Slides from the SEO Travel Marketing Workshop at Office Space in Town, London. July 2017.
More details on some of the processes used here - http://seotravel.co.uk/content-marketing-strategy/
2. What we are covering
The key technical parts of SEO you need to get right
How to make pages that Google and users love
The different kinds of content you should be creating
How to get PR coverage with Richard Mellor
How we get coverage on top tier sites
with content marketing
3. Who am I ?
Travel enthusiast & digital marketer
Set up SEO Travel in 2011
Worked with lots of travel sites in a wide variety of areas,
from destination specialists to independent affiliates
Helped clients rank for some of the most competitive
phrases in travel as well as exponentially increase traffic
Had content featured on the biggest sites on the web
4.
5. Who am I ?
Travel enthusiast & digital marketer
Set up SEO Travel in 2011
Worked with lots of travel sites in a wide variety of areas,
from destination specialists to independent affiliates
Helped clients rank for some of the most competitive
phrases in travel as well as exponentially increase traffic
Had content featured on the biggest sites on the web
6.
7. The Key Aspects of SEO
Technical Features On-Page Features Off-Site Features
11. Keyword Research
Don’t rely on headline phrases and forget the rest - longtail traffic is
abundant and less competitive
Different types of phrase
• Transactional (luxury holidays)
• Informational (where is hot in December)
• Navigational (tripadvisor Crete)
Structure your site around your keyword research findings and then
use it to guide your content production
Lots of great tools out there – SEMRush, Google KW Planner, Moz
Keyword Explorer, UberSuggest, Google Autosuggest
12. Optimum Landing Page
URLs
Title Tags
Copy
Headers
Images
Video
Internal Links
External Links
Additional formatting
http://www.intrepidtravel.com/uk/botswana
https://www.originaltravel.co.uk/europe/italy
25. Content
• Quality over quantity
• Lots of low quality
pages lead to Panda
issues
• There are 3 types of
content :
∙ Content for traffic
∙ Content for links
∙ Content for shares
26. ◆ Commercial or
Informational
◆ These pages need to
be the best in class
• Content rich
• Beautiful
• Fast loading
Content for Traffic
Key goal : Attract more visitors
to your website through search
engines
27. ◆ Commercial pages
- Homepage or main
details pages
◆ These will come up
when people search for
main
commercial phrases
you target
Content for Traffic
28. ◆ Commercial pages
Homepage or main
details pages
◆ These will come up
when people search
for main commercial
phrases you target
Content for Traffic
29. ◆ Informational
pages – blogs, in depth
guides
◆ These will come up
when people are in
the research phase
searching for
informational phrases
Content for Traffic
30. ◆ Informational
pages – blogs, in depth
guides
◆ These will come up
when people are in
the research phase
searching for
informational phrases
Content for Traffic
31. ◆ Price of Travel
◆ Places to Visit in
December
◆ 4,600+ words
◆ More than 500,000
visit in last 12 months
Content for Traffic
32. Key goal : Attract coverage and
links to your website from third
party websites
☑ Doesn’t necessarily
need to be directly
related to your topic
☑ Possible
approaches :
• Survey
• Infographics
• Maps
• Illustrations
• Go-to-guide books
Content for Links
33. ☑ Most Popular Baby
Names in the UK
☑ Featured more than
70 websites
☑ Including The Sun,
Metro,
Independent,
Huffington Post,
Cosmopolitan
Content for Links
34. ☑ Cheapest Cities in
Europe
☑ More than 30
pieces of coverage
☑ Including,
Business Insider,
Metro, Daily Mail,
Grazia
☑ 2 all time high
traffic days for
website - referral
traffic up 562% on
previous month
Content for Links
35. Content for Shares
◉ Different formats to use :
• Image
• Video
• Quiz
• Quotes
◆ Inspire emotion – laughter,
anger, controversy
◉ Generate discussion and
encourage interaction
Key goal : Encourage sharing on social media
36. Content for Shares
◉ Different formats to use :
• Image
• Video
• Quiz
• Quotes
◆ Inspire emotion – laughter,
anger, controversy
◉ Generate discussion and
encourage interaction
Key goal : Encourage sharing on social media
37. Content for Shares
◉ How to Say Merry Christmas
in 26 Languages
◆ Featured on LA Times and 20
other websites
◉ Shared by Distractify – more
than 3 million followers and huge
interaction
38. Content for Shares
◉ How to Say Merry Christmas
in 26 Languages
◆ Featured on LA Times and 20
other websites
◉ Shared by Distractify – more
than 3 million followers and huge
interaction
39. Content for Shares
◉ Best Cat Cafes Around The World
◆ Featured on LA Times and 20 other websites
◉ Shared more than 2k times on Facebook
40. Content for Shares
◉ Best Cat Cafes Around The World
◆ Featured on LA Times and 20 other websites
◉ Shared more than 2k times on Facebook
41. ◉ Most Popular Attractions
Outside of London
◆ Shared more than 12k times
Content for Shares
42. Content for Shares
◉ Most Popular Attractions
Outside of London
◆ Shared more than 12k times
44. • Links remain the
most important
off-site factor
• More important than
ever to put
quality over quantity
• Ionian Villas - 17
linking domains, but
all high quality. Rank
extremely well.
