Travel SEO is the process of optimizing travel-related websites to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
It attracts targeted traffic from travelers searching for destinations, tours, or travel tips online by focusing on relevant, attainable keywords and providing helpful information.
In this piece, we’ll cover travel SEO challenges and how you can use SEO to grow your business.
What Are the Key Challenges of Travel SEO?
Key challenges of implementing travel SEO include the following:
Challenge 1: The travel industry is a highly competitive niche.
Travel agencies, airlines, tour operators, travel bloggers, and many other major players dominate most travel-related SERPs. And they often compete for the same keywords.
In addition to that, Google’s travel products show up in travel-related search engine results.
Travel queries often trigger rich SERP features like Maps, featured snippets, top sights carousels, and People Also Ask boxes.
This leaves less space for standard organic rankings, as seen below:
These factors make it difficult for smaller and/or newer travel sites to generate organic traffic.
That said, targeting more specific long-tail keywords can help you overcome this issue. We’ll get into that below.
Challenge 2: Seasonal and event-driven fluctuations affect travel SEO.
This means search queries for destinations, flights, and accommodations increase during specific times like summer, holidays, events, and spring break. And interest wanes during non-travel periods.
Travel businesses need to adjust their strategies throughout the year based on the latest travel trends and relevant events.
Challenge 3: Travel-related SERPs have diverse, ever-changing search intents.
New trends change searchers’ preferences and intent. That forces SEO professionals to reevaluate their content mix often.
Trending activities, like “glamping” or “eco-friendly destinations,” may suddenly become popular. And major events or festivals, like the Olympics or Coachella, can generate a spike in searches for event travel packages.
Regardless, SEO can drive massive growth for travel agencies and travel websites in general.
Here’s how to do SEO for travel agencies and similar sites the right way.
How to Do SEO for a Travel Industry Website
Doing SEO for the travel industry involves various strategies, such as targeting long-tail keywords, building an online reputation, improving website design, attracting backlinks, and more.
1. Target Long-Tail Keywords Related to Key Destinations
Long-tail keywords are highly specific and typically longer search queries. Targeting them with relevant and tailored content can reach searchers with unique interests and result in higher conversion rates.
For instance, the long-tail keyword “family-friendly hotels in Dubai” is more precise than the keyword “hotels in Dubai.”
Targeting the former lets you tailor your offer or content and come closer to acquiring a customer with specific needs.
Use the Keyword Magic Tool to find long-tail keywords.
Type your seed keyword into the tool—in this case, “dubai vacation”—and press “Search.”
Then, look for keywords that are easy to rank for by clicking on the “KD %” filter. And selecting the “Easy” range.
You’ll now see a number of long-tail keywords that are likely easier to rank for than other types of keywords.
Long-tail keywords may have low search volume (i.e., the estimated number of searches a keyword gets per month).
But a single article may rank for multiple long-tail keywords, which can drive cumulative traffic. And it may be easier to rank for long-tail keywords, and ranking higher often means you get a greater share of the search traffic for a particular keyword.
Look through the list and select keywords that align with your brand, products, or services. Then, use those keywords in destination guides, tour package pages, and other relevant content.
For instance, if you offer luxury packages for Dubai, then target the query “luxury dubai vacation.” Or target the “family vacation to dubai” query if you focus more on family tours.
2. Create Content for Each Stage of the User Journey
The traveler user journey has five stages: awareness, research, decision-making, booking, and travel.
Creating content for each stage lets you connect with audiences at every decision point. This can boost brand recognition and enhance booking rates as you gain travelers’ trust by the time they need to book their trip.
At the awareness stage, travelers are starting to explore the idea of a vacation.
They may search for queries like “top places to visit in 2025” or “best vacation destinations.”
Create aspirational content, such as travel guides or destination roundups, to capture their attention at this stage.
In the research stage, travelers are narrowing down their options based on factors like interests, budget, or time.
