Okay, I’m going to try to move quickly and efficiently through the unimaginable beast that is SEO! I want to keep this specific to my organized and stellar travel planners, so that you can start moving through these checkpoints. Let’s get started on that SEO checklist for travel planners.
A quick note – this is pretty specific to travel planners who have their website hosted by Showit. If you’re already on Showit, proceed, my friend. If you’re not on Showit or still deciding on having a website, let me do a quick hype for my favorite website host, Showit. It is hands-down the easiest to use, has the friendliest staff, and is comparable in price to all of the other hosting platforms. I have designed websites on all of the big name platforms (WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, etc), and I chose Showit for my own site. Also, I love it because my clients feel empowered and capable of editing and updating their own website. It’s LITERALLY drag and drop to edit on Showit. Anywho, if you’re interested in Showit as your web host and want to get rolling, you can use my affiliate link HERE to get your first month free. AND you can look at my Showit Website Template Shop to see if one of my templates would fit your business needs (plus get 25% off your first purchase by signing up for my newsletter). The discounts just keep piling up!
SEO Checklist for Travel Planners
Add a Site Name.
For whatever reason, people forget this all the time. It takes about two seconds. From your website design portal in Showit, click Site Settings on the lefthand menu. Then, type in your site name. I recommend typing your business name and what you do (if it’s not in the title of your business).
Add your Title and Meta Description to Each Page of Your Website.
When you click on a page from the left hand menu, you can then go to the right side menu and at the bottom click on SEO Settings. When that tab opens add a title and meta description for each page. Titles should explain what that page offers, like ABC Travel Planning Services or ABC Travel Planner – Amy B. Cohen. Keep it direct.
For your meta descriptions we want to appeal to humans and website robots. So, write a short paragraph in complete sentences. This is what would pop up under your page name in a Google search. So you want to help convince people to click your page. And if you can add in one of your SEO keywords as well, then you’ve also made the robots happy.
Pro Tip: You’ll also see a spot on this tab to add a Share Image. This is the image that pops up if someone send your link over a text or other method. Add a great photo that draws people in or your brand logo.
Add a Title and Alt Text to Your Website Photos.
This one can take some time, so get ready! For every photo on your website, you want to give it an SEO friendly title and clear meta description. To do this click on Showit, click on an image. Then on the right hand side, right under where you can see the picture in the Image tab, you’ll see the fields for Title and Alt Text.
The title will automatically show up as whatever you named your photo when you saved it to your computer. Too often that means it’ll say something along the lines of IMG_555. What a waste! Instead, give it a title of one of your SEO keywords, like Disney-Travel-Planner.
Alt Text is slightly different. We don’t want to stuff it full of keywords because it’s more about helping humans and robots know the content of the photo and how it’s relevant to your website. It’s best to do a short description of the photo, like “Family exploring the Magic Kingdom”. The alt text is used by blind website visitors; their screen readers will read the alt text to them. Similarly, web crawlers will read the alt text to know that your website has visual elements that relate to your site’s purpose.
To add the photo title and alt text for your blog photos (accessed through your WordPress – www.sitename.com/wp-admin – backend), you’ll need to go to your Media Library. Then, you can individually add each photos’ title and description.
Y’all, I get it, this is massively time-consuming. But the long term benefits are worth it!
Add One Internal and One External Link per Web Page.
This one gets missed a lot, and it’s such a fast one to do!
An internal link is a link to another page on your website. Odds are good that you’ve probably got this anyway! But take a moment to walk through every web page and make sure you do.
An external link is a link to any website that isn’t yours. So if you can add a link to an affiliate that counts. Or if you want to add a link to your Etsy or Instagram page, that counts too!
Pro Tip: Adding an internal and external link is also a great thing to add to every blog post.
Set Up Your Google Analytics and Submit a Site Map.
I think a lot of us hear analytics and immediately feel out of our depth, but setting it up isn’t hard at all. And it means, that when you are ready to delve into your traffic so you can get specific about growth strategies, you’ll have the back data to make smarter decisions.
To set up Google analytics, simply go to analytics.google.com and follow the set up instructions. When the set up is done you’ll get your Measurement ID. You’ll need to add this to your Showit site back end by going to Site Settings, then Integrations, and Google Analytics. Simply paste your Measurement ID into the box.
To submit a site map of your finished Showit website, simply follow this easy tutorial from Showit about submitting a site map.
This is by no means the end of setting up your on page SEO, but it’s a seriously good start that many businesses don’t take the time to do. SEO is a long and winding road, but by making small, regular adjustments, you can see big, long-term rewards. If you want more SEO tips for travel planners, let me know and I’ll put “adding more to this blog” on my to do list!
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I believe we are called to a life of creativity, and I’m trying to show up for that every day. When I’m not designing website templates, brands or illustrations, I’m getting my glitter shoes metaphorically muddy with my own artistic pursuits. I’m a maker, a quilter, a Christmas enthusiast, a baker, and a truly abysmal (but passionate) gardener.
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