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The Keys to Optimize your Travel Content To Maximize SEO Success The 2024 Edition

¡Hola! I’m Aleyda Solis, 
 SEO Consultant, Speaker & Author KEYS TO TRAVEL CONTENT SEARCH OPTIMIZATION BY @ALEYDA FROM @ORAINTI I’m Aleyda Solis * SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti * SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries * Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.” * Crawling Mondays Video & Podcast Series Host * SEOFOMO & MarketingFOMO Newsletters Author * Maker LearningSEO.io * European Search Personality of the Year in 2018 * remoters.net Co-Founder

https://digitaloft.co.uk/the-impact-of-googles-helpful-content-update-on-travel-publishers/ Last months haven’t been kind to travel publishers organic search performance

Since last year, many travel sites have been negatively affected by Google's Updates https://www.webintravel.com/travel-industry-urged-to-diversify-organic-traffic-flow-amid-google-seo-leaks/ 
 https://www.phocuswire.com/google-seo-search-travel-blogger-ota-core-update-march

From popular independent travel blogs with well optimized content for search

To established travel publications 
 part of media networks

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/08/helpful-content-update It’s now not enough to feature descriptive, relevant content to win, it also needs to be people-first. 
 But what does this mean?

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/ It’s natural to have concerns! Is Google still a viable channel for travel creators?

HOW DID WE GET HERE? 1. HOW TO IDENTIFY YOUR OWN SPECIFIC CONTENT ISSUES AND SEARCH OPPORTUNITIES 2. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO GROW YOUR CONTENT SEO RESULTS AND AVOID GETTING HIT 3. Let’s go through it

How Did We Get Here?

This is Google’s reaction to industry trends and tactics used by sites to manipulate or monetize search while not always giving the best experience

The usage of AI generated content to produce low quality spam at scale to rank

Sites publishing content targeting queries for the sake of growing and monetizing traffic without real topic expertise or experience

Aggressive monetization via intrusive ads giving a bad user experience

This is why Google initially released their product reviews system in 2021 https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/reviews-system

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/12/google-raters-guidelines-e-e-a-t + Added Experience to their EAT content principles to be checked by quality raters

https://developers.google.com/search/help/helpful-content-faq And also released the helpful content update that has been now incorporated in major Google core updates

https://blog.google/products/search/google-search-update-march-2024/ All this culminated with March Core Update, focused on reducing by 45% low quality content

But as an outcome, big brands & UGC grew to unprecedented visibility across sectors Advanced Web Rankings & SimilarWeb

Just take a look at Reddit’s visibility growth and results for popular travel queries Sistrix

Despite complaints about the lack of reliability and accuracy of UGC, Google justifies their inclusion

At the same time, many independent publishers have been losing visibility vs less deserving sites, without recovery so far

Google has answered addressing the difficulty of getting updates “right” for all at scale, while asking for patience and feedback

However, this doesn’t mean it’s not worthy to fix issues in case you have them and take all what has happened into account within your SEO strategy

There are independent travel publications that continue to grow despite this

How To Identify Your Own Specific Content Issues and Opportunities

Start by establishing your content organic search performance, especially increases/decreases correlated with the latest updates https://status.search.google.com/products/rGHU1u87FJnkP6W2GwMi/history

Google Search Console & GSC Guardian Analyze your Google Search Console clicks & Position Trends along with updates

Compare the before & after of the affected period to assess the gap in queries & pages Google Search Console & Google Search Console Enhanced Analytics

Export to assess the queries and pages 
 affected by real rankings drops & increases

Identify those with actual rankings drops/ increases, rather than SV or CTR changes The goal will be to Identify issues on pages targeting affected queries to fi x and avoid from now on The goal will be to Identify characteristics on pages targeting improved queries to learn and expand further RANKINGS DECREASE RANKINGS INCREASE

Sistrix, Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking You can also use SEO tools to identify affected queries & pages by ranking drops

Sistrix, Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking Context is important: Identify the pages 
 that increased while yours decreased

Advanced Web Rankings You can do this in bulk to identify those Websites & pages outranking yours for a group of queries with AWR

Similarweb As well as to identify where the clicks go in bulk for a group of queries with SimilarWeb

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#2 Once you’ve identified that there has been an actual drop and affected queries and pages, you need to assess if it’s relevant to optimize further

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#2 Don’t do anything. 
 
