AN INTRODUCTION to
Search Engine Op8misa8on (SEO)For Travel Agents
By Steve Rushton : Co Founder
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Table of Contents
..................................................................................................................................Introduc8on 3
..............................................................................................Why Keywords Are Your Founda8on 5....................................................................................................................................................Primary Selection of Keywords 6
.............................................................................................................................................................Prioritisation of Keywords 6.................................................................................................................Generating the Initial Keyword Opportunity List 6
.........................................................................................................................Choosing Relevant Keyword Terms/Phrases 9........................................................................................................................................Assessing Keyword Competitiveness 9................................................................................................................................What You Need to Beat the Competition 10
.............................................................................................................................................................................................Relevance 11..........................................................................................................................................Additional Prioritization Variables 11
..........................................................................................................II. Mastering On‐Page SEO 13...........................................................................................................................Why On‐Page SEO is Typically Overlooked 13
.......................................................................................................................................On‐Page Optimization: The Old Way 14.....................................................................................................................................Obligatory Reference to the Long Tail 15
........................................................................................................................................................................Overlooking the Tail 15.....................................................................................................................................................................How Long Is the Tail? 17
.....................................................................................................................................On‐Page Optimization: The New Way 17....................................................................................................How Do You Find Those Related Keywords to Target? 18
...............................................................................................................................................................................Closing the Loop 18
..........................................................................................................III. Link Building Strategies 20............................................................................................................................................The Role of Inbound Links in SEO 20
.........................................................................................................Link Building with Head Terms vs. Long Tail Terms 20........................................................................................................................................................................................Head Terms 21
..............................................................................................................................................................Mid and Long Tail Terms 21.................................................................................................................................................................Tools for Link Research 21
...................................................................................................................................The Spectrum of Link Building Tactics 23.....................................................................................................................................................................Manual Link Building 23
...................................................................................................................................Mixture of Manual and Editorial Input 23.......................................................................................................................................................................Completely Editorial 24
.............................................................................................................................................................Link Building Techniques 24...............................................................................................................................................Content is King: Quality Content 24
...........................................................................................................................................................................................Directories 25............................................................................................................................................................................................................PR 25
............................................................................................................................................................................................Giveaways 25...................................................................................................................................................................................Guest Blogging 26
.........................................................................................................................................Use Your Community or Customers 26...............................................................................................................................................................................................Link Bait 26
............................................................................................Blogging on your Net Effect Website 28
.................................................................................Travel Blogs to read and get you started…… 31
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Introduc8on
Search engines have
become a core resource
for the Public to look up
informaJon
and find businesses. Search engines are now a larger source of business referrals than
the Yellow Pages and Thomson Local. Think of what you do outside your business. Do
you search Google, Yahoo or Bing for informaJon or the Yellow Pages?
As a travel agent or travel business you may have in the past used markeJng budgets
on newspaper and magazine adverJsing. While local PR events and offline adverJsing
and markeJng are sJll important you have to understand the behavior of your
potenJal customers to know how to
market to them. With 90% of people now
using the Internet as their primary travel
search tool, there has never been a beTer,
nor more important Jme to get online
effecJvely with your travel business.
The way to get found online is through
search engine op8miza8on (SEO). This
ebook serves as an introducJon and pracJcal guide to improve your SEO.
You can expect to gain a stronger understanding in all aspects of the SEO process.
SEO tacJcs include idenJfying keyword opportuniJes, acJng on those opportuniJes,
and conJnuing to improve your results over Jme.
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Net Effect know small tour operators who spend £10,000 + a month on SEO, so as
agents you clearly need to have a defined strategy to compete. Whatever you do liTle
will happen over night and its best not to expect enormous results in the first
commiTed 12 months
Three blog entries a week would be a great start, but MUST include at least two key
words or phases in each blog, with internal links back to your site. eg. A cruise of the
Caribbean is a deligh]ul experience, one which many consider a holiday of a lifeJme
and can be arranged thought “Name” Travel, your local travel agent in
County’ – with a link to a cruise holiday on your website.
Net Effect Travel Agent Websites have ALL been wriTen to be SEO friendly and
addiJonally have SEO keyword/phrase sobware that boosts your SEO built in.
