7 tips on how to write appealing travel content

Write appealing travel content for both humans and search engines

Once you have your content marketing strategy in place, you can start to create content. But how do you write content that is appealing to both humans and search engines? We’re big fans of writing for search engines, however Google doesn’t buy from you. That’s why you should keep both in mind while writing your content.

Below you’ll find 7 tips on how to create content that is appealing to both humans and search engines.

1. Consider your buyer persona

First, you should always consider your buyer persona’s interests. For example, if you offer trips to Tanzania, most of your target group will already be aware of the highlights this beautiful country has to offer. However, only you can tell them about beautiful hidden spots or wonderful experiences other tour operators have never imagined offering. Talk about what your target group really wants and show them how your business stands out.

2. Define your goal

Before you start writing, always define a clear goal for your content. Don’t just write for the sake of it. After a (potential) customer has digested your content, what is it you want them to have taken from it? And no less important, what’s in it for you? Goals for your content can be:

• Share knowledge with your current audience
• Reach a new audience
• Answer a question
• Promote a service

3. Keep it simple, stupid

The K.I.S.S. principle was created in the ’60 but still applies today. This principle states that systems perform best when they have simple designs. In the best-case scenario, your content is easily understood by every single person that reads it. A few tips to keep your content simple are:

• Write in short sentences
• Divide your content in relatively short paragraphs
• Use subheadings
• Create lists

4. Visualise your content

Use visual imagery in your content whenever you can. This allows you to draw attention to your content and make it stand out. As a tour operator, you have an easy opportunity to use beautiful imagery from the destinations you offer. Also, it’s easier for people to remember things if you visually demonstrate it to them. Think about adding the following to your content:

• Photos
• Videos
• Illustrations
• Charts and graphs

Besides drawing attention, visualising your content helps your rankings in the search engine. Google considers visit duration as a ranking factor. People tend to stay longer on a page when it’s visually appealing. Optimising your images for search engines contributes to this further.

5. Write lengthy texts

The length of your text matters. If you want your content to perform in Google, your text should be at least 300 words. However, you have a better chance of ranking well with texts that consist of 1000 words or more. Longer texts do require a bit more from you as an author.

Do not write more, just because you want to surpass the 1000 words. If a text is badly written, it will not be read or shared, and thus will not rank well in Google. Whenever writing a lengthy text, think about the K.I.S.S. principle (tip 3).

6. Use outgoing and internal links

It’s safe to say that using links in your content serves both humans and search engines. By using outgoing links (linking to other websites), you help visitors acquire information that is relevant to your content. Besides this, it helps Google understand better what your content is about, which can then improve your ranking. For example, you can use this as an opportunity by linking to a partner’s website.

Internal links (within your own website), can show visitors you have more relevant information for them about a specific subject or lead them to revenue generating pages. Also, it helps Google understand the structure of your websites, which in its turn improves your rankings.

7. Strategically place keywords

Writing content around keywords is extremely important. There are a lot of free keyword research tools you can use to increase the ranking of your content. Once you’ve determined your keywords, you should strategically place them in your content. Your text is the obvious choice but also consider placing them in the:

• URL
• Title
• Meta description
• Images alt and title tags
• First paragraph

Not only is this useful for search engines, humans also profit from it. By matching keywords people already search for, placing them strategically helps them recognise your content offers as exactly what they are looking for.

Don’t forget to analyse your data

If you are investing a lot of time in realising better results for your content, don’t forget about analysing your website and search data. Without analysing the data, it’s impossible to optimise your website and business strategy. After all, how do you know if your strategy works if you don’t measure the results?