Through the use of our purpose-built Travel Content Management System, one of the unique features of the Tour Operator brochure content that we supply is “advanced feature tagging”. More and more travel websites are adding a more lifestyle focussed search and if you are still using the traditional date, destination, price-led style search, then you could benefit from adding extra functionality to your website to allow such lifestyle-led searches.

We are great believers in innovation and this includes more focus on what the consumer wants, therefore we have tagged all of our content by different features a customer may look for in a holiday, for example: – Kids’ Club, Spa Facilities, Internet access, Young & Lively, etc. We are currently using more than 100 different features with our content, meaning customers have a range of choice when searching by particular facilities or features of a holiday. There is nothing worse than having to read through every Tour Operator brochure description to narrow down suitable accommodation. Our advanced feature tagging saves the customer time, more closely matches their needs and therefore increases your conversion and booking ratios.

Our experienced content management team regularly update our travel brochure content and ensure it is correctly matched to the latest booking codes.

Cruise Content

In addition to the standard Tour Operator brochure content, we also have an extensive Cruise Content database which includes all major cruiselines as well as many smaller cruise operators. Our Cruise Content includes details of the Ship, Full Itineraries, Deck Plans, Images, Lead price information and more. All of our Cruise Content is regularly updated.

We supply travel and cruise content with added value, at very competitive rates. Contact us today for further information.

From the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog 19/01/2012

In our ongoing effort to help you find more high-quality websites in search results, today we’re launching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result.

Anyone paying attention to the Google Panda changes of 2011 should have already been looking at the amount of advertising they have above the fold of their pages, but if you didn’t alter anything back then, thinking you were unaffected, then you need to check again.

Google’s main focus is user experience and users do not visit websites simply to click on ads, they are seeking content that will interest them or is useful to them.

Google are very clear in their statement, if ads above the fold are not excessive, then this is acceptable and the website should be unaffected by the algorithm change.  However, if the amount of advertising above the fold is deemed excessive by Google then you will more than likely notice your rankings slide.   If your website relies on income from advertising then we highly recommend that you take action now to avoid losing search engine positions.

How do you know what is excessive?  Look at first impressions of your website pages from a user perspective as much as possible and think whether your ad positions could be improved.  Closely monitor your positions in Google and keep a record of any changes you make and when you made them.  As long as you carefully monitor your positions and the changes you make, you should be able to ascertain what works and apply this across more of your pages.

Please contact us for further advice on search engine optimisation and increasing sales conversions.

“It was good to have some serious support from the industry for what is a totally innovative solution and brand new Sales channel”, explains Managing Director, Alan Kersley.  ”Companies such as Cosmos Holidays, Olympic Holidays and Virgin provide us with a solid offer of traditional package holidays.  Adding smaller specialist Operators such as Anatolian Sky, Sunvil, Red Sea Holidays, Serenity, Jewel in the Crown and Wings Abroad, further added to our depth of product.”

“With half a dozen Cruiselines featured, and a couple of additional Ski specialists, we are well on our way to covering all the different holiday types that the App was designed to cover”, adds Kersley.   “What we are now looking for are specialists in Tours, Activity and Special Interest holidays.”

Appi Holidays’ innovative search technology provides a Content, or Lifestyle-led Search experience.  It uses the holiday types and relating lifestyle holiday features to narrow down the selection of product to a shortlist for the User.   Chosen holidays can then be viewed in full detail – as per the brochure descriptions and images – then added to a “wishlist”, “shared” with a friend on Facebook, Twitter or Email, or the supplier can be contacted directly for a quote and booking.

The App is driven by Travel Affinity’s own Content Management  and Distribution Platform and a full, bookable ‘desktop’ site will be launched very shortly, featuring the same Search technology.

We thought we’d share one of our success stories with you in SEO and Marketing work for one of our Clients.

In less than 6 months, we have managed to increase the level of traffic to one of our Tour Operator customer websites by an amazing 40.67%.  Note – this wasn’t through PPC or a massive back-link campaign … but sheer fine-tuning and proper optimisation of their site, leading to an increase in purely organic traffic.

