Skyrocket your Travel Blog! Are you into traveling? But your statistics and traffic are lazy cats that don’t like to travel so much and fail to meet your expectations?

Did you start your own personal blog last year? Willing to share your memories and experiences from all your trips, you thought that you were ready to shine and rule the World of Travel Blogging. But, it seems like it can take for ages to attract people’s attention to your Travel Blog. You think that you are doing everything right, but still, you get next to zero followers and low sharing actions. Do you wanna know why?

Travel blogging aim is to focus on the concept of traveling. It is not about you but about Travel Storytelling.

1.Travel Blogs are not Memory Books

When you first read about having a personal voice inside your Travel Blog, didn’t really mean to share your personal memory book with the public. Travel blogging aim is to focus on the concept of traveling. It is not about you but about Travel Storytelling. So try to write and present more about:

• the travel destination
• the traveling process
• info about the location
• info about the how to reach
• talk about the people
• how to deal with common issues
• give ideas on how to spend time
• where and what to eat
• what kind of outfits may need
• weather info
• essential behavior guidelines
• some language tips
• cost of everyday life
• emergency stations
• suggest solutions
• connection in local groups or activities
• and all extra info about little know secrets

Really, nobody cares about your fight with your best friend or your belly ring or about the 20 photos of the sunset just because is “sooooooo romantic!!!!”. We’ve got it, with the first 2 pictures.

Personal involvement inside travel blogging content should be present as little as possible. Think of yourself as the element of salt. Add a little bit of salt, just enough to make it tasteful and enjoyable, but not too much to destroy it. Get to know the balance of this game!

2.Be the witness of the story

The main theme of the story is the location and not your personal life. So try to write about the way you see and experience the certain location. Keep out all the juicy details about you and your partner or about your family or about your affairs. Share solid facts, useful information and golden tips that can save time and energy for the following travelers.

3.Catching Headlines is Half the Story

Headlines are the entrance door to your blog

Choose witty and interesting headlines, with a solid idea of what to expect in your content. If someone has made a query at Google search machine: “Trip to Greece” and your headline declares “How to Enjoy your Trip to Greece” it’s most likely to pop up as an organic (not paid) result, even at the first four Google pages.

But, to keep the visitor and the Google machine satisfied you should apply these four essential rules:

1. Be focus and relevant to the headline-topic
2. State the facts and useful information
3. Use original and professional photos and videos
4. Apply all SEO best practices

If visitors spend on your website more time after a specific query, is an evidence that your website is trustworthy. That will make Google love your blog and will show it to new visitors.

If your travel storytelling adopts all the above you will see your Google quality score rise and after some time you will taste the warm feeling of success. When Google recognizes a source ( in that case a publisher aka your blog) as authentic and preferable by the audience, it tends to give it an organic boost as a positive source of information. In other words, if visitors spend on your website more time after a specific query, is evidence that your website is trustworthy. That will make Google love your blog and will show it to new visitors.

4.Make it Shareable

Social Media friendly language and visuals are more than important. The more social media shares you get, the merrier!

When people share your posts or articles, the circle of your audience spreads widely beyond your network. That means your website or blog will get more followers and will increase its referral and influence score among the competitors. High scores attract Google’s attention, build a new audience and finally increase traffic to your website or blog. And the circle starts again. Did you get the whole picture,  now?

New post >>  Apply 4 rules>>  Strong headline>>  Authentic Content>>   Social Media friendly>>   Shareable Content>>  High Quality Score>>  Google Organic Boost>>  Trustworthy Source>>   New Audience>>  More Followers>>  New Post>>

Use friendly and everyday language as if you are describing an amazing experience to a friend. Think of yourself as the link between a person and a location. Put yourself in their shoes. Recall the first impressions you got as soon as you set your feet in that new place.

Notebooks should become your best friend! For sure, are mine! Keep notes and use them later! Try to write down different unexpected issues and how you handled them. Open a file with all related links, contacts, addresses, names, maps, timetables, directions, tips from locals, photo albums, and everything that no one will ever find in a travel guidebook. You are a kind of an investigator. A Travel Investigator.

Whatever sounds silly at a precise moment could become the golden detail while editing your next travel post. Remember that you are collecting small elements to create your story for your readers. Ask yourself: “Would I need to know this if I was planning to visit this location?”

When editing your posts remember to preview all the changes you add. See it from the visitors’ side. Check it several times! 

5. I-wish-I-knew-this Moments

Seven years ago, I was in a small town, in Northern France, and my computer was jammed. I couldn’t find a service store within 50klm to fix my laptop. In the end, the nearest service store was found 3 hours away from my hotel. I wish I knew this disadvantage before my trip. Since this incident, my trips have a list of requirements.

My list of  I Wish I Knew This Before My Trip was build after many years of traveling all over the world and were formed through bad decisions on the go or unexpected situations that pushed me over my comfort zone. 

