with layout etc that may cause users to return to search
results (bounce)

19. 19
Mobile Search and Location
If your business has local retail presence it’s important to understand that
mobile search results are heavily localised.
This provides opportunity….
Action Points:
- perform searches on what you offer on mobile
devices to understand where local results are
being triggered
- ensure you have Google + Business profile
setup that is optimised for search terms
- ensure you are soliciting Google user reviews

20. Break for Questions

21. How to compete with reseller/aggregator sites
in search engines

22. 22

23. Reseller/ Aggregator Sites
How they operate:
operate on high volume, low margin so have to be at the top of the SERPS
for highest volume search terms in your niche
therefore they invest heavily in SEO to achieve websites that are very
‘strong’ in the eyes of search engines
What this means for you:
unless your budgets can compete your website will be ‘weaker’ in the eyes
of search engines and might struggle to rank on page 1 for the big volume,
competitive search terms
What to do? …………….
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24. Diagnose “head against a brick wall” syndrome
Lost count of how many times I’ve seen the following…
- website is optimised for big volume search terms
- website ranks on page 2 or 3 and has little traffic/sales
- SEO is told to “do better”
- SEO continues to plug away
- website continues to have little traffic/sales
- SEO is replaced
- rinse and repeat
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25. 25
no matter how much you’re insisting on it…
your website may not be ranking on page 1 for the terms being targeted
because it’s not ‘strong’ enough compared to the big players

26. Theoretically search engines assign a ‘strength’ score to each website
and determine the order of rankings by comparing the ‘strength’
scores
‘Strength’ is determined by how many links point to your website and
how ‘authoritative’ linking sites are.
Big SEO budgets are focussed on achieving lots of strong links.
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27. Re-focus on achievable
Action Points:
- make it your business to know which search terms are being targeted on
your website
- have your SEO ensure that page 1 position is achievable for those terms
A number of third parties provide ‘strength’ scores:
- Moz.com
- Majestic SEO
Where necessary achieve page 1 rankings for lower volume, lower
competition search terms SOME TRAFFIC IS BETTER THAN NO
TRAFFIC
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28. Don’t be afraid of ‘Long Tails’
When you start using ‘strength’ scoring you’re might see that only the lower
volume 3, 4, or 5 word search terms are ACHIEVEABLE
LONG TAIL = search term that is really descriptive and specific, 3 words or
more
A person using a long tail search is likely to have already done the majority
of their research, is refining their research and be closer to making a
decision
Long tails mean better conversion rate despite lower search
volume
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29. An example:
You offer a range of holidays in Turkey. The holidays are suited to
families and focussed around adventurous activities such as
kayaking, turtle spotting and trekking.
You’ve been targeting the terms “holidays turkey” and “turkey
holidays” for over a year but are on page 2 of the SERPS with
resellers and aggregators dominating page 1.
How about you consider optimising for:
“family adventure holidays turkey”
“turtle spotting holidays turkey”
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30. Employ Reviews
If you were looking for London Bus Tour which one of these listings would
draw your eye?
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31. Review rich snippets require:
- independent review site to be capturing reviews of your company
and/or to capture product reviews on your site
- special code used on your pages to make the review scores
available to Google
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32. Be a barnacle where possible
“Attaching oneself to a large fixed object and waiting for the nutrients to float
by in the current.”
Barnacle SEO:
to ensure that your product features on reseller and aggregator sites that
have better visibility than your website for high volume search terms
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33. e.g. you offer motorcycle tours across Europe but don’t have a strong
enough site to achieve page 1 visibility for “motorcycle tours europe”
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34. Any Questions?