Links
45. You should aim for a mix of links from a variety of sources and of different types:
Ideal mix of Links
Links from different
places – in-content/editorial,
list of links, comments
Highly relevant links on topical industry websites
Links from high authority domains
Links directly to your key pages
46. Highly relevant links on topical industry websites
Ideal mix of Links
You should aim for a mix of links from a variety of sources and of different types:
47. Links from high authority domains
Ideal mix of Links
You should aim for a mix of links from a variety of sources and of different types:
48. Links directly to your key pages
You should aim for a mix of links from a variety of sources and of different types:
Ideal mix of Links
49. You should aim for a mix of links from a variety of sources and of different types:
Links from different
places – in-content/editorial,
list of links, comments
Ideal mix of Links
50. ◆ Competitor
Analysis
◆ Google Searches
◆ Guest writing
◆ Directory
Submissions
How to get them
Highly relevant links on topical
industry websites
51. ◆ Content Marketing
◆ PR
◆ Guest writing
◆ University
Partnerships
How to get them
Links from Authority
Domains
52. ◆ Guest writing
◆ Link Partnerships
◆ Internal Links
How to get them
Links directly to your key pages
53. Things to avoid
Over optimised anchor text
Spammy links just for SEO
Link Networks
Anything automated
Anything which wouldn’t naturally happen
55. Content Marketing
When done right can gain coverage on the biggest websites
on the internet
Amazing for brand visibility, SEO, reputation management,
referral traffic etc.
Key is to create something of interest for large publications -
doesn’t need to be the brand message
Find the right hook and you can ‘go viral’
56. Content Marketing
Game of Thrones in real life
infographic
Featured on more than 100
websites
Including Washington Post,
Business Insider, Mashable
All time high traffic for client
Referral traffic 245% higher
than previous year
60. How did we do it ?
Game of Thrones hook was extremely strong - we released
graphic around the end of the season
Created something that looked great
Offered exclusive initially to a top-tier publication
Compiled an extensive outreach list
Promoted like crazy on social media
64. Content Marketing
Hi Rob
Hope you’re well
I’m writing as together with Lawrence of Morocco we’ve created a map featuring every real life
location used through the series’ of Game of Thrones which I thought you might be interested in
using as an exclusive on BI?
Obviously anticipation and interest is building around the upcoming finale of Season 5 and there is
a lot of interest around GoT maps in general, though nothing like this currently out there.
I’ve attached the map here for you to take a look - if you’d like to use it as an exclusive on the site
before we send it out to any other media then all we’d ask if that you link to
lawrenceofmorocco.com as the source.
If it would be helpful for me to write an intro for you to use then don’t hesitate to let me know and
I’d be happy to put something together for you.
Hope you like it!
Cheers
Tom.
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65. Do in depth keyword reserch
Set your site up correctly
and avoid technical issues
Create great content and
promote it well
Always be pursuing
great links
Summary
