Take Off With A Travel Domain

Stand Out from the Crowd by Offering Insightful Content on a Travel Domain

Well-written, helpful content is what separates the average online travel website from the exceptional. One of the unchanging rules of the Internet is to offer good content, and eventually search engines and site visitors will recognize your efforts. This doesn't happen quickly, it can take months before the effort poured into content pays off and steady traffic reaches a new domain, but it's worth the time to generate solid, helpful content.

Travel websites have a wide range of topics to include in their content. Hotel reviews, airfare prices, and accommodation choices are obvious examples, but really only scratch the surface. By focusing on individual countries, a travel domain can quickly build a wealth of content.

Let's say a travel domain focuses on European vacations. Each European country could have its own page of basic information (languages spoken, local currency, etc), with links to content such as travel safety, cultural information, local food (possibly with recipes), and popular tourist activities. Be sure to list the bad along with the good: how well-disposed are the locals towards tourists? Is local water a health risk? Are there any local scams tourists should be aware of? By presenting the pros and cons of each country you foster trust with your site visitors.

Each city or regional area within each country can also be covered, providing specific information on where to stay and what to see. Going even deeper, content could include information on different types of vacations appropriate to each country: bus tours, walking tours, barge cruises, camping, and other specific vacation ideas. Outline what can be done in each country that cannot be done anywhere else.

Repeat that process for each and every country in Europe, and you can see how site content can grow very quickly. Instead of offering only basic information, the travel domain now offers a comprehensive overview of where to travel, what to see, and what to avoid. New content can also increase the "stickiness" of the website (how long a visitor will spend on the site), and the pages of interrelated content appeals to most search engines.

If you include a sign-up newsletter on your site, you can include snippets of new site content in the newsletter with links to the full online articles. Be sure to include breaking travel news, which can encompass anything from the launch of a new cruise line to a World Health Organization travel advisory.

Not everyone can write compelling content, of course, but the domain owner doesn't have to. There are many freelance writers and writing companies that specialize in providing web content to online businesses, many of which will also optimize the content's keywords to increase search engine rankings.

Online Travel Domain: Research and Booking

In 1996 the travel website for booking, Expedia, was launched, and in 2010 Expedia raked in $25.9 billion in gross bookings. The business of travel and tourism online is continually growing, with more ways to provide services to customers than ever before. More than 60% of US internet users research travel online, with 84% of these searchers actually booking their trips online.

This year, 40% of U.S. travel booked will be done on an online travel domain. Travelers also love to discuss their past and future trips with others in the community. Message boards help consumers to find the best deals, learn about potential destinations, and determine things like what is important to bring along. A travel website message board can see an average of 100,000 posts per month in many cases. Roughly 20% of travelers share their travel details and photos on social networks and message boards as well.

In 2012, 65% of online travel purchasers used an online travel agency to book their trips, with 48% using a branded supplier site. As the large majority of travelers now turn to the internet to do their travel research and bookings, a travel domain is a smart investment with a high potential for traffic and profit.