Cruise Lines to Swamp Tours
Travel agents and cruise line call centers have managed to keep a steady hold of the product, rather than completely escaping into the wilds of the internet booking. But, it certainly doesn't stop would-be vacationers doing most of their research on the web. The battle for the hearts and minds of prospective voyagers are as fierce as any other part of the travel industry... perhaps even more so.
Today, lets look at some of the leading cruise brands and their search behavior and tactics. The results are interesting in the wider context of what the cruise industry is doing to lure land lovers to ships.
Christmas and New Year is the peak search period for the cruise line industry here along the third coast and and Florida's Gold Coast. Like most other sectors in travel, searching out a voyage has a particularly rhythm to the way searches are carried out during a year. It turns out that this time of year is the most popular part of the calendar for search activity "cruise holidays"
Nothing new here, but everyone with even a half-baked knowledge of SEO understands a site's position in search is predicated on the content and back-links. Building those links can?an aggressive and laborious discipline, but gaining "visibility" is half the battle for brands and an activity well worth implementing in any SEO strategy. The activity illustrates a strong sense of authority in terms of the number of sites noting its content and a measure in which Googles uses to rank your website. Simply put, the authoritativeness of a site is also dependent on the quality of the sites back-links.
The final piece?in the visibility puzzle surrounds how cruise lines use content above and beyond what they include on their sites, such as product listings and their engagements on social media pages.
This often can used to establish an "influence" score, based on metrics such Twitter retweets, and LinkedIn or Facebook likes.
However, the?killer method of securing a position in the organic section of Google's search pages is to create content that is both informative and shareable.
The cruise line experience is different in many ways and unusual for many reasons; but not least from a booking perspective that the majority of vacationers finalize their booking offline. Cruises often have involved itineraries with multiple stops, excursions, etc, while a swamp tours are about family day-cations, but getting ranked on Google is much the same.
SEO Best Practices
In order to rank for searches related to your cruise line. you need to employ some best practices. Make Your Website Design SEO-Friendly. Your business isn’t going to rank in search results if you have a bad website – it’s just not possible. So, here are some boxes your website needs to tickle in order to boost your SEO.
Mobile-Friendly Design Theme
Google now indexes the mobile version of a business’ website rather than the desktop version, as nearly three quarters of all on-line searches happened on mobile devices. So, it makes sense that Google wants to deliver a positive experience for would-be vacationer that are largely conducting their research on their phones.
Your website needs to be accessible – and readable – on any device. You don’t want a visitor to your site having to squint to read the content of your website. The key point is that you should design your website to work as well on mobile devices as it does on a desktop or a laptop.
Meta Data
Google has this bots that are referred to as spiders to crawl your website, social media content and profiles, the reads the content you have provided on the site or platform and indexes those pages. When a search occurs, the search engine’s algorithm ranks the indexed sites based on what it believes is most relevant to that query – taking into account a huge number of factors, like location, search intent, and more.
You should use HTML tags all you can – like title tags, meta descriptions, and image alt text to signal those spiders what your page is about; which helps simplify its indexing and increases your chances of ranking for relevant searches.
Website Speed.
Speed has long been a factor in increasing your chances of ranking in organic SEO results. In 2018, Google updated its algorithm to emphasize mobile speed as a ranking factor, but content still seems to be a more dominant factor. However, investing in a fast-loading website and making sure your pages load at a reasonable clip of speed is a good practice to follow.
Choose the Right Keywords
When most people hear the phrase “SEO,” they think keywords. Keywords are important because they signal to search engines what your website offers.
When it comes to keywords, it can feel like the possibilities are endless. Your cruise line, charter boat, travel agency or swamp tour likely has a large reservoir of keywords that are broad and will be extremely competitive to rank for.
When determining keywords for your SEO strategy, you want to get specific. Just like you’d kickback with a can of “pop” in Minnesota, you probably would do the same, but with a can of “Coke” in Mississippi, local markets have different vernaculars that they might use to ask a search engine the same basic thing.
Google is an audience of one. The search engine doesn’t live anywhere and has no reason whatsoever to go on a cruise; it only wants to connect the user to the most useful resource. To do this,?the search engine?looks at a mix of signals –?including keywords, and uses algorithms to figure out how?helpful a given?website might be.