Please see the Net Effect Blog for screencasts on using this SEO boosJng sobware or
contact us directly.
The standard site (www.agentdemo.co.uk) includes a Wordpress Blog and therefore
the ability for agents using this website soluJon to effecJvely follow all the
techniques in this ebook to compete effecJvely online.
Agents who have opted to have their enJre site built and hosted by NET EFFECT will
Have the addiJonal value of having ALL their pages opJmized for SEO and this will
greatly improve their chances of success in the compeJJve online world. The ability
to add landing pages opJmized for SEO has been proven to be a winning formula to
rank highly in search results.
This ebook will help you take ac#onable steps to aTract more high quality traffic from
search engines. We encourage you to apply these strategies to your own company
website.
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Why Keywords Are Your Founda8on
90% of travel research starts online – FACT. To do this, users type keywords into
sites like Google, YouTube or Bing. The engines then rank sites related to these
keywords based on relevance and authority.
Choosing the right keywords is o[en the difference between ge\ng found in search
and not ge\ng found. As a result, keyword research is the foundaJon of an effecJve
online markeJng strategy.
There are several variables that impact keyword selecJon. These variables can be
divided into two groupings ‐ primary selecJon variables and prioriJsaJon variables.
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Primary Selec8on of Keywords
It is important to understand what aspects of keywords make them important to your
travel business. The different variables or characterisJcs of a keyword help determine
whether the keywords are worth consideraJon in your SEO strategy. Only if keywords
pass the primary selecJon tests can they be subjected to the prioriJzaJon variable
tests. ConsideraJons for primary keyword selecJon are:
• Ensuring keyword terms/phrases have sufficient search volumes
• Ensuring the chosen keyword terms are relevant • Assessing levels of rela#ve compeJJon
If a search term doesn’t saJsfy the criterion of sufficient volume, then it is removed
from the list. Likewise, if it does not saJsfy the relevancy criterion, it should not be
considered.
Priori8sa8on of Keywords
Two things to consider when prioriJsing keywords are:
• CompeJJve advantage for your holidays/holiday/travel services
• Profitability of the services you provide associated with the keywords
Prior to entering the vejng process, a Keyword Opportunity List should be
generated.
Genera8ng the Ini8al Keyword Opportunity List
The first phase of creaJng the iniJal Keyword Opportunity List involves brainstorming
as many keyword ideas as possible.
a. LisJng brands and product/service names (e.g. travel agent, Caribbean
cruises, villas in Greece, kids clubs etc..)
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b. Brainstorming variaJons of product and brand related keywords
c. Talking to clients to determine what terms they use in search
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d. Studying compeJtors’ sites (agents and Operators)
e. Adding geographic variaJons (e.g. Clapham Travel Agents, Hampshire
Travel Agents)
f. Adding descripJve variaJons (e.g. Cruise expert travel agent)
g. Taking all the variaJons and entering them into the Google AdWords
Keyword Tool, which will suggest numerous other variaJons.
A successful Travel Blogger – Nomadic MaT, who
now makes his living out of Travel Blogging has this
to say…..
What do you think makes a great travel blogger
Good wri#ng and useful content, combined with a lot of hard work, dedica#on, and
persistence.
What's the cardinal sin of travel blogging?
Talking about yourself all the #me. The stories aren't for you, they are for your readers
– give them content that engages them and relates to them.
What advice would you give to someone who’s a bit shy about wri8ng about their
experiences?
Write about #ps and tricks that can be useful to everyone and then you can build an
audience, but don’t talk about yourself constantly.
What aspects of travel do you like wri8ng about the most?
I like wri#ng about the experience of the road. I don't like wri#ng about des#na#ons
so much as I enjoy discussing the ups, downs, and experience of day‐to‐day life on the
road like mee#ng people, romance, adjus#ng to new places, and learning new
languages.
Where’s good to look for blogging inspira8on?
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I get inspira#on from every conversa#on I have about travel and every place I go.
I look unique places to write about it, topics about life on the road, and photos.
I get inspira#on and I write them down. I recently got a good idea talking to a friend
about going back to places.
The key element is keeping content fresh. With Google now indexing social media
sites this also means incorporaJng your Social Media TwiTer and Facebook into your
online markeJng acJviJes.
