Knowing where to focus your marketing time and budget has always been a challenge, and in 2023 it’s as crucial as ever that you focus your efforts in the most effective places.
To help guide you on where that should be, we’ve pulled together a variety of travel companies who excelled in different areas of their marketing in the past few years, which you can learn from (and copy!) in 2023. Some of these are big brands with massive budgets, others are small independent companies that have used small budgets in a very effective way.
The idea with this isn’t to provide an exhaustive analysis of each site, rather give you a lot of different ideas for how you can improve your digital marketing for a travel agency this year with some concrete examples of sites doing it well. Even with the brands carrying out big-budget campaigns, there are ideas and lessons at the heart of them that can be executed even at smaller budget levels to bring you strong performance improvements.
We hope you find it useful!
SNAPTRIP
Snaptrip have done a fantastic job of using infographics to gain coverage and links on top-tier websites that has rocketed their SEO progress forwards.
Clever research projects like their piece around UK filming locations has led to coverage on Lonely Planet and the Manchester Evening News, whilst their interactive map of Michelin star restaurants gained coverage in lots of regional publications.
Coupled with a clever approach to getting links on university websites through alumni links, this has led to some fantastic growth in both traffic and the site’s link profile.
Areas for Improvement:
SnapTrip is a huge site and they have a lot of pages that are very thin on content like this and this, and the only content that is on there is duplicated testimonials. These pages may bring some visits into the site, but as part of the wider picture it is likely the volume of them will be harming the overall site’s performance and rankings for phrases with more search volume.
THE SAVVY BACKPACKER
The Savvy Backpacker redesigned their travel blog cum advice site in 2017 and have seen fantastic growth since they did so. They clearly did a good job of getting the technical factors right, such as moving to https and getting good page load speed times.
They’ve also improved their link profile significantly, gaining links from top sites like The Culture Trip, Insider and Cheat Sheet. Many of these links look to have come as a result of having great resource content that already ranks well rather than TSB actively pursuing them (I assume), highlighting the value in spending time creating great informational content on your site.
Bravo!
Areas for Improvement:
There are some small things that will help TSB make some incremental gains, such as improving indexation so stray pages like this duplicate homepage don’t exist, category pages like this aren’t indexed, as well as media pages like this. That, combined with more great content, will help the site continue to flourish!
LOVE HOLIDAYS
Love Holidays were ranked the second fastest growing company in the UK last year so it’s no surprise they have their digital marketing ducks in a row.
Much of their growth seems to have come from better awareness of the brand, with 16% of search visits coming from branded phrases. This will have come through PPC advertising, as well as other offline activity they have run. The Google Trends graph for Love Holidays shows the increase clearly below when comparing year-on-year:
This has also fuelled a growth in websites linking to them, which has a cumulative effect of driving forward the site’s SEO performance.
Another interesting addition is that the monarch.co.uk website is now redirecting to Love Holidays after they went bust last year, which will have transferred a lot of SEO value and no doubt was a costly acquisition. If done right this approach in digital marketing for travel agents can work well, but you need to ensure all the technical elements are handled correctly.
Areas for Improvement:
At the moment the Love Holidays site is in pretty good shape, which is no surprise given their significant growth, so more of the same is the message for them. If they want to keep progressing and compete with the biggest high street names then more links through a variety of approaches will help do that, alongside well researched, tactical content production.
FLIGHT NETWORK
Flight Network have focused on creating epic content that they can use to attract links. They’ve clearly followed the content marketing formula we’ve written about and created something excellent and newsworthy, then reached out to the right people to feature it.
Their 50 Best Beaches project has been featured on CN Traveller and the Metro amongst others, and their top festivals piece has gained lots of links from the festivals featured that has clearly come from good outreach.
Areas for Improvement:
Flight Network need to work on their reputation management, as the second result in Google after their own site for a branded search is an extremely negative review which will undoubtedly impact conversions.
They also have some indexation issues, with low quality pages in Google’s index and some thin pages that are probably doing more harm than good.
SCOTT’S CHEAP FLIGHTS
In the digital marketing world, there is a saying ‘the money is in the list’. No-one shows this off more than Scott’s Cheap Flights which has more than 500,000 subscribers to their list of cheap flight deals.
The secret here is as simple as giving away something people find valuable in return for their email address, and then delivering on that promise once people have signed up (not just spamming them with your deals and company updates).
