How to SEO a travel blog in 2023

Updated on May 30th, 2023

Tips on how to SEO for travel bloggers using both traditional and unorthodox strategies.

What are the best ways to SEO for travel bloggers you ask?

As a world travel remote worker and SEO expert with over 10 years of experience and the owner of an SEO and content agency, I understand the importance of optimizing your travel blog for search engines and how to do it correctly.

Travel blog SEO is essential to ensure that your website ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs), attracting more organic traffic, and increasing your visibility in the highly competitive travel niche.

In this article, I’ll share my insights on how to effectively SEO a travel blog, along with some recommended SEO tools and digital marketing tools that can help make the process smoother.

Traditional SEO tips for travel website that are proven to work

Start with keyword research and targeting for your travel blog SEO

Keyword research is the foundation of travel blog SEO. Start by identifying popular and relevant keywords in your niche. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Mangools, and SemRush can help you discover keywords with high search volume and low competition. 

As a travel blogger, focus on long-tail keywords that are specific to your target destinations and experiences.

 Incorporate these keywords naturally into your content, meta tags, and URL structure to improve your blog’s visibility.

Note, it is very important that you pick keywords and terms with high search intent when doing SEO for travel blogs. SemRush is very helpful in helping you find transactional keywords.

Quality and engaging content

Creating high-quality, engaging content is crucial for the success of your travel blog SEO strategy.

In addition to using your target keywords, ensure that your content is informative, useful, and entertaining for your audience.

I recommend using different types of content, such as listicles, videos, how-to, infographics, etc, to keep your readers engaged. 

Regularly update your blog with fresh content to encourage search engines to crawl and index your website frequently.

Please do not get caught up in writing long content. Short in-depth concise content is good. 

On-page

On-page optimization is the SEO strategies that you implement on the website. Focus on optimizing your titles, headings, meta descriptions, etc, with your target keywords.

Improve your blog’s readability by using short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings.

Optimize your images by compressing them, using descriptive file names, and adding alt text with relevant keywords.

Another great way to do travel blog on-page optimization is to create a powerful menu listing the important pages as this will help send backlinks with anchor texts back to posts.

Technical SEO

A how to SEO for travel bloggers tutorial won’t be complete without mentioning the importance of technical SEO. 

Technical search engine optimization simply means to make your websites easy for search engines to crawl, understand, etc.

This includes but is not limited to making sure that,

• your robots.txt is optimized correctly
• you have a good web hosting provider like WP Engine or BlueHost with the correct settings to make sure it can be reached at all times
• avoid having many dead links
• secure and optimized HTTPS
• optimized XML sitemap, etc.

Use tools like SemRush or ScreamingFrog to find technical issues before and after launching your travel blog live.

Boost mobile speed & design 

You probably have heard about how a significant percentage of internet users access the web through their mobile devices.

This makes it it’s crucial to make sure your travel blog is mobile-friendly. Use responsive design to ensure that your website looks great and functions smoothly on all devices.

Also, go through the Core Web Vitals and improve the issues you see.

Test your site using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool and use Pingdom and GTmetrix to test mobile loading speed.

Make necessary adjustments after the testing to enhance the mobile speed for better user experience.

Link building and social media promotion

Backlinks from authoritative websites can significantly improve your travel blog’s SEO. Reach out to other travel bloggers, influencers, and websites for guest posting opportunities or collaborations.

Share your content on social media platforms to increase visibility, drive traffic, and potentially earn organic backlinks.

Monitoring and analyzing travel SEO performance

Lastly, track your travel blog’s SEO performance using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

These tools are some of my favorites as they provide valuable insights into your travel website’s traffic, user behavior, and search performance, thus helping you make data-driven decisions to optimize your SEO strategy better.

Unorthodox SEO for travel bloggers

In addition to the traditional SEO techniques mentioned above, there are some unorthodox ideas you can incorporate into your travel blog SEO strategy to further boost your online presence and stand out in the competitive travel niche:

Leverage user-generated content (UGC)

The way to achieve this is by encouraging your website visitors to share their travel experiences, images, tips, etc, and then by featuring them on your blog or social media channels. 

User-generated content not only adds unique and authentic perspectives to your blog but also helps build a loyal community around your brand.

Moreover, it can improve your blog’s SEO by generating more organic backlinks, social shares, and engagement.

Create interactive content

Interactive content, such as quizzes, polls, and maps, can enhance user engagement and increase the time visitors spend on your website.

Search engines favor websites with high user engagement, so incorporating interactive content can contribute to better SEO performance.

For example, you can create a quiz to help readers decide on their next travel destination or an interactive map with your personal recommendations for must-visit spots.

Utilize voice search optimization

With the growing popularity of voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant, optimizing your travel blog for voice search is becoming increasingly important.

To cater to voice searches, I suggest focusing on incorporating conversational long-tail keywords and natural language in your content.

Additionally, structure your content with concise answers to common questions related to your niche, as voice assistants often provide quick and direct responses.

Collaborate with niche influencers

Partnering with influencers who specialize in your travel niche can help you reach new audiences and gain valuable backlinks.

In addition to guest posts and collaborations, consider hosting joint webinars, podcasts, or live events with influencers to create buzz around your travel blog and expand your reach.

Experiment with different content formats

While written content is essential for travel blog SEO, don’t be afraid to explore different content formats like podcasts, videos, or virtual reality experiences.

Offering diverse content can attract a wider audience, cater to different learning styles, and set your travel blog apart from the competition.

It can also indirectly improve your SEO by increasing user engagement and social shares.

Embrace local SEO tactics

For travel bloggers who frequently focus on specific destinations, incorporating local SEO tactics can help improve visibility for location-specific searches.

Optimize your content with local keywords, add location-specific schema markup, and create Google My Business listings for featured destinations to make your travel blog more discoverable to local audiences.

My suggestion is to use local SEO tools like Brightlocal and SuferLocal to do your local listings and optimization as they will save you a lot of time.

By incorporating these unorthodox ideas into your travel blog SEO strategy, you can further enhance your online presence, engage your audience in unique ways, and stand out in the competitive travel blogging industry.

Remember, creativity and innovation are key to maintaining a successful travel blog in today’s digital landscape.

Start optimizing your travel blog today!

In conclusion, SEOing your travel blog is an ongoing process that requires consistent effort and adaptability to the ever-changing search engine algorithms.

By following these tips on how to do SEO for travel blog websites and using the recommended SEO tools, you can improve your site visibility, attract more organic traffic, and ultimately grow your online presence.

As a remote worker and owner of an SEO and content agency, I can attest to the importance of these strategies in achieving success in the competitive world of travel blogging.