We have included a list at the end of this paper of Travel Blogs that you might like to
follow to gain inspiraJon.
Choosing Relevant Keyword Terms/Phrases
Once all keyword possibiliJes with sufficient search volumes are selected,
keywords must then be filtered for relevancy. You don’t just want to pull in
traffic; you want to ensure that your traffic is of high quality. Quality traffic
helps you convert your visitors into customers at a higher rate.
Assessing Keyword Compe88veness
People have a tendency to emphasize traffic over relevance. You need to make
sure the search terms you’re targeJng have sufficient traffic, but oben you don’t
want them to have too much either. More traffic usually correlates with high
compeJJon (as depicted by the bars in the screen shot above).
When picking keywords to target, you clearly need to choose your baTles wisely. So
how do you do that?
There are several free tools for assessing keyword compeJJveness. One example
is the SEO Chat Keyword Difficulty Check Tool. The higher the score the keyword gets,
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the more compeJJve the term, and the more difficult it is to rank for. Generally
speaking, terms with a difficulty score over 60 will require much more than just on‐
page opJmizaJon if you want to rank on the first page of search results.
What You Need to Beat the Compe88on
Aber picking your arena, you need to figure out how to beat the compeJJon in that
arena. The way to do this is for your site to gain authority and relevance forthose
terms.
Authority
Authority is assessed by understanding the link profile of your site versus those other
sites ranking for the keywords you are targeJng. External links from other sites are
the single most powerful ranking tool amongst the major search engines of today. The
three most important elements of these linking factors are:
• Number of links to a website (more is beTer)
• Number of links to the specific page one hopes will rank for the term in
quesJon (again, more is typically beTer than less)
• The anchor text of links to the specific page (see the upcoming link building
chapter for more on this)
Links are the biggest factor in gaining authority and search engine rankings
As a rule of thumb, one’s site could compete for rankings (in the short term) with
other sites with similar link profiles. Tackling sites with more powerful link profiles
requires Jme and dedicaJon. The bigger the gap, the more Jme, effort and budget is
needed. When a large gap exists between two compeJng sites in the number of
inbound links, it is very difficult for the site with less links to make‐up ground and
compete for keyword opportuniJes.
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Relevance
Relevance, on the other hand, means looking to see if the other sites are specifically
trying to rank for the term(s) in quesJon. On‐page relevancy can be quickly assessed
by looking at simple elements.
• Keyword match in the Jtle of a page
• Keyword match in a site's internal navigaJon
• Keyword match in the domain name
By considering both authority and relevancy, it’s a relaJvely simple process to
determine opportuniJes. If rankings for a given keyword term are dominated by
much more powerful sites obviously targeJng the term with their on‐page factors,
then it’s likely best to look for another keyword opportunity. If, on the other hand,
those same sites are powerful yet aren’t specifically targeJng the term
(or visa versa), then potenJal does exist.
At the end of this process, you should have a list of keywords that have been veTed.
Now, it becomes a process of prioriJzing all the remaining keywords. While the same
primary assessment variables can sJll be uJlised to determine prioriJes, secondary
assessment variables now can also be considered.
Addi8onal Priori8za8on Variables
1. Compe88ve advantage – Does your Travel Agency have a disJnct compeJJve
advantage (in terms of price, advice, experJse) that can be leveraged to increase the
likelihood of sales?
2. Ability to scale or fulfill – Is inventory or ability to fulfill limited (i.e. limited villa
holidays in the summer months)? If so, other products and services with more
potenJal might be a beTer priority.
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3. Profitability – How profitable is a product or service? More profitable items are
oben more desirable to promote.
4. Life8me value of item client – If the sale of a given holiday is made, the current
value of the holiday is not the only consideraJon. One should also take into account
the average lifeJme value of the client of the holiday in quesJon.
Oben, the keyword terms with relaJvely high search volumes and low compeJJon
are the best opportuniJes. Of course, relevance must be factored into this equaJon
as well.
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II. Mastering On‐Page SEO
Why On‐Page SEO is Typically Overlooked
On‐page opJmizaJon is a criJcal but oben overlooked aspect of SEO. The problem
with doing only on‐page opJmisaJon is that there is a glass ceiling to it. Search
engines rank websites according to their authority and relevance to the search terms
as well as their authority on the web.
