When people travel they’re always looking for things to see and do.
That’s why tours are some of the main attractions in nearly every town around the world.
There is always something interesting to explore.
When I think of tours I think of the Wisconsin Dells. There are a handful of different tours that a person can take of the river and the oddly shaped riverbanks and rocks. You can ride World War II Era machines. You can ride jet boats. Or you can take a kayak tour.
What you might know if you’re a tour operator is that you’re always competing against other things to see and other tour operators in your area.
One way to gain an advantage online is with search results. Here are some vital SEO tips for your tour operator website.
1. Put Your Address On Every Page In Text
For local businesses the big one is to make sure your address is on your contact page, possibly with a Google Maps embedded feature, as well as in the footer on every page.
It might even be worth putting the address in the header so it’s on every page.
Google looks for addresses for local businesses. You want to make sure your address is easy for them to find and easy for your visitors to find.
You can take it a step further by signing up for Google+ and Google Places to ensure Google has the right address.
2. Mention Your City, Area, State, Etc. In Descriptions
People might not recognize your brand name (yet), but they do search for keywords related to your area, city or even your state.
In your descriptions such as your homepage description, about page, etc., you want to work in language that mentions your city and state and area.
Think about the terms people might use when they’re search for something to do in your area.
3. Use Your Brand Name As The Main Keyword
However, don’t stuff your pages with what you think are good keywords. Above all else you want the page to sell visitors on your service.
And you also want to build your brand recognition. One of the basics with SEO is to build the number of searches for your brand name.
You start doing this by making sure that your brand name is always visible and used throughout your website including your title tag.
Some businesses might use something like:
Jet Boat Tours Wisconsin, Jet Boat Tours Wisconsin Dells
That’s not the best title tag. This is better:
Joe’s Jet Boat Tours: The Best Way To Tour Wisconsin Dells
4. Blog And Share Love With Other Complementary Services
Google looks for signals that your website and brand are relevant in your local tourism industry.
A good strategy for giving off this signal not only to Google, but also to potential customers is to share some love with your complementary local businesses.
For example, write a blog post about your five favorite restaurants in your area. You might get asked this question by quite a few of your customers anyway. Simply turn your answers into a blog post.
Then share the post with the restaurants you mention. Chances are they might blog about you or put something about you on their website. At the very least they might re-share your blog post with their social media followers.
5. Publish Videos, Photos And More
SEO rankings and results are about more than just text these days. And sites like Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and others are searched nearly as much as Google.
This means that you need the right kind of content to get found. People are looking for text more than ever, but they’re also looking for videos, photos, slideshows and more.
Produce a video and upload it to YouTube. Use your brand name in the title. In the description, make sure to mention your area keywords. Chances are good that your video will show up for searches related to your brand and to your area.
Final Thoughts
These tips are the basic things you can do to improve the SEO of your site. You’ll also want to work closely with a designer to make sure you have a site that’s fast and that provides a good user experience. Those are important signals that Google looks for when they select the best sites for searches.
Image: Ashe Dryden
