10 SEO Tips for Your Tourism Business

Google wants to see website content which demonstrates Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (read about it here). In this post we share 10 SEO tips tourism businesses which might help you write SEO friendly content by focussing on these concepts.

1. Write About Your Own Experiences

Writing about your own experiences is a great way to show that you understand what you’re talking about. Whether you’re an accommodation provider, an attraction, a food & drink business or offer something else, write about your local area from your own perspective.

As the old saying goes, “people buy from people”. This is particularly true of businesses which provide a personal service, such as bed & breakfast accommodation. Bed and breakfast guests are often staying in a home alongside the owners. Guests will often ask for recommendations for restaurants, things to do or places to go nearby. By writing about these things on your website, you’re showing Google that you have experience relevant to providing the service your customers want.

When writing about experiences, try to avoid writing about things which are in direct competition with your own business. For example, it’s probably not a good idea for a restaurant to list their ‘Favourite Places to Eat in Whitby’. Better to focus on experiences which compliment and enhance whatever your own business offers.

Those of us who live and work in tourist destinations should never be short of inspiration. Write about things your customers might be interested in, from your own perspective. Here are some suggestions:

• Favourite walks

• Best beaches

• Most interesting shops

• Top restaurants

And don’t forget that people love “behind the scenes” content too. Consider how you might write about some of these parts of your business in a way which demonstrates your expertise.

2. Include Information About Your Authors

Including information about your authors can help make your content more relevant and helpful. If your tourism business is very small, it might be ovious who’s writing. But if not, consider making this clear at the start and end of a post. You could say something like:

In this article, Jeff discusses his favourite pubs and gives his top tips for the best beer in Whitby.

Then, at the end of the article include an ‘author’ blog, or just sign it with your name. This way, your reader will get a clearer picture of who wrote the article, and Google will too. This helps build trust and it also show your expertise. Consider including a short biography, social links or contact details too. This can help your website visitors get in touch with you easily as a result of your excellent article.

3. Write or Publish Guest Blog Posts

Most small tourism businesses are well connected with others in their local area. Use this to your advantage. Why not invite other businesses to write blog posts for your own website? Again, avoid partnering with businesses who offer the same product or service.

Well written guest blog posts can be helpful for SEO in a number of ways:

• They add to the feeling of authenticity as you’re giving screentime to someone else’s business

• They add value to your visitors, offering them something you might not have thought to write about yourself

• They demonstrate expertise on a particular subject

• They can speak positively about your own business from a different perspesctive and in a way which doesn’t constitute bragging

• They don’t take (you) any time to write!

We’d recommend connecting with a handful of other like-minded businesses and agreeing to write guest posts for each other’s websites. Remember that these should each be unique and not simply copied and pasted from one website to another.

4. Include the Nitty-Gritty Detail

Detail helps show expertise. Include plenty of detail when you’re writing and it will help Google recognise that you truly are an expert. It can be tempting to skimp on the detail and just get straight to the point. Years ago website content could be fairly thin and still rank well. This is increasingly difficult to do. These days a blog post written to generate organic search traffic often needs to be in excess of 2,000 words. This means there’s plenty of room for detail.

If you’re writing about your experience visiting a local restaurant, why not include things like:

• The journey you took to get there and any nearby beauty spots or landmarks worth visiting

• Car parking options nearby

• Your first impressions, the atmosphere and decor of the restaurant

• Your customer service experience

• The food & drink

• Any notable details like locally sourced ingredients

• Your overall impression and recommendations

• How your readers can make a reservation or get in touch with the restaurant themselves

Break your blog posts down into sections like this and it becomes much easier to write lengthier posts. Use headings to break up the text, and images too. And don’t forget to optimise your pages titles for search engines too.

5. Keep to the Facts & Cite Reputable Sources

Google wants to recommend websites which answer its users questions. Although it’s important to include plenty of detail, your writing should also be concise and to the point. Keep to the facts and don’t add unnecessary embelishments. This isn’t to say you can write descriptively – but consider your audience.

Another way of demonstrating your expertise is to cite reputable sources. You can do this by either quoting a source directly within your post, or by linking to another website, or both. By including quotes from other sources you’re backing up your argument. Including relevant links can help your visitors confirm what you’re saying is true.

For example, if you’re writing about an excellent restaurant, why not include links to online reviews or newspaper articles?

6. Publish High Quality Content Consistently

Consistency is important when it comes to SEO. Try to publish high quality content regularly. This will show Google that your website is well maintained. High quality content is content which provides value. Don’t just write for the sake of it.