With so much money being spent on Google Adwords and Facebook Ads in particular now, ensuring you have some form of email marketing process in place to capture people’s details is more important than ever. If you can engage with users over a longer period then your advertising pennies will go a hell of a lot further.
Areas for Improvement:
They seem pretty comfortable managing their email marketing and have done a great job of building the brand, but there is potential for the site to develop their subscriber generation through better SEO and developing the content on the site. However, if you’re making more than $300,000 per month then maybe you’re not too fussed…
Thanks to Gaps.com for highlighting this example originally.
HOPPA
Hoppa have been using infographics successfully for many years, but it is their Cheap vs Expensive Cities project that has been most successful, gaining coverage on hundreds of sites since it began, including places like the Telegraph for the 2017 version.
It shows that it’s worth taking the time to bring lots of research together as if you create something good enough, it can deliver returns for you year after year (proof for Area Vibes above!).
Areas for Improvement:
Fix some technical issues, like redirecting this page which has 9 linking sites but goes to a 404 page. I would also recommend they make their destination pages more comprehensive ‘hub’ pages, linking through to relevant blog posts in particular to help push those pages forward.
THE BLONDE ABROAD
Kierstan Rich has got social media down to a tee, as well as the content that goes down well on that channel. Of course, it helps that she has an established following, but if you’re searching for examples of the kind of content that people love on platforms like Facebook and Pinterest, look no further.
Kierstan has a wide variety of posts that have been shared more than 1,000 times, including “17 Unforgettable Trips to Take in 2017” and “20 Photos to Inspire You to Visit The Seychelles”. Great imagery is undoubtedly a massive factor in the shareability of the posts, but the content is also always great when you arrive and share buttons are very prominent on the site making it super easy to share.
Areas for Improvement:
Kiersten has some good hub pages for locations like this, but there isn’t much unique text and the targeting of the page isn’t great (in particular the title tag). If these pages had a chunky section of text with more information on visiting Panama for example, and the title was updated to target something like ‘Panama Travel Guide’ or ‘Panama Travel Tips’ then these pages would bring in much more traffic in addition to individual blog posts.
AREA VIBES
Area Vibes have taken a different approach to their content marketing, focusing on people’s enjoyment of negativity and writing lots of articles with a negative angle to gain notoriety and attract links.
Some of their pages like the Worst Places to Live in America have been shared more then 30,000 times, and they have created infographics that have attracted links from sites like Cosmopolitan and Elle with titles like the Most Hated Celebrities on Instagram.
If you’re prepared to run the risk of some negative sentiment in your content then there is a lot of benefit to be had from it!
Areas for Improvement:
Some of the old articles they have created could be updated with a more recent version, like this one on the Cities with the Lowest Crime which hasn’t been updated since 2015. If you create content like this, releasing a version each year is a fairly straightforward way of giving yourself more outreach opportunities.
H/T to Glen at Detailed for highlighting this one originally.
VILLA PLUS
Villa Plus have seen excellent growth over the last year, continuing their growth from 2016. A big part of this has been the growth in their link profile which has come from a variety of approaches that are clearly working well when combined.
One of these is more traditional PR activity which has gained them coverage in top tier publications like the Daily Star from working with celebrities, and the Mirror from doing a study to give them an angle for promotion.
They’ve also run competitions to get coverage on a variety of strong sites and partnered with charities that have also yielded quality links.
In addition to this they’ve also been working with bloggers to get links into their key commercial pages, as well as running campaigns like their Eat Like a Local one which has gained them links on a variety of cookery blogs.
They are an excellent example of how to build a good link profile through a variety of approaches, and the improvement they’ve seen over the last year speaks for itself.
Areas for Improvement:
The destination pages on the site need their content improving as, even though they rank well at present, I wouldn’t expect this performance to be maintained with the amount of content they currently have. They also have pages like this with usability issues that over the longer term will frustrate users and lead to a drop in performance.
SILVER SWAN RECRUITMENT
We started work with Silver Swan at the end of 2016, charged with improving their SEO performance. They were in desperate need of a new website to improve usability as well as addressing a wide range of SEO issues.
According to SEMRush the site’s traffic has more than doubled since then and they are being found through 4 times as many keywords. Some of the key issues that have been fixed include better indexation (lots of thin pages removed), better on-page targeting and introduction of new content to target a wider set of phrases for people at all stages of the buying funnel.
