The challenges
What makes growth hard in travel.
- 01
Large aggregators outspend and outrank operators on generic destination and flight-plus-hotel searches.
- 02
AI assistants now draft whole itineraries, and operators that are not cited as sources are absent from the plan.
- 03
Demand is seasonal and sensitive to events outside anyone's control, so budgets need to move quickly.
- 04
Booking journeys are long, involve several people and several devices, and are hard to attribute.
Search behaviour
How buyers search and decide.
Travel research is spread across search, video, social and AI assistants that now assemble whole itineraries. Operators need to be a cited source in the planning stage and a frictionless option at the booking stage.
Demand generation
Where demand comes from.
Travel demand starts as inspiration and turns into logistics. Video and social content create the wish to go somewhere, long-form destination and itinerary content answers the planning questions, and search captures the booking. Specialist operators do best where they can be specific: a route, an activity, a type of traveller. AI planning tools reward first-hand, detailed and well-structured guidance by citing it. Paid search works at the point of booking, and email to past travellers is usually the most efficient channel an operator has.
Content needs
What travel buyers expect to find.
- Destination and itinerary guides based on first-hand experience
- Tour and package pages with daily detail, inclusions, exclusions and physical demands
- Practical information: seasons, visas, health, safety and what to pack
- Transparent pricing, deposit and cancellation terms
- Original photography and video from the trips themselves
Each of these is written or reviewed by someone who knows the subject. AI speeds up research and drafting. It does not decide what is accurate.
Conversion challenges
Where interest is lost before it becomes business.
- 01
Price and inclusion clarity
Travellers compare like for like. A page that leaves doubt about what is included loses to one that does not.
- 02
Enquiry or instant booking
Complex trips need a conversation and simple ones need a checkout. Offering the wrong one adds friction either way.
- 03
Group decisions
Trips are often agreed by several people. Shareable itineraries and saved quotes help the decision travel.
- 04
Reassurance on change and cancellation
Flexible terms, stated clearly beside the price, remove a common reason to wait.
The SERPMOZ approach
Three priorities for travel.
- 01
Destination and itinerary content
Useful, first-hand guidance that earns visibility in search and AI planning tools.
- 02
Paid capture
Campaigns structured around route, season and booking window.
- 03
Booking funnel
Search, pricing and checkout steps tested for completion.
Relevant services
Typically involved.
- SEOTechnical, content and authority work prioritised by commercial value and measured against pipeline.
- GEOEntity signals, content depth and citations that shape how generative systems describe your brand.
- Google AdsSearch, Shopping, Performance Max and YouTube run against qualified leads and margin.
- Conversion Rate OptimizationResearch, analytics, landing pages and experimentation that raise the return on every visit.
- Video MarketingStrategy, scripting, production and distribution for explainers, ads and social video.
- Email MarketingLifecycle automation, segmentation and deliverability for nurture and retention.
In practice
The kind of work this leads to.
Examples of what we would build for a travel business. They describe work, not outcomes. What is right for you is decided after the diagnostic.
- 01
An itinerary library structured so that search engines and AI planning tools can quote routes, durations and seasons accurately.
- 02
Campaigns organised by route and booking window, with budgets that follow lead time instead of the calendar month.
- 03
A booking funnel review that follows a traveller from search to payment and removes the steps that add no information.
What we measure in travel
Outcomes we plan around
- 01Bookings and revenue by route or product
- 02Cost per booking
- 03Booking funnel completion
- 04Citations in AI travel answers
Targets are set after the diagnostic, against your own baseline.
Start with a growth audit
Stop Buying Marketing Activity.Start Building a Growth Engine.
Tell us where you are today, where you want to go and what is holding growth back. We’ll identify the highest-impact opportunities.
What happens next
- 1
You tell us where you are
A short form about the business, its goals and what is holding growth back.
- 2
A strategist reviews it
Search, AI visibility, paid media, content and conversion, read together.
- 3
You get the priorities
The highest-impact opportunities, in order, with the reasoning shown.
No obligation, and no guaranteed outcomes promised. Just an honest read of where you stand.