The Challenge
Now we can’t say that it has been easy.  For a start, our client operates in the some of the most competitive markets in Travel, as far as search terms in Google go, i.e. Turkey.  With the problems in the Eurozone and Turkey being outside of the EU, over the last 2 seasons this has become the most popular holiday destination for us Brits.  Needless to say, all the major Operators have been vigorously competing for Search Terms on those destinations and resorts.

Another issue that made it all the more difficult for us was the Travel CMS being used by the Customer to manage their site content which, although reasonably SEO capable, it is a neglected system, not updated to the most recent stable version and therefore had plenty of bugs.  Duplicate page titles and meta descriptions were found throughout the site causing Google and website visitors much confusion and leading to poorly ranked pages!

Finally, we inherited a Blog site which was disjointed from the main website and not integrated in any way; it hadn’t been updated in several months.  There was a complete lack of consistency in branding; the site looked fine, but the Blog and the Email Marketing didn’t match the branding. 

The Workload
Over the first month, we spent considerable time in running analysis and reports on the site structure, content and SEO positions.  We identified some lost opportunities with regard to various neglected products and destinations.  We considered how we might separate the content in the site from the purpose of the Blog and how it needed redesigning.  We looked at the branding and layout of the Email Marketing.

The first step was then to prioritise the tasks, starting with the ones that met the immediate needs of the business, then the ones with the most impact on resulting traffic, then on the more minor issues and additional opportunities.

Initially, there was a host of missing Content from the site, which was key for certain destinations, resorts and products, filling the gaps for what was on sale.  Needless to say, all this was SEO’d during writing and entered directly into the site CMS, to save revisiting later.

Next job was to tackle all the coding and technical issues within the existing CMS content.  This involved setting/resetting titles, tags, header code and styles, rewriting raw page content and eliminating old and different versions.   This is an ongoing job, as new material is added.  Some of the 301 redirects had also been incorrectly set-up which had to be addressed with the hosting company.

During the same period we also set about redesigning the Email Newsletter templates and took over responsibility for their production each week, to maintain consistency.  We did the same with the Blog, completely overhauling the look-and-feel to better represent the main brand and integrate with the website.

Finally, we settled into generating some unique and optimised content for the Blog, on a regular basis, to keep the site fresh, increase Google listings for relevant search terms and subsequently build the traffic. 

We have sourced some new backlinks for the site, but only ones that would be seen as “natural” backlinks, concentrating on quality rather than quantity.  We only employ “white-hat” SEO practices and adhere to Google’s guidelines for best practice, therefore never jeopardising our client’s rankings in Google.

The End Result

In the 5 months that we have been tasked with this site: –

• We have increased year-on-year organic traffic to the site by some 40.67% !!
• We have improved positions on virtually all the targeted keyword phrases in Google
• We have suggested, introduced and gained positions for completely new phrases
• The Blog pages we produced are some of the most highly visited sections of the client’s website

A happy customer!

UPDATE: 15th June 2012
Since posting this, we have now managed to DOUBLE the traffic to this customer’s website, thus dramatically increasing their online sales opportunities!

For more information on how we can help do the same for your business, please contact us.

Traditional travel websites haven’t changed that much in the past few years, outdated systems still present holidays to customers via the the old-fashioned departure date, destination selection path, etc. and sell on price alone.  Most travel websites don’t allow consumers to simply browse holidays, it’s all about selling the product and not much thought is given to the overall consumer experience.  Most consumers are primarily on a fact-finding mission, they know they want to go on holiday but probably don’t even know where they want to go yet.  There are websites selling holidays, review websites such as Trip Advisor, travel forums, informative travel blogs and travel guides, etc., but this then becomes information overload, and armed with all this research, it is a really time consuming task to then go back to the holiday booking websites and find the right holiday accommodation.  Tour Operators are trying to make their websites more user friendly by adding wish lists, etc., but consumers really want to keep all of their prospective holidays in one place, from a range of different Tour Operators.

