10 TIPS FOR A TRAVEL BLOG
How to write a great travel blog
Table of Contents
10 Tips For A Travel Blog
10 tips for a travel blog, when was the last time you saw a photo of a beach on Instagram? Or an article about a hidden gem of the beaten path? Most likely, very recently. It’s everywhere.
Content plays an important role in the way travel companies interact with customers and encourage them convert.
Travel blogs are a form of content marketing that can help increase visibility and authority, as well as drive more traffic to your website. It can be difficult to create 10 tips for a travel blog post that is read in an online environment stuffed with travel content.
Readers are becoming more selective about the people they give their time to. Smaller travel businesses have difficulty standing out from industry giants due to being overloaded with content.
How do you create a travel blog that grabs people’s attention, regardless of whether you are a boutique hotel, or a B2B service provider? It’s worth sharing. This generates traffic? This reflects your company’s personality, and helps build brand awareness.
Although it is difficult to write a travel blog post that is successful due to fierce competition, it is not impossible. It is important to strike a balance between the informative and aspirational, to reach your target audience and answer their questions.
People find travel exciting. People love to hear about destinations and holiday planning. You only need to make sure they hear from you.
Tips to Write a Successful Travel Blog Post
Do your research
What your potential customers want in travel content is what you should be writing about. It requires some understanding of your customer or client.
Imagine your ideal customer. Consider your age, gender, and socio-economic status. Also, consider life experience. Goals, dreams, and problems.
This will allow you to envision the questions that your reader may need to answer and what type of travel content they might be looking for.
A personal account of an adventurous jungle trip is going to appeal to a stressed-out mother of four?
A guide to all-inclusive resorts that are budget-friendly for entrepreneurs is going to appeal to high-flying entrepreneurs?
Take a look at your competitors. What topics are they discussing? What are they writing about?
Ask your support team which questions customers frequently ask. Some common questions customers ask but could you provide a detailed answer?
Answer The Public is a tool that will help you identify the questions potential readers have about your chosen niche.
Next, think of keywords that are related to your subject. To find out how competitive these keywords might be, you can use Wordtracker or Google Ad Keyword Planner.
You should look for keywords that have high search volume and low competition. Some long-tail keywords might rank better for and more specific. Target luxury travel in northern France instead of just France.
Keywords should be included in all parts of your content, including the title, URL, meta description and image alt tags.
To see how optimised your page is for SEO, you can use Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress. However, avoid keyword stuffing. It should sound human-like
If you provide a concise, but complete answer to a user question, it may result in your being the Google featured Snippet–that small piece of text at top of informational search results.
Another way to achieve this is to include a FAQ at the end your article.
Select Your Subject
Your objective will determine the topic of your travel blog post. Travel writing usually has one of three goals: To inspire, entertain or educate.
Inspirational blog posts can be itineraries, reviews, listicles, lists like The Top 15 Castles of Bavaria, or fun facts about a place.
This type of content is designed to reach readers in the “dream and discover” phase of trip planning.
Entertaining content is usually written in the form of stories. It’s even more enjoyable if it’s a personal tale, told from the first person. These stories are a powerful way to get readers’ attention and elicit an emotional response.
While travel stories should always be about a point, they should also teach your reader something. Keep it entertaining by including dialogue. Show rather than tell the reader about a place. Give specific details instead of just saying that it is beautiful or old.
You don’t have to tell the story chronologically. Sometimes, it’s more dramatic to start with the end.
Educational content can include guides, checklists or travel hacks. FAQ pages and ‘pros & cons’ articles are all examples. If you are a B2B business, you might also include news, events and interviews.
This informative content solves a problem or answers a question. This content is for readers who are a little further down the funnel and have already made a decision about where they want to go. They are at the planning stage.
You will need to be very specific if you are going to write a guide to a destination, especially a popular one. Consider the unique angle that you might take. You might, for example, write an article on what to do in a particular city.
You might also consider writing up research that you have done, or perhaps a survey of customers about their behavior. A quiz might help people choose their next destination. You might also consider local recipes.
Keep it short and sweet
A blog post published in conjunction with a specific season or festival is a smart idea, as search volume for those terms will rise. You might schedule a post about Spain’s fiestas or plan a blog post celebrating Halloween.
But, the travel industry can make timely blog posts more difficult. Many people plan their trips years in advance of actually going on them. This is why you might want to post about winter holidays and autumn trips.
Incorporate Travel Buzzwords but Avoid Cliches
Certain words can make people sit up when it comes to traveling. But this depends on their personality. Parents will search for terms such as kid-friendly, while students will look for bargains, steals, and budget-friendly.
In the past few years, eco-friendly and sustainable have been popular travel terms. Flexibility is a key travel buzzword in the age of COVID-19.
You should also avoid using cliches within your posts. Poorly written travel content is marked by words like breathtaking or stunning. How many times have we read about vibrant markets or turquoise oceans?
Keep your content fresh and original to keep readers from skimming over it. Use unusual words, or stick to the facts.
Create Your Brand Tone of voice
Your brand voice is your brand personality. Your brand voice is what makes you different, a reflection of your values. It is important that your brand voice is consistent across all platforms and in all of your content. This will allow readers to recognize and relate to your brand.
