EyeforTravel: Innovations in Travel Search

Presentations by the following executives…with a lot of good research data to follow:

Numbers that really matter

73% of consumers search before they make a booking
They search an average of 10 times
86% of leads are generated by organic search (there IS a free lunch)
Typical travel search is 3.1 keywords
- It’s becoming more specific: was ‘chicago’…then ‘chicago hotels’…now it may be ‘chicago family hotels’
- (this means they give us more context now)
- Always tailor unique content to consumer preferences

Searchers want more than a URL – they want detailed information
5% of search sessions are over 30 minutes…and they account for 50% of time spent on search engines
Bing is trying to become a ‘travel decision engine’ …experimenting with visual search
Marketing lessons
- Test, test, test ad copy variations
- 18-24 age demographic favors travel metasearch sites
- Focus on targeting short trips & “staycations”
  - use keywords like “national” “state park” “monuments”
Keyword behavior is changing.
- biggest increase in 7-term hotel-related searches
- expand your keyword portfolios
Invest in landing pages to support SEO & SEM efforts

Economy may be improving, but consumers are now more value-savvy
Consumers are clicking on more paid ads
Analysts say search is the fastest-growing segment in online marketing
Travel queries have increased 40% since 2008
Search clicks to travel sites are up 35%
Search funnel: Awareness, Interest, Consideration, Purchase
- Purchase searches may include brand & a date (ex: royal caribbean europe cruise in 2010)
Continually learn: use data to optimize
They’re is a strong correlation between travelers and smart phone usage
48% of consumers willing to buy a hotel room via mobile (eMarketer)
When doing SEO, tag every piece of content and make sure it’s current

Aside from groceries, the first place consumers go to before buying a product is the internet
Is your story useful to your customers?
- What type of behavior are you trying to achieve?
- What metrics are important to you? (things need to be measurable)
Case studies
- Victoria Inn, Core’s Landing, Rice Lake, Ontario
  - Challenge: no online reservation system, most bookings came from word of mouth
  - Solution: creating content centered around what their customers liked most
  - Results
    - Paid for campaign in 1-2 months
    - Quickly reached top of search results
- Audley Travel (tour operator)
  - Challenge: most important key words ranked outside Google Top 100
  - Solution: content strategy targeted 1000’s of long tail keyword strings
  - Results: overall traffic increased 142% from search volume & rankings; 372 top-rankings for keywords
- Radisson Edwardian Hotels (UK)
  - Challenge: PPC had only mediocre results; website lacked direction & was not able to communicate hotel benefits
  - Solution: create content that promoted the uniqueness of the property, local events & seasonal activities
  - Results: 2553% ROI in first month; 3x ROI in first seven months
Be the source
Be invaluable

“We treat SEO and SEM very separately. It’s like there’s a wall between them.” – Google

“You cannot have a ’set it and forget it’ approach to SEO. Constantly create fresh content.” – Microsoft

86% of travel leads come from SEO. 14% through PPC. Are you spending 5x the resources on SEO? – Yen Lee, Uptake

“See SEO as a profit center, not a cost center” – Yen Lee, Uptake

“The two huge things for 2010 will be mobile and local.” – Gary Jackson, Google

Our new Savvy Hoteliers Guide to Hotel Marketing Ideas contains hundreds of tested tactics that work.