The Covid-19 pandemic has seen the world shut down and come to a standstill. One of the most affected areas during the pandemic, even after lockdown was eased is travel and tourism. With new outbreaks still being registered every day and many countries having to endure a second pseudo lockdown traveling and taking vacation has been the last thing on most people’s minds. So, as the owner of a tourism or travel website, what can you do? If you know anything about SEO you will know that you cannot let your website lie dormant without publishing any new content as that would result in a drop in the rankings for your brand.
SEO for Travel and Tourism Websites during Covid: What to Publish
So, we have already established that one of the most important SEO tools for your website is the publishing of new content. In order to keep your website ranking up high with the best it’s extremely important to make sure your website does not lie dormant. With no traffic coming to your site to read your new content, your website will not slip but start to slide down the rankings. But, as a travel and tourism website, what should you publish during Covid-19? You can’t publish travel deals or vacations offers as essentially all but essential travel is banned.
The way around this is to adapt your website and ensure that it is still full of useful information. During the pandemic, you need to become a source of information for your visitors and customers. The most obvious things you can publish are travel and Covid-19-related advice. As the visitors to your website are looking for vacations, you need to keep them up to date on when they can travel, which countries are lifting their travel bans, and which countries are deemed safe to travel.
Ensure your Content is correct and Up to Date
The information you publish on your travel and tourism website must be up to date and it must be correct. With so much information floating around the Internet, much of which is conflictive, it’s important to ensure you choose reliable sources for the content you publish. Government websites as well as news from health authorities can be relied upon, and linking your content back to their tables and infographics will also do wonders for your rankings. One of the most important parts of SEO that you shouldn’t forget about during the pandemic is backlinking. And the best backlinks are those to authoritative sites. So, what a great way to get your site full of not just interesting and informative content, but also linked up to the most powerful websites online; I am sure you will agree?
Stay Positive
During the pandemic, it has been difficult to stay positive. Many businesses have had to close their doors, and with so much uncertainty around, many others are worrying over their future. As the owner of a tourism and travel website, sales will have dropped to pretty much zero during Covid-19. So, during the times you are unable to make sales, it is important to focus on other areas that will bring in revenue in the future. Don’t however just try and sell vacations for next year. Although people will be traveling next year, many are more concerned about what is happening right now.
Staying positive during the pandemic is a must for your website. If all you publish is doom and gloom, then people will stop visiting your online content. If people want doom and gloom all they need to do is turn the TV on and watch the news channel. So, asides providing information that your visitors need on when they will be able to travel, you need to stay positive and also provide them with things to look forward to.
As the travel bans are finally being lifted, now is the time to slowly reintroduce more travel-related articles into your content. From winter sale prices on travel to articles on the most up and coming destinations for winter 2020, a mixture of upbeat articles and informative posts will ensure your readers keep coming back for more.
Vacation-Related Articles and Products
Another way to keep your travel website afloat and active during the Coronavirus pandemic is to diversify into affiliate marketing. When the time comes for people to start traveling again, they will need to buy all the same items as before. Affiliate links to swimwear or hiking websites can bring in a passive income, and one that you can easily continue with once the pandemic is over.
You may currently have an online shop as part of your travel and tourism website that sells more than just holidays. If this is the case, you may like to expand on the range of items you sell, adding masks, thermometers, and other merchandise that any Covid-19-safe traveler should take with them when going abroad in 2020. Masks are certainly a topic that you can write some fresh content on too that could be added to your blog section. With so many different types of mask available, it is important to tell your customers which are safe and which are banned or not recommended in the countries they will be traveling to this fall or winter.
Things to Avoid
As the owner of a travel and tourism website, they are also plenty of things that you should avoid doing with your online content during the pandemic. Some of these have been covered above already and include letting your website lie dormant and failing to upload new content with relevant backlinks. But, these are not the only things that you should be avoiding. You should avoid selling irrelevant products or posting content on topics that are not related in any way to the pandemic. You should avoid changing the niche of your website overnight. This would most definitely ensure a sharp plunge in the rankings, as your new content would not be optimized for travel or tourism.
Final Note The Covid-19 situation is temporary, and like everyone else, you need to try and ride out the storm. With plenty of ways to diversify you content, yet keeping with your original niche, it is possible not just to keep your web content afloat during the pandemic, but also make a passive income until such time that you are ready to start taking new vacation bookings for this autumn and wintertime.