We’re also in the early stages of some content marketing work for them, with the first infographic project already yielding links on big sites like Startup Donut and HR Daily Advisor.
Areas for Improvement:
We need to continue developing the content on the site to target a wider set of phrases, as well as carrying out more content marketing activity to attract more links from high-quality publications.
WANDERLUST
Wanderlust launched a newly designed website towards the end of 2017 and it has reaped some early rewards with a significant spike in traffic in January, ahead of the normal trend of improvement you would expect in travel at that time.
The content on the site has always been excellent, but it’s now presented in a much nicer way and is much easier on the eye.
They also have nice hub pages for locations which feed people into relevant articles and make for a good internal linking structure and improving the site’s topical relevance.
Areas for Improvement:
It’s not too long since the new site launched, so these may be things Wanderlust are already working on, but there are some easy wins available to them which will help them build on their already strong presence:
- Improve title tags on important pages like this
- The URLs of their articles would be better without the /content/ folder. This should use a better researched, more keyword-friendly word, live in the location sub-folder that it is relevant to, or not appear at all. For example, this page, could be:
- The site’s Page Speed scores are currently very poor and need improving before this becomes a ranking factor in July.
MAKE MY TRIP
Make My Trip approach their blog content very cleverly, with great titles and topics that really resonate with people on social media.
One such angle is highlighting people in their content so they have a ready-made platform for promotion – who doesn’t like sharing content they were featured in? This post on Indian women who travel solo amassed more than 13k Likes on Facebook. This one focused on Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan and has nearly 5k shares.
When writing your content make sure you have promotional angles in mind before you start so you know you have a way of getting the things you create in front of enough people. This is one angle, but there are lots of other ways to garner attention.
Areas for Improvement:
The content on the site needs major improvement, as pages like this are never going to set the world alight. They also have some strange issues with duplicate pages like these two hotel pages:
https://www.makemytrip.com/hotels
https://www.makemytrip.com/hotels//
Fixing these kind of technical and content related issues, which are all very much in their control, will have a major effect for a site with such a strong link profile.
EXPEDIA
Expedia are in a privileged position of having lots of fantastic data to work with to create interesting content pieces. But they do a lot with that data, and consistently create content that attracts links from the strongest sites on the web.
Their Discover Mythical Creatures project attracted links from more than 50 domains, whilst their Stay Off Social tool attracted links from places like Travel and Leisure and Time Out.
If you’re looking for content marketing inspiration, Expedia are a great example. Whilst many of their implementations will be too costly for small companies, their angles and ideas can be replicated to get great results on a much smaller budget as we’ve shown before.
Areas for Improvement:
Expedia have had well-publicised issues with their technical SEO on multiple occasions, and this is clearly somewhere that still causes problems. However, if they can stay on top of those gremlins, they will always perform well given the power of the brand.
SANTORINI DAVE
If you’re looking for an example of how to set up a site with great content and strong internal linking look no further.
Santorini Dave has thrown design out of the window and stripped things back to deliver a minimalist look packed with great content.
His hub pages are brim-full of content, as well as providing a gateway to all the other more specific content he has written about each location (of which there is lots).
This is an independent advice site, but commercial travel sites and tour operators could learn a lot about how to structure their destination content from Dave.
Areas for Improvement:
If I were Dave I’d be working on building out his content even more, continuing to create fantastic in-depth resources for well-targeted search phrases. If he does that, and continues to get referenced on more top-tier publications then the site will continue to soar.
HOSTELWORLD
Hostelworld have got their content marketing down to a fine art. With a mix of excellent content built to attract links and separate content to attract traffic, they have a match made in heaven to make progress.
Their Hoscars series constantly delivers (more than 200 linking to this page alone), and once again shows the value in coming up with an idea that has longevity and scope for annual updates.
When combined with the links from this kind of content, their in-depth blog posts also excel, with posts like the Best Nightclubs in the World ranking for more than 300 phrases and bringing a significant amount of traffic to the site.
With a combo like this, it’s no surprise their traffic is flourishing…
Areas for Improvement:
Despite the Hoscars being one of their most successful projects, the HostelWorld folks have somehow managed to forget to redirect the old versions of it which have a large amount of links pointing to them:
https://www.hostelworld.com/hoscars-2014
https://www.hostelworld.com/hoscars-2015
https://www.hostelworld.com/hoscars-2012
You’ll struggle to find an easier win…
TRAVELBIRD
TravelBird is excelling in their content marketing activity, with a variety of projects that have gained coverage on top tier publications.
