85% of online tourists use search engines to find information about their next trip. Surprising? Not really. In an era where more than 80% of users research their tourism products and services online [ Comscore Networks and DoubleClick 2006], and where 37% buy their tourism products online [ eMarketer , 2009] it is imperative to have not only an online presence, but an optimal presence, in particular in search engines in order to be present when the user is actively looking for information on his next travel destination.
SEO, and more specifically search trends , are essential to understanding the behavior of online tourists on search engines. Organic referencing (SEO) makes it possible to optimize positioning in search engines on certain precise and strategic keywords. What are the most searched keywords by online tourists and above all, what is the strategic impact of search trends on your tourism company's website? A study by Forrester Research sheds light on this subject.
THE MOST SEARCHED TRAVEL MOTIVATIONS
What are the travel motivations driving the most online searches in the travel industry? According to a 2008 report by Forrester Where US Online Leisure Travelers Visit and the Types of Trips They Research On of the tourist clientele in the United States, the honeymoon is a relatively sought-after niche online. In fact, 93% of users who had honeymooned in the United States would have researched their honeymoon online. Although only 1% of travelers to the United States would have traveled for this reason, strong online search trends point to strong possibilities. Also, romantic travel packages are extremely sought after online: 63% of users who have taken a romantic trip would have searched for their travel information online, which is considerable.
Family travel is also extremely popular with 55% of travelers to the United States in 2008 who took a family trip researched their information online . Also, weekends with friends and special events are highly sought after online by travelers to the United States.
THE MOST SEARCHED KEYWORDS
Also according to Forrester 's Where US Online Leisure Travelers Visit and the Types of Trips They Research On report , spas, skiing, amusement parks and national parks are respectively the most sought-after tourism products and services online by travelers. e-tourists .
Indeed, 89% of the clientele of spas and health centers in the United States would have sought their information online, which is significant! Next come ski resorts (74%), amusement parks (70%) and national parks (59%).
Surprising, isn't it? Indeed, it is certain that spas are proving increasingly popular with tourists. Yet, surprisingly, spa sites are not the most developed nor the most optimized. Indeed, following a benchmark carried out as part of a client mandate, very few sites have advanced features (testimonials, sharing features, videos, etc.) and an optimal information architecture. Very few have a social media integration strategy and most sites are programmed in flash, harming search engine rankings and user information retrieval.
Although these sites focus on the user experience by offering a very experiential site, these sites are, in general, not optimized for search engines and therefore do not appear in the first results of Google for a client. potential actively looking for a spa. What good is having an experiential site if the potential customer is unable to find it in search engines and access it?
WHAT TO DO ?
What are the strategic implications of search trends or most searched keywords for a tourism business? First, the presence of strong search trends for certain specific keywords may justify the addition of a section or page of the site dealing specifically with these trends . Thus, one can decide to add a section or a page relating to the spa offer if one notes strong research tendencies at this level. You can also optimize your TITLE tags as mentioned by my colleague Martin Duguay in his post. For example, instead of simply including Mexico Travel in the Title tag, it would be appropriate to include Mexico Honeymoon Package | Tourism Mexico in order to optimize positioning in search engines.
Also, strong search trends could also have an impact on the tourism offer of a company that would like to redefine itself or offer new products and services. For example, a travel agency might decide to expand its offer on romance or honeymoon packages given the strong search trends. This large search volume could bring him more qualified visitors to his site while allowing him to cross-sell to, for example, push other value-added products.
Investing in a buy-in-keyword (SEM) campaign can also compensate for poor search engine rankings before the search engine rankings actually take effect.
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