 The queries that dropped are not really meant to rank queries for your site, and not bringing any business value. You shouldn’t have ranked for them Create and optimize from a technical, content and experience perspective the pages that will ful fi ll the need of the relevant queries that dropped, making sure they provide a more comprehensive, authoritative and higher quality experience than the best ranked ones Optimize from a technical, content and experience perspective the pages that will ful fi ll the need of the relevant queries that dropped, making sure they provide a more comprehensive, authoritative and higher quality experience than the best ranked ones Don’t do anything. 
 
 If you are really already providing a better quality, comprehensive, authoritative experience than the best ranked pages with well optimized ones that are the relevant to ful fi ll the need and rank at that stage of the search journey… they should regain their rankings soon. Let’s go through the main scenarios Rankings dropped for non relevant queries for your site to rank You don’t have pages to ful fi ll the user search needs of meaningful queries You have pages to ful fi ll the user search needs of meaningful queries at that stage of the journey but they’re not optimized You have pages to ful fi ll the user search needs of meaningful queries at that stage of the journey and they’re fully optimized

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#2 Don’t do anything. 
 
 The queries that dropped are not really meant to rank by your site and are not bringing any business value. You shouldn’t have ranked for them in the fi rst place. 1. Rankings dropped for non relevant queries for your site to rank

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#2 Create and optimize new pages from a technical, content and experience perspective that will ful fi ll the need of the relevant queries that dropped, making sure they provide a more comprehensive, authoritative and higher quality experience than the best ranked ones. 2. You don’t have pages to fulfill the user search needs of meaningful queries

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#2 Optimize the existing pages from a technical, content and experience perspective that will ful fi ll the need of the relevant queries that dropped, making sure they provide a more comprehensive, authoritative and higher quality experience than the best-ranked ones. 3. You have pages to fulfill the user search needs of meaningful queries at that stage of the journey but they’re not optimized

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#2 Don’t do anything. 
 
 If you are really already providing a better quality, comprehensive, authoritative experience than the best ranked pages with well optimized ones that are the relevant to ful fi ll the need and rank at that stage of the search journey they should regain their rankings soon. 4. You have pages to fulfill the user search needs of meaningful queries at that stage of the journey and they’re fully optimized

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#1-5 For affected relevant queries: It’s time to make your content the best in class!

What can you do to grow your content results & avoid getting hit?

Let’s start with a good base: avoiding automated, non- unique, thin or spammy content that goes against Google spam policies https://developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies#thin-affiliate-pages

You can use AI for ideation, outline and 
 the optimization process… Frase

Frase … but not to replace your own creator expertise and experience

Your content -text, images, videos- should be unique, useful, up-to- date, fluff-free, clearly showcasing your experience and USP as a creator Original Photos Original Video Helpful Related Content Trust Elements User Generated Content Helpful Insights Unique descriptive content Unique Offering

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content Google has shared questions to self-assess your content quality, usefulness, experience

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content Including those to assess if your content will be considered people-first

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content The key is focusing on topics for which you have a real specialty, expertise and unique insights to fulfill needs

https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content It’s ok to optimize people-first content 
 for which you have a real expertise

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12-F9Z4NzDADOFRQtOiN-CtjY2aaqj-R5CcrJNCuTha4/edit?gid=0#gid=0 I’ve created this sheet with the questions so you can assess your pages vs competitors

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12-F9Z4NzDADOFRQtOiN-CtjY2aaqj-R5CcrJNCuTha4/edit?gid=0#gid=0 These will help to assess your content beyond relevance and popularity Helpfulness and People Satisfaction Quality Expertise and Experience Presentation and production Page Experience

https://chatgpt.com/g/g-WxhtjcFNs-content-helpfulness-and-quality-seo-analyzer Use the Content Helpfulness and Quality SEO Analyzer GPT to evaluate your pages vs your competitors in bulk