And now technology has moved on again with the arrival of smartphones opening up a whole new travel marketing channel.  The internet is saturated with websites selling travel, it is becoming increasingly difficult to compete for search engine rankings and pay-per-click marketing is a costly exercise.  There has been a steady stream of Tour Operators failing in the past couple of years and those still in business are struggling in a fiercely competitive market.  Many Tour Operators are in a stalemate position where they know they need to invest in new travel technology to move forward and grow their business but there isn’t the budget available in these difficult economic times.  If you are a Tour Operator looking into iPhone App development, we may have a much more cost effective solution for you.

Mobile Marketing Opportunity for Tour Operators

Appi Holidays is a brand new travel mobile marketing channel, due to launch in July 2011, and offers the perfect opportunity for Tour Operators to reach a whole new market with minimal financial outlay.  Appi Holidays isn’t just another mobile version of a traditional travel website though, it has been designed with the consumer in mind.  If you think of the success of websites such as Amazon, they market to potential customers in a very unique way.  Customers can browse books and other products from a selection of different suppliers, create wish lists, share with friends, and basically research products not necessarily to buy immediately, it is a whole new way of window shopping.  Customers like to be able to do this, the time they have invested in doing research on the site is not wasted, they can come back when they are ready to buy and make their final decision.  Consumer needs are changing, and Appi Holidays has taken this on board, Appi Holidays has been designed to improve the overall customer experience and provides Tour Operators with more relevant leads.

Appi Holidays Features

You can find out more on the Appi Holidays website but these are the features in brief: -

• Appi Holidays is a Travel App for the iPhone/iPod Touch
• Featuring holidays departing from/and in the UK
• Featuring all kinds of holidays, e.g. Sun & Beach, Tours, Ski, Adventure, Citybreaks, etc.
• Employing a “lifestyle needs” led search, e.g. kids club, water sports, wi-fi, peaceful, disabled facilities, golf, etc.
• Travel Directory featuring Tour Operator and other Travel Companies such as car hire providers, etc.
• Browse by Destination for those who know where they want to go
• Ability to share holidays with friends via Facebook, Twitter, Email, etc.
• Build multiple wish lists of interesting holidays
• Request a callback from Tour Operators about interesting holidays
• Coming soon – holidays bookings direct from mobile phones (subject to connection)

Mobile Marketing for Tour Operators

Free iPhone Travel App from Appi Holidays – coming soon

For more information about getting your holidays featured in Appi Holidays, please contact Travel Affinity on 01733 391678

How did Google decide which websites were good and which were poor?

Documents were sent to outside testers asking questions along these lines:  “Would you be comfortable entering your credit card details on this site? Would you be happy giving medicine prescribed by this site to your children?  Do you consider this site to be authoritative?   Would it be okay if this was in a magazine?  Does this site have excessive ads?”  They then decided on a definition of what could be considered as poor quality.

Have the right websites been penalised?

Google’s Chrome Site Blocker allows people to manually exclude sites from their search results and these results were useful as a comparison tool to check the right websites were being downgraded as a result of the algorithm change.  There was an 84% overlap when they compared sites blocked by Site Blocker users compared to sites downgraded by Google.  The data from the Site Blocker was not used as part of the algorithm criteria.

What exact criteria is Google using to decide which sites to penalise?

Google are not going to divulge this information, for the simple fact that the people churning out the low value websites will be able to use workarounds to bring their rank back up.

Should I be concerned?

There are no guarantees that your rankings won’t be affected and you should take an objective look at your website.

If you have advertising on your website, check it is not excessive.  Make sure it is not overloaded above the fold of the page, i.e. in the first part of the page the user sees without scrolling.  Research shows that many sites affected by the updates in the US had a lot of advertising above the fold of the page.

Do you have a good balance of text, images and links?  Is the content unique?  It is mainly the content farms that have been hit by these updates, hence the early nickname Google’s Farmer update.  If your content is unique, well-balanced and contributes to a good user experience then these are all positives.

