Link building best practice for Travel Industry

Successful Travel SEO requires a high amount of ‘natural’ (organic), quality inbound links. Inbound links (links from other websites to your own site) are still the most important ranking factor in Google and other major search engines. By analysing inbound links for volume, quality and relevancy, Google distinguishes between otherwise similar travel websites. In simple terms, pages with more inbound links are deemed to be more important, hence increasing your travel site’s popularity. Link quality, authority and relevancy are also important. Link building is the most difficult part of SEO for any industry, not just the travel and leisure market. However as holiday packages, accommodation, flights and transfers are often sold directly to the end user, the travel market tends to be even more competitive in online marketing terms than most other markets. It requires expertise, a lot of experience and even more time to deliver a successful SEO strategy

Below some advice you may want to consider, when trying to get other websites to link to your site.

Good links refer quality traffic too

Don’t just think Google rankings for your most relevant travel search terms. Get links from relevant sites in your travel-, holiday and leisure sector. Target websites, which have a natural synergy with what you do. For example, if you offer ski accommodation, try to get links from local, regional tourist boards, local businesses such as restaurants, rental shops, activity and transfer companies. Try to get links from travel sites offering information on ski domains, weather, piste maps, ski resort reviews etc. If your link building initiative is well executed, you will get quality referral traffic in addition to an increase in popularity and rankings. A win-win-win.

Great travel content helps you get links from other sites

Other websites are more likely to link to you if your site offers great content, free tools, unique features and quality information. Daily update on local weather, activity news, travel reports, webcams, tour reviews etc. will be of interest to other website owners. Naturally, if your website got something unique to offer, other travel site owners will want to provide this to their visitors too.

Brand authority is important

Work on your travel brand authority. You gain brand authority by acquiring links from other websites, using your company / brand name as link text. For example if you have a chalet called Snowflake, get other websites link to your site with link text ‘Chalet Snowflake’ or your URL chaletsnowflake.com . Once you have a higher brand authority than your competitors you will need a small number of keyword-rich anchor text links to rank well. Content syndication and online press releases are a good way to gain brand links. There are many site that need travel PR and news to publish. Spread the word about your holiday company or travel business and get quality links.

Not all inbound links are equal

As a general rule, almost all inbound links have some value, regardless whether they come from other travel sites or not. However it is better to gain a small number of quality links from relevant, local travel websites than a large number of links from non-relevant websites in countries outside your target market. Clearly a link from your local tourist office is more relevant than a link from a car repair shop in an unrelated country. Like with all other SEO activities, it is better to do less more frequently than too much sporadically.

Understand your travel niche

Understand your travel niche and your part in the holiday and leisure sector. You probably won’t get links from the most relevant websites, i.e. your competitors. For example, if you have a hotel, the hotel next door to you won’t link to you. Widen the net! Get links from your suppliers, holiday service providers, travel publishers, travel directories, holiday review sites (trip advisor), travel bloggers, travel forums, leisure industry education and training providers in your niche. They are all highly relevant.

Natural travel link building is key

Choose an organic, long-term link building strategy that you can sustain. Avoid link building peaks and troughs. If you gain too many ‘unnatural’ links from low quality, non-travel sites too quickly, Google will catch up with you eventually. Last year, Google made ~400 changes to their search algorithm. Bad practice link building and spam links will be penalised. It is only a question of time. Your travel business can’t afford to not be visible on Google, so don’t chance it.

Get links from people you know

Get as many inbound links from people and organisations you know. Employees, partners, suppliers, customers, sponsors, family and friends will all link to your website naturally. Get customers to review your travel site or your accommodation and ask them for a link from their personal blog or their social media account.

Trade local travel content for links

Offer quality travel content and reviews to get editorials in return for a link back to your website. Pick the most relevant travel publishers in your niche to maximise inbound link equity. Provide unique content for each editorial to minimise duplicate content penalties.

Make it easy to link to your travel site

Make it easy for other webmasters to link to your travel site. Help your link partners to easily include your link in their websites. Publish and provide html code for your link including URLs and travel related link text.

Don't fall for it

Whatever you do, don’t fall for it. Don’t buy 1000s of travel directory or leisure article submissions at a time. Avoid the latest ‘get travel links quick’ schemes to help promote your accommodation. Don’t buy into ‘special’ offers promising you 1000s of high quality travel links. Don’t expect much from SEO campaigns costing you a few hundred pounds per month.

Successful inbound link building requires expertise, experience and a lot of time.  You either invest a significant share of your own time or you pay an expert to do it for you. Either way, for Travel SEO more than anything else, you pay for what you get.

Thanks for reading to the end. We hope you found this post useful. Get started now and contact us for your free assessment on how we can help you with your travel business, accommodation, transportation or holiday company.