Assess your content as Google Quality Raters do following the rater guidelines https://chatgpt.com/g/g-WxhtjcFNs-content-helpfulness-and-quality-seo-analyzer

Remember Google is Mobile First and Quality raters assess the mobile versions of the site and take page experience into account, make your pages easy to read and browse despite ads

It’s time to look at the SERPs to assess how you’re targeting users search needs vs top ranked pages: From content type, format, freshness, comprehensiveness Advanced Web Rankings

Advanced Web Rankings Start monitoring your SERP visibility beyond rankings, to assess potential traffic impact

Compare your page vs competitors: Are you fulfilling users’ needs better & faster? vs

Target topics you have actual expertise and first hand experience for which you can feature unique, useful insights and advice

Identify relevant questions to address with your content via PAAs and social platforms AlsoAsked & Keyword Insight

Assess your own branded queries, 
 and your top competitors ones: What are the top topics that are relevant for you to address? Semrush, Ahrefs, Sistrix, SimilarWeb

https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/seo-flowcharts/#3 Consider pruning those pages targeting non-relevant topics for which you don’t have expertise and are not meaningful to target

As well as updating older outdated content that has decreased in performance seotesting.com

Showcase your site authority and expertise prominently featuring who’s behind your content and why they should trust it

Clearly disclose your criteria to advertise and refer affiliate products while following Google’s Product Reviews Guidelines, adding value to the user https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/ecommerce/write-high-quality-reviews

Semrush, Ahrefs, Sistrix Grow your brand authority by developing free helpful resources, checklist, newsletter and tools, that attract backlinks and increase branded searches

Need inspiration? Take a look at the top pages attracting backlinks from your major competitors and best performing industry sites Semrush, Ahrefs, Sistrix

Invest in your community for experienced content, moderate it and optimize too

https://www.amsive.com/insights/seo/googles-helpful-content-update-ranking-system-what-happened-and-what-changed-in-2024/ Following these guidelines will avoid you falling into patterns found in publications with traffic drops in recent Google’s updates, like in this analysis by Lily Ray

https://zyppy.com/seo/google-update-case-study/ Cyrus Shepard also identified on-page characteristics associated with sites gains or declines after latest Google updates, aligned to these criteria too

https://zyppy.com/seo/google-update-case-study/ First person pronouns, first hand experience, cookie consent, featuring contacts, prominent social links are correlated with winners

https://zyppy.com/seo/google-update-case-study/ These provide a great user experience and showcase the site's trust.. it’s what established brands do

https://zyppy.com/seo/google-update-case-study/ Showing fixed ads in footer and fixed video ads, stock images, a high number of ads, notification and missing logo with mega menus, are correlated with losers

https://zyppy.com/seo/google-update-case-study/ These provide a bad user experience and make to distrust the site.. it’s not what established brands do

It’s also important to not only fix, but also build while avoiding recurrent SEO issues to maximize your resources

That’s how you’ll be able to be competitive FIXING IMPROVING BUILDING Creating content to target new relevant queries through user search journey Optimizing existing content for already targeted relevant queries Minimizing tech and content debt to avoid crawlability, indexability and page experience issues SEO SUCCESS

SEO ACTION PLAN ONGOING SEO EXECUTION SEO QUALITY ASSURANCE FRAMEWORK EDUCATION 
 To prevent SEO mistakes VALIDATION 
 To avoid launching 
 SEO Errors MONITORING 
 To catch SEO incidents fast Set an SEO quality framework through 
 the whole SEO process

Establish an SEO configuration checklist to validate when doing any blog update or release. Copy this one to start. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TSu_h9Hw-U0rLv0xO46jeV0w3o_LmIsRWMLI7WhLfNM/

