What SEO trends should we watch out for?
SEO for travel websites operates in a more competitive environment than most sectors. Tour operators, airlines, ferry companies and activity providers are competing not just against each other but against OTAs, aggregators, and large content publishers with substantial domain authority. Staying current with SEO developments matters — the operators who adapt to how search is evolving consistently outperform those who treat SEO as a one-time implementation. Here are the trends that most directly affect travel SEO.
1. Optimising for voice search
Voice search queries are longer, more conversational, and often phrased as questions — “what’s the best small group tour operator for Morocco” rather than “Morocco group tours”. For travel brands, this has practical implications for keyword strategy and content structure. FAQ-format content that directly answers the questions prospective travellers ask — before they ask them in a search engine — performs well in voice search results and featured snippets. In our experience, the tour operators who’ve invested in detailed, question-answering content see better voice search visibility and generally stronger organic performance across all device types.
2. Mobile-friendliness will become even more valuable
Google’s mobile-first indexing means your site’s mobile version is the primary basis for ranking decisions, regardless of whether your visitors are on mobile or desktop. For travel websites with rich visual content — destination photography, itinerary pages, video — mobile performance is an ongoing challenge rather than a one-time fix. Core Web Vitals scores on mobile are a meaningful ranking signal, and the gap in performance between well-optimised travel sites and poorly optimised ones is large enough to affect rankings measurably. We tend to review Core Web Vitals as part of every SEO audit for travel clients.
3. More long-form content
Comprehensive, in-depth content continues to outperform thin content in competitive travel search categories. A thorough destination guide — covering when to go, what to expect, how to book, what’s included, and what makes your specific tours different — earns more backlinks, ranks for more keyword variations, and keeps visitors engaged longer than a brief overview. What we’ve found is that specialist tour operators have a genuine advantage over OTAs here: the depth of knowledge required to produce excellent destination content is something large platforms find hard to replicate at scale. That depth of expertise, expressed consistently in long-form content, is one of the most durable competitive advantages available to independent operators.
4. Image optimisation to play a key role in SEO
Travel sites are image-heavy by necessity — destinations sell visually. But unoptimised images are one of the most common causes of slow load times on travel websites, and slow load times directly affect both rankings and conversion rates. Every image needs proper compression, descriptive alt text, and correct sizing for the context in which it appears. Google Image Search is also a meaningful traffic channel for travel destination content — well-tagged, well-described images from your tours can attract prospective customers who start their research visually.
5. More businesses focusing on featured snippets
Featured snippets — the answer boxes that appear above organic search results — are increasingly contested in travel search. For informational queries like “what is an escorted tour” or “best time to visit Peru”, a featured snippet captures the top position regardless of overall domain authority. Structuring your FAQ and informational content to directly answer specific questions — with concise, well-formatted answers — is the most reliable way to earn snippet positions. Clients often ask us about quick SEO visibility wins, and featured snippet optimisation on high-impression informational queries is consistently one of our first recommendations.
6. Video content will play a key role in any SEO strategy
Video content is increasingly prominent in Google search results, particularly for destination and experience-led queries. Travel brands with YouTube channels that are properly optimised — descriptive titles, keyword-rich descriptions, transcripts — benefit from video content appearing in search results alongside traditional web listings. For tour operators, destination walkthroughs, trip highlight reels, and guide introductions are the video formats that perform best in organic search, and the production investment required is lower than many operators assume. We tend to see the best results from operators who publish video consistently on a defined schedule rather than producing one-off pieces and waiting.