SEO FOR TRAVEL AGENTS – NET EFFECT, ONLINE TRAVEL SOLUTIONS
All Net Effect
Sites are hosted
on .co.uk veriaied
domains and
written in Google
friendly
‘Wordpress’
Key Elements for your Blogging
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On‐page opJmizaJon creates relevance, while building inbound links generates
authority.
Even though off‐page opJmizaJon offers more SEO benefits, on‐page opJmizaJon
is really the first step to SEO improvement. Off‐page SEO is about building inbound
links from relevant websites. But how can search engines deem your pages relevant
to your keywords if you have not even made it clear to them what your page is
about?
On‐page opJmizaJon is basically about two things:• Picking the best keywords around which to base each of your pages
• Making it as clear as possible to search engines that your page is relevant to
those keywords
On‐Page Op8miza8on: The Old Way
When I first got into SEO, many people
took a fairly mechanical approach to on‐
page opJmizaJon because it was what
worked back then.
Hundreds of tools liTered the web that allowed you to measure the keyword density
of a page. Some of them taught that more was beTer. As a result, webmasters would
crank out keyword‐stuffed text that was not interesJng and was brutal to read.
How did you opJmize your page content back then? Stuff your keywords everywhere:
• The URL
• The page Jtle
• The meta descripJon tag
• The on‐page H1 heading
• Aggressively throughout the page content
Web copy on SEO’ed sites was dense, and it looked the part to end‐users!
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In 2003, Google responded to this rise in user‐unfriendliness. Google got much beTer
at looking at what it considered natural language usage paTerns. At that point, old
“opJmizaJon” strategies ended up gejng pages filtered out of the search results for
some of the keywords they were targeJng.
Worse yet, when some people were making their copy more keyword dense, they
would strip out important keyword variaJons, so the page wouldn’t rank as well for
the related supporJng keywords.
Obligatory Reference to the Long Tail
Chris Anderson wrote a popular book enJtled The Long Tail: Why the Future of
Business is Selling Less of More. The long tail describes how many marketplaces work
in terms of staJsJcal distribuJon.
In the previous chapter, we looked at keyword
opportuniJes. The Long Tail is another way of
looking at keyword compeJJveness.
There are a few keywords with high search
volume and traffic. At the same Jme, these are
the more compeJJve keywords that are hard to
rank for. Fortunately, there is a whole ocean of
barely explored long tail keywords that have liTle
traffic but for which you have a beTer chance of
ranking.
Overlooking the Tail
When deciding which keywords to target, many webmasters focus on the big money/
trophy keyword phrases. As menJoned previously, these are the hardest ones to rank
for. Many of these trophy keywords actually seem more important than they are
when you look at the revenues they drive.
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Sure, many people who want SEO services will search terms like ‘search engine
opJmizaJon’ or ‘SEO.’ But many webmasters underesJmate the value of the keyword
tail. For every person searching on a keyword like ‘SEO,’ there are likely
10 or more people searching for less common keywords such as:
• How do I rank beTer in Google? • Improve Google placement
• Rank beTer in search engines
• Search engine ranking
These are oben not the words that industry insiders use to describe their own
business. But keywords are not about them – they are the words that their customers
type into search engines.
Most search terms have many variaJons. If you are only focused on the most well
known version, then you are up against the sJffest compeJJon (as the most popular
keywords are typically the most compeJJve) while you are leaving money on the tail
(by neglecJng other keywords).
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How Long Is the Tail?
Describing the mechanism of how the market works is nowhere near as powerful as
raw numbers. In 2007, Google’s Udi Manber stated that only 20% to 25% of the
search queries Google sees each day are unique.
On‐Page Op8miza8on: The New Way
Rather than repeaJng the same word over and over again, you should use a
diverse set of related keywords to help you rank for a variety of long tail keywords.
Most long tail keywords end up being variaJons of the core keywords along
with a common keyword modifier.
Rather than making a repeJJve page Jtle which is like…
Caribbean Cruises, Caribbean Cruises Jps, Caribbean Cruises holiday
…you can use a page Jtle that includes variaJon in it, like…
Caribbean Cruises holiday: Tips on How to book a Caribbean Cruise
Just like you would use relevant modifiers in the page Jtle, you also want to work
in relevant keyword modifiers and alternate forms throughout the page text. This
is one area where keyword density analysis tools can be helpful. You may also
want to find common related keywords in compeJng pages that you may have
forgoTen to target. Including such keywords once or twice on your page is sufficient.