Don’t Forget Local Listings
Your local listing, or local citation, is any online mention of your business name, location, phone number, website, business hours, and other basic information on the web. Your local listing is what comes up when a user types in a search term like “Caribbean cruises, travel agents, charter boats, steamboats to swamp tours near me,” what they see in the contact info when they visit your website or social pages, and even how a third-party source like an online website has your information listed.
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The customer obviously needs this information to get in touch with you. Search engines use citations to verify the quality of your website, and to a certain degree your business.
Many local listings, like Google My Business, give you a way to add images to your profile, and as we are coming to understand - it's the cradle of artificial intelligence or what I like to call GMB 2.0. We know that would be voyagers are looking at pictures as part of their decision-making journey, and this is another place for you to display that information for them and hopefully win them over as a customer.
Showcasing the Voyage
Social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube provide cruise line with a way to showcase their latest voyage, destinations, themes, events, a well as accommodations, and fun stuff a cruise is all about. They can share stunning photos and videos of decks and pool and highlight key features,with the benefit of real-time updates. Cruise lines to ship captains can share the details of their new adventure as soon as they navigate a successful route. They can also include information about their sea going stories, and all about the ports to be explored by their guest. Simply put showcasing life on and off board your ship will keep potential would be voyagers informed and improve brand awareness.
Becoming a Trusted Source of Information
Sharing content is not limited to commercial purposes, captain and crew can also educate social media users by sharing educational content, including the everything from the day before the start their adventure to weeks after on with tools on how to upload and share their experiences. Thus, users will spend more time visiting your social media accounts, and in return - the habit grows the number of people who follow them. Accordingly, this helps establish a you as an travel authority and increases brand recognition. Consider what social media platforms are suitable for specific goals and content. YouTube, for example, performs better with long videos; however, Facebook and Instagram are well-designed for short videos or photo-based content. Audience attributes in each platform may also be different.?
Engaging with Customers
Sharing content is how the industry builds and develop interactions with would-be voyagers across the North America, Europe, and anywhere navigable water exist. As a significant part of the customer service process, cruise lines need to take care of customer comments and messages in a professional and timely manner, even long after the voyage ends. This way, customers will go to the social media channels as a reliable and convenient way of contact to get their questions and concerns answered. You can also share customer reviews, testimonials, and images or videos as user-generated content. Not only does it show you value and appreciate your clientele, but it also builds trust for your cruise line and strengthens your brand reputation.
Promoting Events and Sales
On average, users spend 2.5 hours per day visiting social media. Take advantage of immediate access to these active users by promoting various theme cruises and events. Cruise lines can engage users to keep visiting their channel by sharing sales and promotional events, discounts, or special offers for their future cruise, which helps drive traffic to your booking agent and increase sales.
Targeted Advertising
The comprehensive use of social media helps maintain a wide variety of people as their audience. Pay Per Click Ads come with options to narrow down the audience based on the preferred customer attributes that many in the travel industry are looking for. You can target people, for instance, who live in a certain geographical location, are interested or employed in a particular area, and are in a specific age range and gender. You can build their own audience according to your social media activities. Then, you can target people who have already interacted with your social media accounts or website.
Incorporate Video SEO
Google is the world’s most popular search engine, but do you know what comes in at number two? It’s YouTube (which is owned by Google). YouTube is a powerful SEO tool for your cruise line, charter boat or swamp tour, because not only do YouTube videos surface in Google search results for relevant searches, but would-bevoyagers are also searching on YouTube during their research phase.
Pay Attention and Respond to Reviews
While we’re talking about "Best Practices", we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention reviews. Reviews are an important part of your online presence, and can impact your SEO as well. Respond to all of your reviews and ask your customers for feedback to keep building up your online reputation.
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8 个月Thanks for taking the time to read my post; I hope it inspires you to connect if you haven't already! I'd like to share with you a little about business, life, and fun here on the third coast - if you don't mind? The Redneck Riviera began in the Florida panhandle cities of Panama City & PCB. Also called LA... Lower Alabama, but more affectionately known as the "Redneck Riviera". A strip of surf and sand that stretches some 95-miles along Florida's Hwy 98, with the most beautiful sugar white beaches in the world. But, as time moves on, boundaries change, and the Redneck Riviera has as well; extending deep into Mississippi, and boot toe of Louisiana's Florida Parishes. Follow my page and see if a visit; business engagement; or perhaps a total relocation is right for you or your business. If you live, work, or play here already, please share in the comments what makes the 3rd Coast great for you. Corrections and especially local updates are always appreciated, and will be used to improve this post.