Common search terms at this stage include “how to get to Dubai” or “best time to go to Dubai.”
Engage travelers in this phase with destination FAQs, seasonal travel guides, or budget-planning tools.
Here’s an example of a seasonal travel guide for Dubai:
In the decision-making stage, travelers are looking to finalize their vacation plans.
Searches at this phase often include queries like “all-inclusive resorts in Dubai” or “best travel insurance for Dubai.”
Target those keywords with comparison guides, reviews of travel services, and curated lists of accommodations or packages.
During the booking and preparation stage, travelers are fully committed to their vacation and are starting to book flights, accommodations, and other essentials.
Their searches may include terms like “book flights to Dubai” or “car rental in Dubai.”
Content for this phase includes step-by-step booking guides, travel checklists, or exclusive deals and offers.
Finally, in the travel stage, travelers are enjoying their vacation and local activities.
They tend to search for queries like “hidden gems in Dubai” or “must-see attractions in Dubai.”
To address this audience, create interactive itineraries, local experience guides, and activity recommendations.
Like the “Best Dubai Hidden Gem Attractions” page below, created by an online travel giant:
3. Regularly Update Destination Content for Seasonality
Your content on particular destinations should reflect changes in local events, seasonal activities, and operating hours. Up-to-date content signals to users and search engines that your page is a great source of information.
For instance, someone searching for things to do in Colmar in early December would likely expect a guide that mentions Christmas market tours.
That’s why the online travel activity marketplaces list this activity at the top, as seen below:
Some cities may also have major events happening. This might mean more people searching for travel packages for these cities. You can use this insight to offer relevant tours and tips.
For example, the 2025 Champions League final will take place in Munich. So, some tour companies have already published pages offering travel packages for this event. And those pages are ranking well.
Research which major events are happening soon in your target locations. Then, create optimized landing pages to sell relevant travel packages. This way, you can connect with travelers who are searching for information on how to attend the event.
You can also create local landing pages for relevant destinations and keep them updated. Major travel brands do this, as seen in the guide to New York City below.
Here are some travel SEO best practices for updating destination content:
- Monitor local events and activities. Regularly check event calendars, local tourism boards, and community news. Highlight popular seasonal events like festivals, concerts, and fairs.
- Optimize for seasonal keywords. Align keywords with seasonal demand (e.g., “best ski resorts in January” or “beach destinations in summer”). Create and link to dedicated pages for specific seasons or events.
- Keep tips accurate and actionable. Verify operating hours, ticket prices, and contact details for attractions regularly. Update maps, travel directions, and parking information as needed.
4. Leverage Content Marketing to Engage Travelers Across Channels
Content marketing is the process of creating valuable content for your audience, like articles, ebooks, or videos.
Meanwhile, SEO improves the optimization of these content assets. That increases their chances of ranking in search results for relevant keywords.
Elevate your travel SEO with creative content marketing.
Test different content formats, such as:
- Videos: Showcase destinations, share travel tips, or create virtual tours. Embedded YouTube videos can boost visibility and improve engagement metrics.
- Infographics: Summarize travel itineraries, packing lists, or destination comparisons. These are highly shareable on social media, which can expand your reach.
- Interactive maps: Provide personalized recommendations or highlight must-visit spots in popular destinations
- Tools: Create calculators for travel budgets, flight price trackers, or packing checklists. These resources can attract backlinks and increase engagement.
- Ebooks: Offer comprehensive travel guides as gated content to capture email leads
- Newsletters: Share exclusive deals, trending destinations, or curated travel tips to keep your audience engaged
For example, travel agencies usually run YouTube channels with videos of the experiences they offer.
These YouTube channels also link to other content channels their owners run, as seen below.
Travel brands with a unified content marketing ecosystem have channels that reinforce each other. This can boost brand visibility and can translate into improved search performance.
5. Earn Backlinks From Relevant Sites
Backlinks from relevant sites like travel magazines, blogs, and other travel-focused sites make your site more authoritative, which can lead to better search engine rankings.