Publishing consistently is a great way to demonstrate that you’re an authority on a particular topic. This could be a broad topic, like ‘Whitby’, or narrower like ‘Restaurant in Whitby’. It’s well worth taking a bit of time (and perhaps engaging the services of an SEO expert) to determine what you should be aiming for.

Once you’ve made some decisions about the kind of topics you want to be an authority on you need to make a content plan. This will include all the topics you want to write about over the coming weeks or months in order to demonstrate your EEAT on a particular subject. For example, you might determine you want to be the #1 authority on ‘bed and breakfast accommodation in Whitby’.

It can be helpful to group your content around particular themes. For example, a bed and breakfast might find it useful to write content about the following 12 topics, 1 each month throughout the year:

• What to expect when staying with us

• Our breakfasts

• On our doorstep – walking distance from our B&B

• Walking & cycling

• Beaches

• Food & drink – local producers & markets

• Food & drink – cafes & restaurants

• Food & drink – pubs & bars

• Events – music, theatre, festivals, workshops and more

• Shopping

• Our favourite days out – help your visitor imagine what staying with you might be like

• Whitby (or your local town)

Within each of these topics it should be quite straight forward to write a list of 4 or 5 articles. Each article should be written from your own experience, with plenty of references to your B&B in Whitby (in this case).

Before you know it you’ve got a 12 month content plan which shows your authority on a subject. It will also help you with your social media activity too.

7. Earn Back-Links

By writing high quality content and attracting more interest to your website, you’re likely to pick up black-links. These are links from other websites to your own. As mentioned above, an easy way to do this is to offer to write guest posts for someone else’s website. However, if your business is well run and your website an authoritative voice then you should have no trouble obtaining back links without even realising it.

Back-links are an integral part of the SEO triangle along with content and technical SEO. Back-links are like word of mouth referrals. They let Google know that your website is worth visiting. Generally speaking, the more back-links you can acquire the better. You may be offered the opportunity to buy back-links. This is often a bad idea. Best to be patient and wait for it to happen gradually over time.

8. Be Transparent

When writing content for your website make sure it’s transparent. If you’re writing about another business, for example, be clear if you’ve been asked to do so or are being paid. As consumers we don’t like feeling like we’ve been advertised to under false pretences.

Make it easy for your website visitors to contact you. This is just good practice anyway, as it’s frustrating if contact details aren’t easy to find. Consider including your phone and email details on every page. With so many of us using mobile phones to browse the web, making it as quick and easy as possible to get in touch is important.

Not an SEO issue but equally important these days, is to ensure that if you operate a mailing list you do so ethically. Don’t add people to your list without their permission and make sure it’s easy to unsubscribe. Google and Yahoo have implemented stricter rules for email senders, making it hard for spammers. Pay attention to your domain setup and ask us for help if you’re unsure.

9. Include Customer Reviews & Feedback

Customer reviews and feedback can be an excellent way of building trust. Lots of accommodation businesses have guestbooks. Traditionally these have been a helpful way for owners to gather feedback. A hand-written guestbook also helps subsequent guests as they often feature recommendations.

These days online review platforms can play this role. Consider how you might use Google, Facebook, Truspilot, Tripadvisor or other review platforms to your advantage. Sometimes reviews can be automatically embedded into your website. But it can be equally valuable to simply copy and paste a review and include it in a blog post or within a page on your site. Where possible provide a direct link back to the review platform, so your readers can validate the review for themselves.

When it comes to SEO, encouraging your customers to leave you a Google review can be really helpful. Doing this will ensure Google knows your business is operating, and the better the reviews the more likely it is to recommend your business within search results.

10. Become an Expert on Your Area

Our top SEO tip for tourism businesses is to become an expert on your area. Did you go anywhere nice at the weekend? Write about it. Has a new business opened up in your town? Write about it. Have you discovered a new walking route or favourite beauty spot? Write about it!

Conclusion – SEO Tips for Tourism Businesses

Remember, when it comes to SEO for tourism businesses, you are what your EEAT. Google wants to see Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Do this by regularly writing high quality content about your business or associated topics. Write excellent content will obtain back-links in due course. And writing a comprehensive content plan will make it much easier to produce content which supports your SEO and social media activity.

There are no guarantees. And SEO is a long term project. But done right it will ensure a steady stream of visitors to your website.

At Hello Technology we’re here to support small businesses like yours by providing the design and technology services you need to thrive. If you’d like some help developing your SEO strategy, optimsing your website or even writing content please get in touch.