You may find me in central Africa or in Patagonia or in New York City. But you will never find me unprepared regarding Health, Safety, Money, Technical, and Travel turnovers.

Let’s see this wonderful example from Maninio Food & Travel Blog.

This blogger has crafted a clever and easy-to-read guide about The 15 Things to Know Before Your Trip to Greece. It is a Food & Travel Blog, therefore the blogger starts from the food tips. The author keeps the number one topic of the blog at the beginning of this blog post. That is an excellent digital marketing strategy and a superb SEO tactic. Start with your niche target topic. You have only 8 seconds to gain visitors’ attention. Keep it as relevant as possible!!!

The guide continues with all the must-know tips to prepare the visitor for his/her trip to Greece. As you read the post, do you notice the use of all the right and related keywords, throughout the text? Greece, Greek, Recipes, Tips, Guide, Cuisine, (Many Food Elements), Coffee, Island Names, Prices, Accommodation, Transportation, Money, Drinks, Safety, Language, Entertainment, Shopping, and some recommendations.

By putting some of the main keywords in the post’s different headings such as Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc you are advising the Google search machine to pay attention to these specific topics, each time someone is looking for information about these particular ones.

Given the needed time and effort, if you continuously add fresh content around a certain topic, you will meet your blog at the first organic results, soon enough. In some cases, we have found our client’s blogs to hit Google’s first page [organic results section] within 60 days.

For advanced bloggers, the use of SEO best practices is their second nature. They use the most important keywords for each post, within the photo description, alt text, meta description, social media ready-to-use description, and (if they use) into Adwords.

It is very important to use all the offered Headings to the proper position of your blog’s structure. Number 1 Headings is the main topic of your content. Number 2 Headings are related and supportive to the main topic Keywords or Phrases. Number 3 Headings may and can help search machines to clarify the depth of the given topic. Number 4+5 Headings exist to please and provide an enjoyable and organized UX. To keep the blog post tidy.

6.Categories and Tags are your Friends

Categories support the need to group an entire set of posts under one specification. Tags enhance this specification to become more clear and to the point. For example:

Category: Marketing [main topic]

• tags: Digital Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Outbound Marketing, Content Marketing [secondary main topics]

Treat them as close friends that help you sort out your content inside your blog or website.  WP Beginner has published this Support Guide about Categories and Tags Use at WordPress. Spend 15 minutes to read it here and thank me later!

It’s worth mentioning Hubspot because it is one of the strongest Digital Marketing Players with tons of experience and countless successful projects. HubSpot is an inbound marketing and sales platform that helps companies attract visitors, convert leads, and close customers. During my research for this post,  I discovered this well–written article by Sophia Bernazzani: The Anatomy of a Perfect Blog Post.

7.The First Impression Does Count

The introduction area is the first two lines and your chance to persuade people to continue reading your post. Say it all with 10-30 words; include the main topic and the top keywords. Make it stand out. Tease and play. Make rabbits dance and smile!

Did you notice how the introduction [of this post] affected your impulse to read the rest of the post?

Are you into travel blogging? But your statistics and traffic are lazy cats that don’t like to travel so much and fail to meet your expectations?

Let’s break it down:

• Tease: Are you into travel blogging?
• Mood: Travel
• Feeling: Are you into…?
• Main keyword: Travel Blogging
• Create an expectation: Trigger: Travel
• Play with a need: Blogging, Statistics, Traffic
• State a fact with tact: lazy cats
• Discharge guilt: lazy cats
• Make a word picture: lazy cats
• Play & tease: lazy cats
• Feeling & Mood: Smile: Trigger: lazy cats
• Main keyword: Blogging, Statistics, Traffic
• Create an expectation: meet your expectations
• Make rabbits dance and smile: unspoken message: let’s wake up the lazy cats

📍 And you are here with me – the last 5 minutes – reading this post. If the introduction got you up to this point, it means that we did something right, didn’t we?

Choose the introduction/featured image to meet the visitor’s expectations. A picture worth 1000 words. Hook the interest with all you’ve got. Show your story in this one picture. This picture will be your front face all over social media and the internet. Original and high-quality photos are recommended.

8.Post Size Matters

Whenever you post something on your blog should have at least 300+ words. Less than that equals digital silence for SEO. If you have a strong pen then go for 2000 – 2500 words per post. Add appealing visuals and astonishing (valuable) content.  Then share it, send it with emails, invest at least $10-30 in boosting and ask people to enrich your story with their point of view.

9.Do the extra mile

• Reach out influencers and ask for their opinion.
• Introduce local business owners and ask them to share your blog post with their followers.
• Participate to popular Travel Facebook Groups.
• Interact with fellow bloggers that have a similar mentality.
• Update your content regularly.
• Be open to speaking in events.
• Offer free advise.
• Do and host guest blogging.
• Have a fine tuned digital and social media presence.
• Use videos.
• Mobile friendly website/blog is the only option.

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