A few backlinks from reputable websites will be more valuable than a lot of backlinks from low-quality sites.
One way to get quality backlinks is to create quality content.
For example, this travel trend report contains interesting, original research that other sites were likely to refer to:
The report contains data from an original survey and proprietary data analysis. The report also contains travel insights, beautiful graphics, and predictions that other sites may link to.
There are other ways to build backlinks beyond publishing research reports:
- Guest posting: Contribute articles to reputable travel websites and include backlinks to your site
- Broken link-building: Identify broken links on relevant travel websites and suggest your content as a replacement
- Social media promotion: Share your travel content across social media platforms to increase visibility and the likelihood of earning backlinks
- Engage in press releases: Write and distribute press releases about important events to attract media attention and backlinks from news outlets
You can also use Semrush to see which sites link to your competitors often. This can reveal opportunities for you to acquire links from those sites as well.
Head to the Backlink Gap tool to analyze competitors’ backlinks.
Enter your website’s URL and up to four competitors. Click “Find prospects.”
This will generate a report showing which competitors have the most referring domains and backlinks.
In the table below the chart, the “Matches” column shows which domain sends the most backlinks to your competition. Such domains are good targets for your link-building outreach efforts.
Click on the number in one of your competitors’ columns to see specific URLs being linked to.
You can then create better, more updated content than your competitors and ask domain owners to link to your page instead.
6. Optimize Your Google Business Profile to Reach Travelers
Google Business Profile (GBP) is a free tool that lets travel businesses control their presence on Google Search, Google Shopping, and Google Maps.
GBP lets you build credibility by replying to customer reviews, posting business updates, listing travel services, adding map directions, and more. It helps you attract local and international travelers.
Here’s an example of a travel agency’s GBP that provides all the details a prospect would need to contact them:
Here are some tips on optimizing your GBP to increase visibility among travelers and build credibility with reviews:
First, provide clear and compelling business information.
Provide clear details on what your travel business does and explain your brand’s values and mission.
Here’s an example of a comprehensive GBP description:
Detail your expertise in local tours and vacation packages. Searchers who see your GBP should instantly understand what sets your company apart.
Ensure your business’s name, address, and phone number (NAP) are accurate as well. This helps your company show up in Google Maps for local searches, such as “best hotels near me.” And this helps travelers easily find you.
Second, encourage positive customer reviews.
Make it easy for customers to leave positive reviews after a great travel experience.
Provide a direct link to your review platform, like in the email below:
And promptly acknowledge and address negative reviews. You might succeed in turning a dissatisfied customer into a happy one.
For instance, this hotel helped an unhappy customer and got a positive review in return:
You can also use Semrush’s Review Management tool to monitor and reply to customer reviews on more than 70 directories, such as Google, Facebook, and Yelp.
The dashboard also provides a wealth of data points, such as your review reply rate, monthly and weekly review progress, average star rating, total reviews, and more.
Third, include travel-related keywords.
Your GBP should contain frequently searched travel-related terms. This makes it easier for customers to find you.
For instance, include terms related to your services. Here’s how a travel agency from Morocco included terms such as “bike tours” and “camel safari”:
You can review many other tips in our Google Business Profile optimization guide.
7. Optimize Your Travel Site for Mobile Devices
Website design that works well on mobile, tablet, desktop, and other devices can improve user experience on your site and lead to more search visits.
Some indicators of outdated design include non-responsive layouts, cluttered pages, and complex menus.
First, improve your site’s mobile experience. Because mobile-friendliness is a ranking factor, your site’s performance on smartphones and tablets directly affects its search visibility.
Mobile-friendly sites have the following characteristics:
- Responsive design
- Fast loading speed
- Simple menus (e.g., hamburger menus)
- Legible font sizes
- Contrasting colors for readability
- Adequately spaced buttons and links
- Non-intrusive banners
These and many other features ensure you deliver a great mobile and desktop experience.