The key is to make it sound natural while covering a variety of keyword opJons.
One of the ways to write naturally is to ignore the concept of SEO unJl aber you
have the first drab version of your page. From there, you can go back into the
page, add some variaJon and cover addiJonal keyword ideas.
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Four common points of variaJon are:
• Singular vs. plural
• Alternate word order
• Synonyms and acronyms
• Keyword modifiers
How Do You Find Those Related Keywords to Target?
VariaJon is good, but where do I start? TradiJonal keyword research tools should
help you, but it also turns out that the search results themselves are a ferJle ground.
• When you begin to type a keyword into a Google search box on the Google
homepage, Google will try to auto‐complete your search query. • They use aggregate search volume to power this, which tells you two things
about the keywords they are recommending: o Those are keywords other people searched for in the past,
o Those are the keywords Google is recommending new searchers to
search for, helping to drive traffic to them
• When you look at the top ranked lisJngs in the search results, many of those
websites will also include related keyword modifiers in their page Jtles. Clicking
through to some of the beTer pages will also show you related keywords and
concepts they are targeJng in their page copy.
• Almost all major search engines offer a related searches feature on their search
results pages. Look through those for addiJonal keyword ideas.
Closing the Loop
The above process is driven from aggregate user data. However, one of the most
important lessons in SEO is that no data source is as useful as your own web
analy8cs.
Make sure you are tracking traffic and conversion data from day one. Net Effect have
installed the latest SEO soPware for your Blogs and websites and set up Google
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Analy#cs for you. Through your analyJcs data, you will uncover many ranking
‘accidents’ or alternate keyword ideas you may not have thought to target. If you are
doing parJcularly well in a certain area, consider making more pages targeJng related
variaJons of those keywords.
Since conversion and user experience are also important, make sure your content
is easy to read. Use generous formajng to break up the content with:
• Short paragraphs
• Bulleted or numbered lists (where relevant)
• Relevant headers and sub‐headers throughout (to make scanning easier)
• Conversion‐focused links within the content area of the page
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III. Link Building Strategies
The Role of Inbound Links in SEO
While on‐page opJmizaJon is a good first step, you will ulJmately get much more
leverage by having links from other sites to yours. Inbound links used to just be a
source of referral traffic. Now, they influence your search engine rankings as well.
Google was the first search engine to use links as a significant ranking factor. They
viewed a link from one site to another as a ‘vote’ for the target site. The more votes
you have, the more authoritaJve your site is considered.
Specifically, there are two main benefits gained through each link:
1. BeTer SEO authority of the linked‐to page and increase in authority of
the site as a whole
2. More relevancy of the page for the keywords that are used in the link’s
anchor text
Anchor text is the clickable text of a link. To give an example, let’s say a page was
linked to in the following ways:
“ Angela’s Travel Agency”
“Caribbean Cruises from Angela’s Travel Agency”
The second link (oben referred to as an ‘anchor text rich’ or an ‘anchor text
specific’ link) is more likely to help Angela’s Agency rank for the keyword
phrase ‘caribbean cruises.’
Link Building with Head Terms vs. Long Tail Terms
In the previous secJon, you learned how to idenJfy the search terms that your site
would benefit from targeJng. Slightly different link building tacJcs may be required,
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depending on the compeJJveness of a keyword.
Head Terms
Ranking for highly compeJJve head terms typically requires a
more diverse
source of links poinJng to the appropriate page that targets the
term. The
links will need to use the corresponding keyword as the anchor
text as oben
as possible.
Mid and Long Tail Terms
Pages that target less compeJJve mid‐to‐long tail terms don’t typically require as
many external links. Instead, sites can rank for these terms by gaining authority
through strong, trusted links, oben to the front page of the site. Solid informaJon
architecture and good on‐page keyword targeJng will then provide the relevancy
signals needed to rank for these terms.
Most of the link building tacJcs discussed later in this chapter can be used either to
target specific head terms or simply to build the authority of the site, depending on
your specific needs.