PRE-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? SEO IMPLEMENTATION YES NO YES ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION SEO RELEASE NO FIX POST-RELEASE SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX ON-GOING SEO VALIDATION: OK? YES NO FIX IN LESS 24H REVERSE IMPLEMENTATION Set a release validation workflow, before/ after launch, taking “what-ifs” into account

Continuously monitor SEO configuration of the different pages types to ensure status https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bU7yt3RnOAQ_FfhFidJgcaFKOnEaRm1bVvAF3UQzJE8/

ContentKing Little Warden SEO Radar Use real-time SEO crawlers to be alerted 
 of unwanted SEO changes fast ContentKing, Little Warden and SEO Radar

Configure your real-time monitoring to catch when meaningful tech & content change

Set the alerts for them as well as for rankings, search features, visibility, market share shifts for your key queries

WEB PLATFORM CONFIGURATION/SETTINGS CHANGES INTEGRATED VALIDATION ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB RANKINGS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS QUERIES SEARCH POPULARITY DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB CONTENT & TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION CHANGES ALERTS CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO CONFIGURATION CHECKLIST FOR COMMON WORKFLOWS COMPANY CONTENT OPTIMIZATION & TECH SEO GUIDELINES/WIKI ONLINE SEO TRAINING AND Q&AS FOR TECH/CONTENT/[STAKEHOLDERS] TEAMS RECURRING / ONGOING SEO TECH/CONTENT VALIDATION PRE & POST WEB RELEASES EDUCATION VALIDATION MONITORING MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS WEBSITE SEARCH CRAWLING ISSUES ALERTS SPAM OR MANUAL ACTIONS ALERTS RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS FEATURING SEO CONCEPTS & IMPORTANCE TOWARDS GOALS MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC & CONVERSIONS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB RANKINGS DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS QUERIES SEARCH POPULARITY DECREASE/INCREASE ALERTS WEB CONTENT & TECHNICAL CONFIGURATION CHANGES ALERTS MENTIONS & BACKLINKS ALERTS This is how you say goodbye to continuous SEO issues that hold your execution back

https://speakerdeck.com/aleyda/goodbye-seo-fck-ups-learn-to-set-an-seo-quality-assurance-framework Learn more about setting an SEO Quality Assurance Framework in this presentation

https://learningseo.io/ Access more free SEO resources for Google Core Search Updates Analysis & recovery, and other SEO scenarios in LearningSEO.io

https://hub.seofomo.co/ Keep updated with the latest news in SEO for free with my weekly SEOFOMO newsletter, join +34K SEOs

It’s time to follow a user-first holistic SEO approach, to give the best experience & win

Do you think it's too much work? 
 It’s about prioritizing impact vs effort Recommendation Impact Effort To Prioritize Medium impacting with high effort 6 4 12 Low impacting with high effort 4 4 8 Low impacting with very high effort 4 2 6 Very low impacting with very high effort 2 2 4 IMPACT EFFORT 1. To Execute 
 Now Don’t Do 2. To Assess 
 & Prioritize 2. To Assess 
 & Prioritize

To help you assess this, you can use 
 my SEO prioritization template https://www.aleydasolis.com/en/search-engine-optimization/seo-recommendations-prioritization-presentation-templates/

This makes it all worth it!

But what about AI Overviews? Don’t worry! 
 I got your back. Check this presentation https://speakerdeck.com/aleyda/the-impact-of-ai-in-seo-ai-overviews-june-2024-edition

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleyda/ and https://x.com/aleyda Do you want more like this? Follow me!

Thanks! Questions? KEYS TO TRAVEL CONTENT SEARCH OPTIMIZATION BY @ALEYDA FROM @ORAINTI I’m Aleyda Solis * SEO Consultant & Founder at Orainti * SEO Speaker at +100 Events in +20 countries * Author “SEO. Las Claves Esenciales.” * Crawling Mondays Video & Podcast Series Host * SEOFOMO & MarketingFOMO Newsletters Author * Maker LearningSEO.io * European Search Personality of the Year in 2018 * remoters.net Co-Founder