I’m writing this article as a companion to the slideshow presentation and movie I did as part of an ongoing online travel business education series. Today, I’ll be talking to you about what happens when your travel & tourism business is too broad and lacks focus.
The Common Travel Business Problem
Travel site owners, especially those who rely on Google’s AdSense for revenue, tend to have a core set of problems that prevent profit.
It usually starts with selecting a market that’s too broad, such as Italy. The next step is to find solid keyword phrases, which is part of any good research regime. However, here’s where trouble comes again.
Rather than using those KWPs (keyword phrases) as a starting point, they are used as a destination. Content is developed solely on KWP research and profit potential is missed.
Increasing Profit
Before creating content, learn at least something about your target audience. Who old are they? Why are they traveling?
For instance, if you make a travel site about general travel to Rome and your traffic is largely comprised of foodie travelers, you’re missing out on profit left and right.
And here’s a huge problem that plagues many. You’ve got to make a decision. You can’t offer everything to everyone otherwise you end up offering nothing to no one. Decide what you’re offering and to whom and build your site(s) with that purpose in mind.
Niche Confusion
A lot of travel site owners, especially those new to our industry, assume that “niches” in travel & tourism are destination based (Italy, Rome, United States, etc). This is not so.
The same destination can serve a plethora of travelers, such as foodies, historical tourism, rural tourism, religious tourist, family travelers, etc.
The niche in travel isn’t the destination, it’s the intent. All-in-one travel sites usually have big issues, because the larger the site, the more the individual traveler has to hunt for whatever content interests them. Generally, an adventure seeker looking to visit a destination would be more inclined to visit and interact with a travel site for that destination that’s geared toward his or her interest verses a general travel site or even a general destination site.