Their Most Instagrammable Tourist Attractions page has attracted nearly 150 linking domains (and now one more!), whilst their Most Welcoming Cities project has been on more than 130 sites. These are links from the strongest sites on the web, including Lonely Planet, the Guardian and the LA Times.
With coverage like this, it’s no surprise their traffic has exploded:
Areas for Improvement:
Some investigation is needed into the indexed pages on the site, in particular the English version of the site which is hard to navigate to and has mostly blanks pages. If this isn’t being used it should be noindexed.
TUI
TUI have carried out a significant change by moving their domain name from thomson.co.uk to tui.co.uk which is riddled with risk from an SEO perspective.
However, it seems their team have carried it out well and the TUI site is now flourishing and attracted more traffic in January 2018 than the Thomson site in January 2017.
They have also done a great job of structuring the site in a way that is earning a lot of ‘rich snippets’ in the search results, and catapulting the site to the top even if they don’t rank there in normal terms.
Areas for Improvement:
Some of the deals pages on the site don’t feature much unique content, which would help improve their positioning and ability to attract traffic from more phrases. At present some rank very well, but this is likely down to the strength of the domain and is at risk if Google switches the ranking focus slightly towards content.
Page speed could also be improved which I’m sure is something the TUI team is working on ahead of the update in July.
OFFPEAK
The first mention of OffPeak on archive.org is in August 2017. Since then it has attracted links from more than 100 sites, including Lonely Planet, Travel & Leisure and Lifehacker. Not bad for 6 months and a pretty solid example of how to approach things if you’re launching a new site.
This obviously isn’t the same kind of site that every travel company has, but it is an example of how effective side projects can be if you come up with an effective idea. This was something highlighted by Viperchill back in 2016, and remains an excellent way of gaining visibility for your brand through a secondary site. I won’t go into depth on this how to do this here, but you can read a thorough insight on Viperchill if it’s a route you’re interested in pursuing (and it should be).
Areas for Improvement:
Now the site has some great links pointing to it, the destination pages need more content adding to them to compete with the best sites out there for ‘best time to visit…’ phrases.
SUNSHINE
Sunshine.co.uk have seen significant improvement over the past year, primarily down to their link building efforts with double the amount of domains linking to them according to Ahrefs.
This increase has come from a combination of working with bloggers to get links to their commercial pages along with more traditional PR activity promoting the deals they have.
However, they have also redirected the familyholidays.co.uk into their main domain during this period which has added more than 300 linking domains in one feel swoop. You need to take care with this kind of approach, but if done in a natural way it can reap significant benefits.
Areas for Improvement:
Sunshine’s URL structure could undoubtedly be improved, though this would likely be part of a wider restructure with the site. They also don’t have a blog, which would be an obvious addition to get more content on the site that would allow them to rank for more phrases and benefit further from the link building successes they’ve had.
ADVENTURE ALTERNATIVE
We have worked with Adventure Alternative for 6 months and seen fantastic improvements in rankings and traffic during that time, based primarily on technical improvements we’ve made on the site combined with content improvement and gaining some good quality links.
When we started work the site had serious indexation problems, with lots of low quality pages in the index, as well as a host of duplicate and thin content because of how the site was built.
In addition to that, we’ve tweaked the content on key pages and acquired links on quality sites like universities and well-followed travel blogs. They’re a great example of how resolving technical SEO issues can result in fantastic improvement.
Areas for Improvement:
There are still technical issues waiting to be addressed and there is a lot of scope to further develop the content on the site to capture traffic through a wider variety of phrases. We’re also working with AA to develop the link profile further and get coverage on top-tier websites.
Your Turn
As I said at the start of this post, the goal of this post is not to provide an in-depth analysis of anyone featured. It is a collection of examples that I have come across through our work as a digital marketing agency for travel in the industry where we’ve seen people performing particularly well in specific areas.
Hopefully, it has given you some food for thought and ideas for things you can implement to help your own performance in 2023. As I always say when writing posts, emails and sharing on social, if you don’t implement something off the back of tips you read it was pointless reading it!
If you know of any other great examples that would be a good addition to the list please do let me know on Twitter or by email, and if you’ve found the post useful we’d be very grateful if you share it, even if it’s just with one person ;)
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