We Analysed 2000 Pieces of Travel Content to Find the Best Type for SEO

Recently, Kaizen hosted a breakfast roundtable on the future of content in the travel industry.

Featuring SEO, Content and Marketing seniors from high-profile travel brands, the event was chaired by Lee Hayhurst, the editor of B2B Travel publication Travolution.

There was a lively debate surrounding the in-depth research Kaizen conducted into travel content for our whitepaper, in which we analysed 2000 pieces of travel content including infographics, interactive tools, videos, articles and influencer posts.

Here were some of the key takeaways:

Our analysis showed that interactive tools were the best kind of content across all three metrics we measured: URL Ratings, the number of Referring Domains and the number of Social Shares. Interactives, such as the one we created for TotallyMoney which allows users to compare commuter towns around London for cost and quality of living, were on average 40% stronger overall than the next most effective. Interestingly, they were far higher for social shares than influencer posts, with 4136 on average compared to influencers achieving only 151.8.

By far the most popular form of content in the travel sector, infographics are extremely cost-effective for the returns they give in terms of SEO. Whilst they have half the number of social shares than interactives (1229.5), they are still the second best option for that goal. They have a good standard in URL ratings (12.2), and their reliability score for Referring Domains is equal to interactives. Combined with their low level of financial and resource requirements, infographics are still highly relevant in the market.

Whilst the value of video content may lay outside of SEO strategies for views and brand recognition, videos were still found to be the second best type of content for URL rating, with an average of 13.2. From our findings, it was more high-end brands that invested in video content, such as the Marriott Hotel brand. Their short film, ‘Two Bellmen Three’, set in Seoul, Korea to promote a new travel destination, failed to pick up traction in terms of backlinks, but had an above-average URL rating and gained 9 million views on Youtube.

Articles were found to be the second best type of content for the number of referring domains, proving that their backlink potential should not be overlooked. The primary selling point of articles is that they have the lowest cost on resource – after all, they don’t need any design or development time! Their URL rating is slightly lower than interactives, but they are still a highly valid form of content, and very quick to output.

It may not seem fair to compare influencer posts to the other forms of content in terms of referring domains, as the influencer would usually provide a link to the brand they’re supporting, rather than seeking to receive them themselves. However, they can be considered in line with URL Rating, which can measure the value of their site’s contribution to the brand, and in terms of social shares, which are often the main inspiration for a brand to use an influencer.

And the news is not good – in terms of on-site content from influencers, their scores are significantly lower across the board. For URL Ratings, influencer posts score 2 lower on reliability of success, and on the successful pieces, the average URL Rating is 3.1 lower. Even on social shares, where influencers are generally hoped to excel, the reliability of success was 8 points lower. And among successful pieces the number of shares was likely to be much lower – averaging only 151.8 as opposed to 1384.7 of other content formats.

You can read the full whitepaper here.

We’d love to hear from more brands about what forms of content they’ve found most effective within their marketing strategies! If you have an opinion – whether it’s on the death of infographics or the hidden benefits of influencers – let us know.

If you’d like to attend a roundtable in the future, please get in touch with jess.lang@kaizen.co.uk.