Blog posts are a great way to communicate your brand voice and your company’s identity. Certain words won’t feel appropriate. It will be jarring to use technical or flowery language in blog posts written by companies that are young and fun.
For more information about this important element of content marketing, please see our guide to brand voice.
Make the Title Stick
A headline that grabs people’s attention is the number one rule in journalism (and all writing). The headline must accurately reflect the content of your article. It should also stand out from similar articles.
Here are some tips to help you choose titles:
Popularity is always a benefit of using listicles. Opt for an odd rather than even number of tips/reasons/secrets/ideas as these tend to perform better.
Use power words like surprise, exclusive, or failproof.
Refer to the reader, i.e. These 11 Parisian spas will be your favorite.
Ask a question i.e. Have you ever wondered how it is to live in a small Costa Rican village?
Split-test different headlines to find the best.
Write a Killer Intro
A blog article’s introduction is crucial. The introduction is the first impression the reader gets. It lets them know what to expect. In fact, 10% never scroll past the introduction.
These tips will help you engage your reader at this critical stage. Your first sentence should be concise, short, and impactful.
To entice readers, experiment with anecdotes.
Change the title.
To address the reader directly, use the word “you”. Ask them a question.
Explain the topic and why it is important. Don’t sell the article.
Headings are important
Headings give structure to your article by breaking it down into smaller chunks and creating a flow. This allows readers to quickly scan the post for the most relevant information.
Headings can have a significant impact on your SEO ranking if you include keywords. Search engines will be able to see the content of your blog by including keywords.
Think About Visuals
It’s not enough to write a blog post that is highly effective. A blog post’s visual appearance is equally important. A blog post that is distinctive will be more noticeable in a sea of travel content.
Create a visually appealing blog post by using
Use striking, high-quality images. Do not use stock photos. Instead, create your own images. All photos should have the same style. This may require editing or filters.
An infographic can be used to aid readers in visualising data. These infographics are also easy to share.
Choose a font that is both attractive and not too unusual that conveys the personality of your brand.
Pay attention to the white space. Use bullet points to break up your writing into smaller paragraphs. This is easier on the eyes.
Proofread and Fact-check
Although boring, fact-checking and proofreading are essential for building trust and maintaining your audience. Making mistakes can be embarrassing for your brand, and could have serious repercussions.
Before publishing your blog post, proofread it and make any necessary edits. Editing and proofreading involve reducing, checking consistency, and checking grammar, punctuation and spelling. Grammarly and other online tools can be useful, but they aren’t as reliable or as accurate as a human proofreader. If necessary, you might consider outsourcing this task.
Keep it Relevant
Blog posts are becoming longer and more popular. HubSpot data shows that the ideal length for a blog post in 2021 is between 2,100 to 2,400 words.
You don’t need 2,400 words of useless chit-chat. Blog posts should be short and concise. Ask yourself, “Is this useful information?” Do I provide value to the reader?
Both internal and external links
Add internal links to direct readers to other pages of your site. This will increase engagement and help Google understand the structure of your website, which will improve your rankings. You can include up to five links to older articles.
External links to other websites are also recommended. This will allow readers to find more information and support any claims. This creates a network linking your page to other websites.
You can ask someone to link to your blog from another website if possible. For example, sharing an infographic. This will help you build your authority. You can also guest post on another blog, and backlink to it.
Promote Your Content
Social media is the first port of call when you want to promote your blog posts. For any travel content, Facebook and Instagram should be your first port of call. LinkedIn is a great option for B2B companies, especially if you blog about industry trends.
Understanding how your audience uses social media is key to maximizing its potential to drive traffic. How often do they use social media on a given day? Which platforms are they most fond of? What type of content do they share most often?
These insights will help you optimize your content for engagement. To make it easier for readers to share your blog posts, add social sharing buttons at the bottom and top.
You can also promote your blog content through email newsletters or paid ads.
Be consistent
Be consistent in publishing blog posts. Regular publication of blog posts will help ensure that your audience remembers you.
How often should you publish, however?
Smaller companies tend to publish less often than larger companies due to their smaller audience and smaller resources. If you are unable to keep up with it, only post once a day. Blog posts shouldn’t disappear in a sea of noise.
You might publish more often if you want to boost traffic. This will give search engines additional opportunities to find your site. You can convert more visitors by publishing less often, but ensuring that every blog post provides a lot of value to readers.
Measuring Your Results
You can use certain metrics to determine how well your blog posts are performing. Your goal will determine which metrics you pay attention to.
You can increase brand awareness by looking for metrics such as increased engagement like social shares, comments and page views.
You can increase sales by looking at the number of people who converted to your blog post, or how many leads you generated.
You can measure the impact of your blog posts to help you improve your writing skills and create better articles.
How to create a travel blog post that grabs attention
It’s easy to create winning blog posts about travel. All you have to do is understand your audience and make it interesting. Your content should answer your readers’ questions, be visually appealing and well-designed, and be promoted strategically.
Professional copywriters are a great option if you don’t have enough time or the resources to create travel content. A professional travel copywriter can create high-performing articles for blogs based on what you tell them. This will guarantee a steady source of traffic.
Although content marketing is slower than digital ads, it can still generate a steady flow of traffic which makes it an effective tool in your marketing arsenal.
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