General good practice for Websites

• Keep your metadata relevant and not spammy, i.e. not stuffed with keywords
• Grow relevant backlinks as naturally as possible using good quality content as linkbait.
• If you exchange links with other websites, make sure the other website is relevant and don’t overdo it.
• Keep your content readable and not over-stuffed with keywords
• Make sure your content is unique
• Ensure your site navigation contributes to a positive user experience

Google’s update is aimed at improving the user experience.  There are other criteria they could potentially be including, e.g. page loading speed, but it really is a guessing game and SEO experts can only make assumptions based on which sites were affected by the US update.  If you get some traffic from the US, check your Google Analytic Stats to see if you have had a reduction in traffic coming from there since 23^rd February when the algorithmic update was launched.

If you are currently competing against low-quality websites that are thin on content and heavy on advertising, then you may be pleasantly surprised by the changes!

So what is “Social Media”?

The term “Social Media” is generally applied to any website, network or system, whose content is mainly contributed by its Users, for the benefit of other Users or Members on the site.  It is a new genre of simple communication between people in an online “community”.

Such sites and systems have existed for many years, especially discussion forums, but it is only during the last 5 years or so that new versions of the technology became very simple to use and very popular.

Today, the most famous are Facebook and Twitter – providing the opportunity for everyone to communicate in a simple way with their friends, family, colleagues or special interest groups – by ‘posting’ their news, opinions, comments and pictures for everyone to see.  And contributions can be made on a PC or from Mobile phones, making it always available.

These “Social Networks” are now the most visited sites on the internet and account for a huge proportion of the traffic online.  For this reason, it would seem that these sites must present a great opportunity to promote your company and products to their audience … or does it?

What are the opportunities presented by Social Media?

Talk to anyone in the Travel industry responsible for Marketing and they will tell you that it is critical to have a Facebook page and Twitter account for your company.  But how much of this is because of the current “buzz” and how much is based on hard and fast facts?

Starting with Facebook; creating an Account, then a dedicated Page for your company is fairly straightforward.  This means that you have an opportunity to ‘post’ messages on your page – maybe snippets of news, or special offers.  However, you will need to invite people to “Like” or view your page and add it to their favourites, else no-one will see it!!  This often relies on calling on friends of your staff to spread the word on Facebook for you.

Once you have around 20+ people who have added you to their favourites, you can even have your own URL (www.facebook.com/yourcompany), which you can use on your stationery, website and other promotional material.  But you need to keep the page ‘fresh’ with new and useful messages.

Now, onto Twitter.  Again creating an Account is simple enough and you get your own Twitter Address (@yourcompany).  Twitter allows you to “microblog” – ie. Post short messages on Twitter – which other users may find when searching using keywords (eg. Travel, Holidays etc.).   If someone likes your “Tweets”, they may decide to “follow” you.  This means that they will receive all your posts to their Twitter account.

More and more, people are using Twitter as a more immediate and simpler method to hold conversations, as opposed to email.  It can be difficult to know what you should post to effectively bring people to view your product.  Usually companies resort to posting quick news items, with a link to a Blog or website page for more information.

Of course, there are other Social Networks – Bebo, MySpace, Ning etc – as well as other sites such as Flickr for sharing photos, and YouTube for sharing video.  All of these have their uses for both public and commercial purposes and are worth investigation.  Often nowadays, companies are posting information and training videos on YouTube and maybe Product shots on Flickr, making them readily available to consumers and ‘signposting’ traffic to discover more on your website.

Does Social Media Marketing really help sell Travel?

The jury is still out on this one and there is much disagreement within the Travel industry.  Naturally, those in the Marketing camp would say it is vital to be involved, whilst those of a more logical nature (IT people!) will argue that, whilst it has its use, it will not result in direct Sales.

Try and put yourself in the place of the consumer.   When you or I use Facebook, it is generally to share news or information with our friends and family, or to have a moan at the world.  Whilst I am posting my pictures of the great weekend I’ve had and telling everyone about it, do I really want to see Holiday Offers interspersed in MY page? 

Facebook is a communication tool.  I go there to communicate with mates.  If I wanted to buy products, I go to Ebay, or would Google for Travel sites.  True, I might be interested in the odd snippet of interesting information on a particular Destination, or in a link to a Video of a Resort, but that would be about the limit of it.  It is so important to use Facebook in the right way, so as not to alienate people and get them to ‘unlike’ you!

