Question

Topic: SEO/SEM

Linking - When Your Partners Are Your Competitors

Posted by Daniel on 4/26/2008 at 8:34 PM ET 500 Points
As part of optimising the www.finetravel.co.nz website we have been identifying websites that we can link with (inbound links). This has been reinforced to us a number of SEO companies.

What became very clear to us early on is that the nature of the travel industry makes link building very difficult. As a simple example, we sell airline tickets and the airlines sell tickets directly. Therefore we can't exchange links with the airlines. The same applies to all our suppliers. Almost any product you can think of that a travel agency will sell is also sold direct by the supplier.

In addition, because our suppliers sell through a number of channels, they do not wish to align themselves with just one travel agency.

We therefore seem to be limited (in the linking area) to submitting links to directories and exchanging links with small websites that are keen to exchange links with whoever they can to build up their credibility.

We have investigated the websites that link to our competitors websites and find that they face a similar issue.

My question is whether anyone has any thoughts on how a travel agency can link build beyond submitting to directories. If not, are we limited to focusing on developing keyword rich content and keeping fresh content on the website?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Daniel on 4/27/2008 at 3:03 AM Author
    Hi Mike

    Thanks for your feedback and picking up on my comment. Perhaps a poor choice of words on my part. Also brought on in part by the fact that the two SEO companies that approached us recently focused almost entirely on the "system" they have for developing links for us.

    Cheers

    Dan
  • Posted by Daniel on 4/27/2008 at 4:33 AM Author
    Thanks Mike. That certainly is the impression I am getting in New Zealand as well. Everyone seems to profess to be an SEO expert.

    I agree that there needs to be a balance between wording that is sales focused and wording that is "optimised". I think your line "using the language of your customers" is key.

    Cheers

    Dan

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/27/2008 at 9:11 AM Member
    I took a look at one of your competitor's websites (www.discovernewzealand.com) to see who they're getting links from. Most of these look like paid links, but should open you eyes to some opportunities, and get you thinking:

    www.kellytarltons.co.nz
    www.stat.auckland.ac.nz
    www.mountcookline.co.nz
    www.greatsights.co.nz
    presidentielles2007projet.hautetfort.com
    www.redboats.co.nz
    www.backpackercampervans.co.nz
    www.skiwi.co.nz
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Wearable_Art
    www.enzed.com
    www.skiexpress.co.nz
    www.johnstons.co.nz
    www.skishuttle.co.nz
    www.greatbarrierisland.co.nz
    www.dmoz.org/Regional/Oceania/New_Zealand/Travel_And_Tourism/Travel_Guides
    www.wretch.cc
    www.silverfernmotorinn.co.nz
  • Posted by Lorenz Lammens on 4/27/2008 at 10:08 AM Accepted
    Jcrooks and Jay Hamilton-Roth's advice seem on the ball.

    A great way of getting relevant back links can be by syndicating articles to online travel magazines, review sites and generally any site that thrives on travel related content.

    You should also create a year calendar of all important industry events world wide and try to get links from them (we did this for a travel client and it worked wonders. It also means that you'll get fresh links each year). In certain cases this was an expensive exercise though...

    Another great way of attracting lots of links is through 'linkbait' - creating content that publishers and bloggers want to link to by creating:
    - contests and awards
    - interviews with prominent figures in the travel industry
    - metrics (e.g. how the current economic climate affects worldwide travel)
    - tools (e.g. branded desktop application that suggest the cheapest travel destinations this month)
    - widgets and gadgets (e.g. type in a destination to generate your ideal holiday package. Combine this with dates and we'll keep serving you updated suggestions)
    ideas that appeal to egos of popular publishers
    - etc.

    Mike Ashworth was right in stating that SEO is not there to fool the search engines by creating clunky text. SEO is a marketing tool that should have the customer front of mind. SEO is also a wide set of link building, content and technical optimization techniques that will help your site rank better by providing better structure and more relevant content while building a clear strategy that will lead to backlinks. Since SEO became a popular term, there has been a rise in bad actors...

    Jcrooks advise about getting backlinks from relevant destination sites should be elaborated on: make sure that the link is placed on a page with strong relevant content (topically equal to yours) and preferably in the body text. Ideally, the anchor text (the text of the link) should have your keywords in it.

    Hope this helps,

    Lorenz
  • Posted on 4/27/2008 at 9:12 PM Member
    Mike Ashworth is right on. The best linkbuilding strategies are to build great content. Link exchanges are generally not looked at as very positive by the search engines. You really want LOTS of one way links into your website. Building great content is the key to this.
  • Posted by Susan Oakes on 4/28/2008 at 3:02 AM Member
    You may want to approach travel wholesalers, naccommodation, attractions or even cruise ship companies etc

    Another idea is to approach the tourism bodies such as Tourism Australia or tourism NSW.

    It may also be worth consdering to package up a partnership program that includes linking.

    Best of luck
    Susan
    M4B Marketing Software

  • Posted by excellira on 4/28/2008 at 9:22 AM Member
    There are far too many ways to develop links than to worry about the ones that you can't put together. I'd also avoid reciprocal linking unless you are well versed in how to determine the quality of the site you are linking to.

    As for content, the search engines prefer content which is appealing to visitors. Write the content and then work your keyword in. I generally find that if you write naturally about a subject your keyword density will likely fall within a good target range. And, interestingly enough, this is the range that the search engines like. :-)

    "
    Thanks for your feedback and picking up on my comment. Perhaps a poor choice of words on my part. Also brought on in part by the fact that the two SEO companies that approached us recently focused almost entirely on the "system" they have for developing links for us."


    I'm generalizing but if the SEO contacted you out of the blue they probably aren't top-tier.

    "I agree that there needs to be a balance between wording that is sales focused and wording that is "optimised". I think your line "using the language of your customers" is key."


    Good SEO copy should be written for the target visitor, in their tongue, and it should not be apparent that it was optimized.

    Regards,

    Greg Hill
    Trinity Search Engine Marketing



  • Posted by michael on 4/29/2008 at 9:46 AM Member
    I don't think you depend on SEO to drive your sales...unless that's really what you want.

    BUT, build some links with places like www.call-in-europe.com (not just them but places like them) www.prioritypass.com. Some travel insurance products. Some luggage companies.

    But the key is to actually have someone out there promoting your services. We do this for some other travel-related companies if you want to e-mail me offline.

    Michael
  • Posted by Daniel on 4/29/2008 at 4:59 PM Author
    Hi Ryan

    Thanks for your feedback (and everyone else - the response has been great).

    No offence taken to your feedback. I'm after honest help. Sugar coating won't help us get this right.

    I agree with your thoughts re reasons to link to us. My thinking has been heading down that track with some of the other feedback as well (around fresh content).

    Re the "no follow" I've been reluctant to implement this as I haven't been comfortable with the logic that Google will reassign page rank within a site. What is to stop Google from just taking that ranking allocation away from the site altogether on the basis that we (effectively) no longer have that page.

    Cheers

    Daniel
  • Posted by Daniel on 5/2/2008 at 7:19 PM Author
    Thank you to everyone for your comprehensive feedback and thoughts. You have all given me a lot to think about and work on which was exactly what I was after.

    Best regards

    Daniel
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