For example, this is what a travel site looks like on desktop and mobile:
The mobile version is simpler and less cluttered. And it has a hamburger menu. It also prominently displays key information like tour names, pricing, and tour durations to keep the page readable and accessible, even on a smaller screen.
Make sure your design always remains user-friendly, especially on mobile devices.
Visitors come to your site with a specific action in mind, whether it’s booking a stay, checking pricing, or finding information.
Ensure your call to action (CTA) buttons (e.g., “book with us,” “call now,” or “start planning”) are easy to tap and read, like this:
This can improve conversion rates across devices.
8. Partner With Travel Influencers
Collaborate with travel influencers to tap into their established audience and credibility. This can benefit your travel SEO efforts in several ways such as:
- It can generate high-quality backlinks. Influencers linking to your site signals to search engines that your content is trustworthy, which may boost your website authority.
- It can increase your site traffic. Influencers’ followers are engaged and may visit your site and spend a lot of time there.
- It can increase social media engagement. Shares, likes, comments, and other social signals are not a ranking factor for Google. But they can amplify your brand’s visibility, potentially leading to more backlinks and organic traffic.
- It can generate unique content. Influencers can create personalized reviews, destination highlights, or itinerary suggestions. Such a fresh and engaging approach can elevate your SEO content quality.
Influencer marketing can also lead to more direct bookings.
For instance, social media travel influencers can increase hotel bookings by making video reviews about hotels in your target destinations:
The video above got thousands of views and saves from potential travelers. Many of these saves may translate to hotel bookings when those users become more sure of their travel plans.
Semrush’s Influencer Analytics tool can help you find relevant influencers in your niche.
Start by going to “Influencers” and adjusting your criteria. You can filter influencers based on social media channels, broadcast language, home country, channel topic, total views, and more.
The tool also lets you see influencer pricing ranges and how much your competition spends on influencer marketing. This information enables you to forecast campaign costs.
And once you set preferences, you’ll see a list of influencers.
Clicking on an influencer’s profile enables you to access their contact information. Reach out to select influencers and start discussing your collaboration.
9. Add Structured Data Relevant for Travel Sites
Structured data, or schema markup, is HTML code you can add to your site to provide search engines with more details about your content.
Schema markup helps your content appear in a rich format. Google can display tour names, ratings, duration, tour agency names, and pricing directly in search results. Like this:
Google supports a lot of types of schema markup. But not all of them are relevant to your business and content.
Let’s explore how specific schema types can improve SEO for travel sites:
- LocalBusiness: Include essential details like your business name, address, phone number, and hours of operation. Ideal for travel agencies, tour operators, and local guides targeting regional audiences.
- Event: Highlight upcoming tours, festivals, or travel events with dates, locations, and ticket information. This increases visibility in event-related searches.
- FAQ: Optimize FAQs about destinations, booking processes, or policies to appear directly in search results, improving click-through rates.
- Review: Showcase customer ratings and testimonials for tours, hotels, or destinations. This makes your listings more attractive in SERPs.
- Product: If you offer bookable packages or travel products, use this to display pricing, availability, and detailed descriptions directly in search results.
- Breadcrumb: Help users and search engines navigate your site structure more effectively, improving user experience and rankings.
Schema markup helps your brand stand out in search results. It also allows your content to show up in carousels, knowledge graphs, and other enhanced search features. All of this leads to more search visits and better user experience as travelers can find information quickly.
Don’t Neglect Your SEO Essentials
Travel SEO requires a unique approach, but you still need to cover SEO essentials. On-page SEO best practices, such as inserting target keywords strategically or adding internal links, remain vital.
You also need to ensure your technical SEO is taken care of so your pages are indexed and show up in search. You can use Google Search Console to do a manual SEO audit and discover any issues.
Use Semrush’s Site Audit tool to do a more thorough audit and get guidance on how to fix issues. And then start implementing the travel SEO tips we covered above.