The same goes for Twitter.  I am using it to keep in touch with my mates, whilst on the move and keep in touch with interesting (to me) ‘threads’ of discussion.  To see Tweets on Twitter for “holidays” or “travel” I would have to Search for it, otherwise I just won’t see them.  Ask yourself, would you really then be interested enough to “follow” your company Tweets if they were nothing but blatant promotions?   I might, however, follow Tweets on someone visiting a Destination that I am thinking of going to, as they Tweet with their experiences and recommendations.

My conclusion

Social Media is definitely valuable as a tool to generate awareness and visibility in the Travel marketplace.  It is also important to use it to keep yourself in the news within the Travel industry.  In terms of business growth, however, keep your expectations in check!

I personally don’t think that Social Media today presents much opportunity for direct Sales. 
It also requires careful thought about what to post/tweet and lots of time and effort to make good use of the media.  It should be seen as part of the overall marketing mix.

Taking into account the likely effort involved, ask yourself where your time and money is best spent in promoting your business, then if you still have budget to spare … invest some in Social Media Marketing, using an Agency that knows what they’re doing.

Alan Kersley – Managing Director

Covering destinations for mainland Greece, Corfu, Crete, Kos, Rhodes, Zante, Santorini, Kefalonia, Mykonos, Skiathos and Cyprus, Olympic Holidays are promoting nearly 6 million holiday offers via the site.  Although the Greek Economy is seemingly in trouble, this is not expected to have much of an effect on the island destinations to any degree, so tourism is still strong in this region.

A second signing is Malta Direct, offering nearly 2 million offers to all Malta mainland resorts such as Valletta, St Paul’s Bay, St Julian’s, St George’s Bay, Marfa Bay, Bugibba, Qawra, Melliaha, Wardija, Sliema, Selmun and Mdina.  They also feature programs to the islands of Gozo and Comino.

“The inclusion of these two Operators gives us great coverage in the Middle and Eastern Mediterranean”, says Managing Director, Alan Kersley.  ”As our traffic builds over the next 3-6 months, we hope to help these companies increase their direct bookings from online holidaymakers.”

The site was “soft-launched” as part of our range of specialist services aimed at helping Holiday companies grow their travel business.

HotHolidayOffers portal features a growing range of medium-to-small holiday Operators who specialise in specific destinations.  The aggregated products enable consumers to search and book holidays, in a single site, directly with the site’s Tour Operators.  The site does not act as an Agent or Retailer, merely a Sales channel for direct bookings.

Travel Affinity Managing Director, Alan Kersley, explains “We know that there are plenty of smaller Tour Operators out there who just don’t get the market exposure they deserve.  HotHolidayOffers provides an affordable shared service for these Operators, increasing their online visibility and thus boosting their Sales.”

The concept has already gathered support from half a dozen package holiday Operators, with the site currently featuring products for Greece and the Greek Islands, Tunisia, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, Egypt, The Gambia, Bulgaria, Corsica and Croatia.   Kersley adds, “Following this launch we are planning to sign further Operators to expand the range of destinations and product available for the consumer.”

For more information, contact us.

We also realise that all Travel Companies are unique and have different products and approaches to the way they find and do business with their customers.  Travel Affinity is also unique; our approach is to understand your business, identify gaps and opportunities in your travel marketing strategy, then to suggest solutions that will help increase Sales.  This could be anything from being featured on one of our Holiday Portals,  to improving the Usability and Search Engine Optimisation of your existing Web site, or a Direct Mail campaign to encourage customer loyalty.

Our services and the experience within our team is extensive.  Collectively, we have many years of experience in Design, Print, Web site and Application Development within the Travel industry, for many large and small companies.

Our background in Travel Technology and Print enables us to Design and Develop some new and interesting solutions for use by our clients to help grow their business.  We are close to launching two new exciting Web portals, to bring Tour Operators new business … so watch this space!

If you feel you could be selling more holidays, but are not sure how, talk to us.