How a Blog can Help Your Tour, Attraction or Experience Business

What are the Benefits of Having a Blog on my Website?

Blogging is an excellent way to grow organic traffic to your website and also helps to establish your company or brand as an authority in the space that you work in. By posting relevant and fresh content, you are able to drive targeted traffic to your website and even fulfill a particular need for the visitor. This, in turn, increases your chances of turning that looker into a booker. You also have an opportunity to engage with potential guests and develop a relationship very early on in the booking process.

As an added bonus, once you start seeing an increase in visitors, you can then analyze your traffic to see what content people are interested in reading and whether or not they stay on your website to learn more about your business. This can give you some ideas on how to tweak your marketing strategy. 

The best part is that the only thing that you have invested is your time. 

Step 1 — Write Content that People are Searching for

To start off, it is important to post content that your target audience wants to read. Luckily, it is relatively easy to find ideas for what type of content people are searching for by using keyword search tools.

Explore Keywords is a great tool that gives you an idea of which long-tail keywords people are searching for (long-tail keywords are great because they allow your website to rank at the top of search engines much easier than broad terms) and also gives you an idea of related PPC costs. You can also see the average monthly searches for keywords. While the same information can be found in Google Ads, Explore Keywords is much easier to use when you are just starting your blog.

Below is an example of a recent search for: “What I should do when visiting New York.” By using long-tail keywords throughout your text, you can increase your chances of your post being seen by more viewers. There is also a greater chance of your post meeting the visitor’s specific needs. This can increase the number of pages that they view per session while reducing your bounce rate. (You can get more great tips on reducing your bounce rate here.)

Step 2 — Create Meaningful, Optimized Content

Using the keyword research mentioned above, find out what potential guests are looking for. Create meaningful, original content based on their searches that is true to your brand’s voice. It is important to keep in mind that the blog may be the first exposure someone has to your company and it should reflect your brand and what it represents.

Your article should have a strong headline and introduction and it is important to make sure your content is actionable. If people are searching for ideas on what to do in your city, give them options on what they can do and advice on how they can do it. Be helpful and informative. This is a great opportunity to create internal links to other parts of your website or other blog posts that the reader may find helpful.

While writing the blog, you can also try to foster engagement with the potential guest (or past guests!) by leaving open-ended questions at the end of the blog. You can ask viewers what their favorite restaurant, activity, or even memory is in a particular destination and then respond to their comments. You can even ask them what else they would like information on. This is another great opportunity to interact with visitors that you normally don’t have through your website. 

It is important to remember that the content that you are publishing is optimized for SEO. This includes everything from the type of headings that you use, the length of your paragraphs, and the prevalence of keywords used naturally through the text. While this sounds a bit complicated at first, there are numerous tools that you can use that help walk you through the process. Yoast SEO is a free plugin that you can install on your website and one of the most popular options for bloggers. Using an easy-to-understand stoplight method of red, yellow, and green circles, you can easily see what aspects of SEO you need to work on within that particular blog post. 

You can find an example of this below. As you can see, the suggestions are straightforward and most can be made without any technical assistance. 

Step 3 — Promote Your Work

Once you have published your post, promote it on social media including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. This is a great way to get exposure while you are still trying to build a presence on search engines. It is easy to announce new blog articles on Instagram and Facebook through posts or stories and you can also add a pin of it on Pinterest. Unlike Instagram and Facebook, Pinterest pins have a relatively long shelf-life and can continue to drive traffic to your website long after they are posted. (To learn more about driving direct bookings through social media, read our guide here!). 

Keep in mind that you can continue to update past blog articles and repost them on social media if they are still relevant. This could be particularly advantageous for annual events, seasonal tours or activities.

Get started!

Blogging is a great way to drive organic traffic to your website, engage with guests, and prove yourself as an authority on a particular topic. With virtually endless topics to write about, blogging gives your brand a voice. If you still need a bit of inspiration, check out Scott’s Pizza Tours’ blog here. We look forward to reading your posts!

Additional Resources — Blogging Freebies by Jessie Festa is an amazing resource for everything that you need to know about travel blogging.

Learn more about how to create and manage killer content with Arival’s Content Masterclass