Tools for Link Research
It’s oben useful to know about the links your site currently has. This informaJon can
help you make decisions regarding whether to aim for more links that will build site
authority or to focus on deep links with specific anchor text.
Researching your compeJtors’ links can also be valuable, parJcularly in idenJfying
link opportuniJes or niches that could also be useful to your link building campaign.
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Look for the links that compeJtors such as online travel agents and tour operators
use.
Open Site Explorer ‐ hRp://www.opensiteexplorer.org/
This tool provides informaJon about the top 1,000 links to a site. These can be
filtered to exclude links that do not pass value. AddiJonal informaJon about each link
includes the anchor text used and the authority of each linking page.
The Open Site Explorer tool also includes reports that showcase the most popular
pages on the site, the most common anchor text used to link to a page or site and
other informaJon about the strength of the page.
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The Spectrum of Link Building Tac8cs
Before looking at some parJcular link building tacJcs, it’s worth considering how
creaJng each link can require a different mix of input from the link builder and from
the editor of the linking site. Different link building tacJcs require a different mix of
manual input on the part of the link builder and editorial decisions on the part of
the site from which the link is gained. Link building tacJcs can be divided into those
that are:
• Completely manual
• A combinaJon of manual input and editorial decisions • Completely editorial
Manual Link Building
At the top of this spectrum are tacJcs that require input from no one but the link
builder. These could include leaving links in the ‘comments’ secJon of other sites,
adding links to social networking profiles or submijng a site to online
directories that accept every submission.
Clearly, these can be easy ways to increase the number of links to a site. Since these
links are so easy to obtain, they offer liTle to no value.
Mixture of Manual and Editorial Input
The center of this spectrum is where a lot of link building Jme and effort can (and
typically does) get spent. In many cases, it involves building relaJonships with sites
and individuals who may link to you, or contacJng site editors to tell them about
parJcular content your site has and encouraging them to link to it.
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Completely Editorial
The boTom of this spectrum covers situaJons where a link was given unprompted.
When a site has parJcularly high‐quality content or provides useful or unique
resources on a parJcular topic, people are more likely to link to it without needing to
be asked or invited.
Link Building Techniques
Now that you know why link building is important and understand its different types,
let’s look at some specific tacJcs that have been proven successful. This is by no
means an exhausJve list of techniques that are used, but it should help you get
started on building links to your site and hopefully inspire you to think of ways that
your site can conJnue to aTract links in the future.
Content is King: Quality Content
The purest and most fundamental form of link building is to simply create a
compelling reason for people to talk about your website (or business, or
organizaJon), and then let them share it with others by linking to it. Think about your
niche, and idenJfy some sites from which you’d like to aTract links. Then you can
create content that would be relevant to their audience as well as yours. You can
openly state that others should feel free to share your content as long as they link
back to your site.
Examples of quality, viral content that could aTract links include:
• A Travel Agent page explaining how to see the best sights in Venice • A Travel Agent Page that showed clients images from their holidays in certain
desJnaJons
• A Travel Agents ‘Top Travel Tips’ page in response to quesJons from the public
A blog is an ideal place to publish such content. It encourages you to conJnue
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producing quality content and gives incenJves for others to come back to your site
and share your content.
Directories
The technique of submijng to relevant directories has been maligned in recent
years, typically because of the low quality of many directory sites. Search for sites in
your niche or your local area that maintain some kind of directory or recommended
website list. You can begin by looking at professional organizaJons and trusted local
sites or searching online for terms such as ‘furniture repair directory.’ In general, it’s
good to target sites that have a reasonably high Page Rank and don’t contain ‘spam’
lisJngs.
PR
TradiJonal PR pracJJoners and adverJsers will recognize that contacJng publishers
(typically journalists) to ‘pitch’ a story has online parallels – you can contact a website
owner or blogger to introduce them to your organizaJon, your products, or any non‐
commercial content you’ve created. Use search engines to find relevant sites to
contact, or use directories such as Blogged and Blogflux to find blogs in a parJcular
niche. When contacJng people by email, be as genuine as possible and don’t give the
‘hard sell.’ Explain why you chose to contact them (perhaps because they’re very
relevant or have wriTen about or linked to similar content in the past). Invite them to
take a look at your site, or point them to a parJcular page.
