Four-fold increased web sales for site that added country guides

WTM Special Report: Websites should gear up to more destination-specific searches, an industry seminar has heard today.

“You get better conversion rates with targeted landing pages,” said Arjo Ghosh, managing director of search engine marketing specialists Spannerworks.

Landing pages are the web pages to which users are sent after entering keywords in a search engine. By sending users to a location-orientated landing page, rather than sinmply a generic homepage, offering information about the destination in which they’re interested and the product being sold, be it a flight, hotel, or holiday, the consumer is more likely to stay on the site and make a booking, according to Ghosh.

Speaking at a CIMTIG and Designate co-ordinated seminar at this year’s World Travel Market, Ghosh told the audience that 73 per cent of online travel purchases start with a search, making search engine marketing an essential tool for successful travel websites.

But he added that destination-specific content was worthless without the correct keywords. “You must use the language that your customers would use in a search engine,” he said.

The increasing use of destinations in keywords searched by travel consumers in search engines such as Google has not gone unnoticed. As reported by TravelMole this week, online agent lowcostbeds.com is investing heavily in destination-specific URLs, such as lowcostibiza.com, in a bid to capitalise on consumer preferences to search by destination, rather than brand.

Using the example of SN Brussels Airline, a client of Spannerworks, Ghosh showed how targetted landing pages improved revenues. According to SN Brussels’ Audrey Benoit, the carrier’s site suffered from low brand awareness, low bookings generated from natural search (the results in a search engine that are generated by relevance, rather than being paid for), and an unclear URL, which is flysn.com.

“SN Brussels needed to develop web content surrounding its routes, targeted at the search terms used by its clients,” said Ghosh.

Consequently, the flysn.com site launched destination guides, to which it linked flight details and prices and an opportunity to book. Together with other online and offline marketing initiatives, the improved website increased its presence in the first page rankings for natural searches by 142 per cent and increased web bookings by 420 per cent in less than a year.

Despite the success of the search engine marketing campaign, Ghosh, whose company has also worked with Virgin and Alamo, warned travel companies not to put all of their marketing budgets into search engine marketing, but to use it as part of a comprehensive online and offline marketing campaign. 

The CMITIG seminar, dealing with search engine marketing and optimisation, was one of a number of seminars organised during WTM to discuss the issue. It was hugely oversubscribed, demonstrating curiosity in the topic, and a long line of people were turned away at the door.

Report by Ginny McGrath