The Information Gain Optimisation Behind TUI's 12 Million Monthly Visitors

Welcome to another week of 'Growth Through Content.'

This time, we're turning the spotlight onto TUI, a juggernaut in the digital travel world. You'll learn:

• How TUI's exceptional user experience (UX) aligns perfectly with the buyer's journey, increasing engagement and conversions.
• The importance of brand trust and clear, accessible information in enhancing SEO performance.
• Practical insights on how TUI's content strategy serves a wide array of customer needs, from the casual browser to the ready-to-book traveler.

Let's dive in.

*******Notes*****

Before we dive in, here are the admin bits.

As always, here's a list of new SEO roles thanks to SEOjobs.com

SEO Consultant ~ Botify ~ $130,000+ ~ Hybrid New York (US) SEO Architect Contractor ~ ThinkShout ~ $85-$105/hr ~ Remote (US) Freelance SEO Analyst ~ The Lifetime Value Co ~ Remote (US)

Senior SEO Manager ~ Obility ~ $70k-95k ~ Remote (US/WW)

Director, Website & SEO ~ Devry University ~ 140k+ ~ Remote (US)

Digital PR Success

We know that most digital PR packages these days are selling 8 to 10 links.

But at JBH that's not how we do things. So, if you want to see how we land hundreds of links, here's a case study to check out.

Ok, that's enough, admin; back to the case study.

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What is TUI.co.uk?

TUI Group is a global leader in the travel and tourism industry, offering a wide range of services from holiday bookings to cruises and flights. Their online platform, TUI.co.uk, serves as a central hub for consumers looking to plan and book their next getaway.

What are Their SEO Metrics Like?

According to the latest data from Ahrefs, TUI.co.uk boasts a Domain Rating (DR) of 78 and a URL Rating (UR) of 45, with an impressive backlink profile of over 1.1 million backlinks from 11,700 referring domains.

It generates 12 million visitors a month, and acquiring them through PPC would cost an estimated $6.9 million.

But what's good about their site?

A Home Page That Gets the Buyers Journey

It’s hard not to praise Tui’s home page for its UX and understanding of the buyer's journey.

People come to Tui to look for holidays.

But they have thought about every type of search intent.

Once you land on the home page, you can see how it services multiple intents.

The number is at the top for those who want to get on the phone and book.

A search bar at the top of the page serves those who know what holiday and destination they would like to view.

Then, we have faceted search filters followed by a huge hero slider with different options.

But I want to talk about the faceted search filters.

I think this is one of the best examples of a trend that will soon become normal in web searches.

The buttons aren’t just ‘click here or buy now. ' They have details and nice copy as well, and a simple arrow gives the copy more space to breathe.

Buttons like this are a huge way to help visitors find information faster and actually provide more information than a link.

Next up, we have a nice marketing promise section:

They follow up with more faceted search tiles below:

The reason I love these search fascets so much is that they actually give enough information so that people can make the decision to click.

This is what people call a high information gain rate (regarding information foraging theory).?

Following this, we have a section to filter via holiday type:

And then there is a ‘where’s hot when’ section.

This is a genius example of knowing how people search and answer customer search intent.

It’s also auto-populated by this month and provides examples including a % chance of rain.

Up next, we have a traveling on a budget and a curated list of holidays.

They cover every type of customer need from their home page and provide easy links to the next section.

And they finish off with a nice bit of social proof and contact details.

Destination Pages That Get to the Point

Tui has over 15,000 pages on its site related to destinations, driving about 5 million visitors.

And the effort that has gone into each page is impressive.

Again we have a page that services multiple search intent.

From researching to buying, with images and even a nice pop up map.

For SEO nerds, this nice, expandable section with information is no doubt useful for rankings.

But this next section is truly fascinating.

They are leveraging behavioral science by using terms such as ‘popular hotels’ and popular holidays.’

As humans, we look for mental shortcuts to make decisions, and this form of social proof is great for filtering information because we don’t want the best; we usually want ‘good enough’.

And popular hotels are a sign of social proof that draws us to click.

Next we have a top destinations section.

You can check out the rest on the page itself here https://www.tui.co.uk/destinations/caribbean/mexico/holidays-mexico.html

Because I want to dive into their content.

Travel Content By a Travel Agent

There is a lot of noise online from the travel blog community because they’ve been hit hard in the recent updates.

So, I wanted to check out the Tui travel blog side, which is under their Discover section.

https://www.tui.co.uk/discover

According to ahrefs, while they have lost some traffic recently, their blog section has largely held.

Of course, many will say it’s because of their domain power.

This is no doubt true, but what is the standard of their content like?

I wanted to make this as fair as I could to the travel bloggers out there because I know many have been hit.

So, I found a site that I could use to make a like-for-like article comparison.

To protect the travel bloggers' site, I won’t disclose their details. But I will share some insights.

Please note that what I’m about to show is not trying to kick anyone when they are down.

I’m hopeful that this might help some travel bloggers to gain some information.

The Tui article I chose to compare gains about 500 visitors a month.

https://www.tui.co.uk/discover/best-time-to-visit-costa-rica

The travel blogger still gains some traffic but has been hit by the March update, losing half their traffic to their article.

But what about the content?

Well, it’s clear that the core keyword is ‘best time to visit Costa Rica’.

So, how does the Tui article deliver this information?

It delivers it in the very first line.

But what about the travel blogger? Where is their main answer to the keyword?

It’s not in the first paragraph.

It’s not in the second.?

In fact, it’s not until halfway down the page that you get the information.

During this, I’m served up endless ads and photos of the travel blogger in a 3800-word article.

The article is virtually impossible to read due to the ads, and while I’m sure there are media publishers ranking for loads of keywords, I have always said that to monetise with ads, you must have a brand or always risk being hit by an update.

The Tui article just gets straight to the point under every header.

This page is easy for humans and machines to extract information from, and I feel this is the future of SEO.

Ok, so how can you use the information in this week's article?

Information Gain is the Future of Search

The rate at which both humans and machines can extract information from your page and find what they want is key to SEO.

From a UX point of view, you should consider search intent and the buyer's journey.

When people land on your website, why are they there, and what information do they need?

When they read an article, how easy and fast can the reader gain the information you promised them in the headline?

This applies to everything. From your home page to your content and sales pages.

And this is my priority these days regarding SEO.

Increase the rate of information gain and ease of accessing information.

Thanks for reading.

Andrew Holland