There are lot of great travel blogs out there, but there are ways to improve your SEO and stand out from the crowd. Whether you just blog for fun, or have more of a business focus, there are ways you can improve your bounce rates, conversions and goals (if you have any), and increase traffic to your site. There are a lot of articles out there with general SEO advice that you have probably read over and over. Here are a few tips specifically for those of you with itchy feet:
1. Host your travel blog yourself
Travel blogging has a lot of scope. There are travel bloggers who have a huge cache, and there are niches for opportunities if you can find them. If you are serious about your blog, or are planning on monetising your blog in the future, it is extremely useful to host yourself and have your own domain. You can buy annually from around $11 via Page.ly (https://pagely.com/) and DreamHost (http://www.dreamhost.com/). If you are just blogging for the fun of it, you can just use a WordPress or Tumblr hosted blog and address (e.g. travelblogspot.wordpress.com), but bear in mind this gives you less flexibility.
2. Get your landing pages sorted
A landing page is where you are linking back to a specific page, or trying to drive traffic to a certain page. This will enhance the flow within your website and hopefully attract new readers. There is a lot of debate about whether your landing page should be very long or very short, and a lot of talk about how this affects bounce rates. In particular, if you are a monetized travel blog, or are looking to do so, a good landing page can have a direct link to conversions. There is actually no golden rule for how long your landing page should be.
3. Look at the layout
What matters is if the page is clear, well-laid out with easy to use side bars and navigation, as well as appealing pictures of your travel adventures. Kudos to you if you are great at web design, but for others there are designers such as BlogMilkhttp://www.blogmilkshop.com/, Dribbblehttp://dribbble.com/, and Themeforesthttp://themeforest.net/.
4. Travel Keywords
To increase web traffic to your travel blog, and to keep a handle on what is going on with your site, having a basic knowledge of Google Analytics is a must (see this useful article on Analytics here: http://bloggers-lounge.co.uk/tech-tips/bloggers-guide-google-analytics/). There is obviously a lot of competition for travel keywords: trying to compete over keywords such as ‘travel’ or ‘travel blog’ will probably not be a fruitful venture. Carve out your own niche. If you love Northern Europe, or travel to see museums, focus on these themes and tag your articles accordingly. Don’t compete in a dense field!
5. Make friends with other travel bloggers!
This is the fun bit. Mention the bloggers you love, or who inspire you on your own blog. There is nothing wrong with getting someone you have a common travel interest with, or who has travelled somewhere you haven’t, guest posting on your blog. Cultivate a community –write about your favourite blogs, tweet and engage on social media. There are conferences and blogger meet ups you can take part in too, such as TBEX http://tbexcon.com/2013-europe/. You will see a difference in links and visitors!
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