Giveaways
CompeJJons and prize draws are specific link building tacJcs that oben work well.
You can give away a substanJal prize on your site and receive links to the compeJJon
page, or you might consider giving smaller prizes to a variety of publishers and lejng
them run compeJJons on their own sites in return for a link back to you.
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Guest Blogging
If you have parJcular experJse or insight in your niche, many sites may be interested
in having you create content for them. They get the benefit of having some useful
content on their site, and you can be credited with one or more links back to your
site. AddiJonal benefits of guest posJng are that you may get exposure to a new
audience, and you may have beTer control over the anchor text used in your links. To
begin guest blogging, try talking directly to other site owners who you know and who
may be interested in having you create content for them. AlternaJvely, you can
search online using specific terms. For example, a telescope manufacturer might
search for opportuniJes using ‘astronomy blog.’
Use Your Community or Customers
The people who already interact with or have purchased from your site may be a
useful
source of links. Perhaps consider the following:
• Ask your exisJng, saJsfied customers to promote you. Email them to invite any
that have a blog or website to help you by reviewing or linking to you. You
might include the HTML code for the link in the email, so they can simply copy‐
and‐paste the snippet into their site.
• Many community sites create badges or buTons for members to place on their
own sites. This allows users to show their allegiance, while also linking back to you.
Link Bait
Defining this term as ‘content designed to aTract links’ makes it sound a lot like
anything else described here. In fact, the term is typically reserved for content that is
also highly shareable. Such content oben reaches success by being shared widely
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27
throughout social media sites first before being linked to by bloggers and other site
owners. Examples could include a clever informaJon visualizaJon, creaJve videos,
useful resources, breaking news, quizzes or amusing cartoons. Link bait doesn’t
necessarily need to be ‘flashy’ as long as it is creaJve: a well wriTen ‘Top 10’ list or a
simple piece of controversial content could get 15 minutes of fame as the web’s
‘hoTest thing’ and get many links from a variety of sources.
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Blogging on your Net Effect Website
The Important thing is to start! Only by experimenJng will you get beTer at wriJng,
beTer at copy, beTer at engaging your customers and beTer at furthering your SEO
efforts. Don’t be afraid and it doesn’t maTer if you don’t get it all done
immediately. You can go back and amend blogs, resubmit for SEO, leave in drab
format ‐ whatever.
For those of you who are new to SEO this paper will need to have been read a
number of Jmes to fully get to grips with it. However, in the meanJme Net Effect
have made life as simple as can be in the CMS to your website.
When you go to post a blog its best to try and write it without and SEO in mind (as
menJoned earlier in this ebook. When you have wriTen the piece and are happy with
it then start to engage in the SEO work.
Below is a blog extract in the CMS. Note that in the top right of the screen you will
see a buTon enJtled ‘Just Write’:
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screen shown in ‘just write’ form
29
Clicking the buTon will give a full screen showing of your blog (its just easier to write
this way). At the end of wriJng your blog you can click:
... and you will get this screen back again
Below the Blog wriJng (above) is a box as shown below. This is for you to start on all your SEO
efforts.
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This is where you can start to amend your blog for SEO purposes. If you focus on the keywords you
are using you will get clear steers from the sobware how you are succeeding with your SEO efforts.
Note ‐ the clever part of this sobware is that you can amend the SEO Title and Meta DescripJon and
see a copy of what you have wriTen and what will be shown in any Google searches. (Snippet
Preview)
Clicking on page analysis (second Tab) will get you a detailed review and give steers such as
‘keyword density’ etc. Try to follow the advice on the page to maximise your SEO chances for your
blog piece.
... and ainally ‘Publish’ your blog.
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Travel Blogs to read and get you started……
Check out the following link:
hTp://www.ytravelblog.com/36‐travel‐blogs‐to‐follow‐and‐the‐benefits/
This lists a number of Travel Blogs and while they may not be the style or exact
content that you would use, they are a good start to see what sort of Travel
Blogs People write.
yTravelblog.com also have over 5000 people following their twiTer stream. Follow
their ‘lists’ to get inspiraJon from Bloggers and Tweeters on things to talk about in
travel
SEO FOR TRAVEL AGENTS – NET EFFECT, ONLINE TRAVEL SOLUTIONS