How to Choose the Best SEO Agency for Your Travel Business?

If you ever want to hire an SEO but don’t know the due steps to choose the right one, this article is for you. SEO is a cost-effective method to attract new customers for your travel business, hotel, or safari company. However, many travel businesses don’t have an in-house marketing team working on their SEO projects. It is totally fine to outsource to SEO experts on a freelancing and agency basis. While outsourcing to SEO agencies can be beneficial for businesses without in-house expertise, it is important to consider the potential drawbacks, such as a lack of control over strategy, dependency on external resources, and the possibility of receiving generic or ineffective SEO services. 

How do you hire an SEO agency if you don’t have any clue about SEO skills yourself? We will explore 10 steps to help you make an informed decision when outsourcing your SEO needs. 

Here is a snapshot of what you will learn:

• What an SEO agency means for your travel business
• Tips for choosing an SEO company that aligns with your specific goals and requirements.
• Dos and don’ts when looking for an agency.
• The questions to be asked when hiring a new agency are to ensure they have the necessary expertise and experience in your industry: their previous clients and success stories in similar industries.

Set clear goals.

The first step to finding the right SEO agency is to determine your specific SEO goals for your travel business. Every business has different goals. Common SEO goals can include beating your competitors for specific travel keywords, creating SEO-optimized content, improving your travel brand’s reputation, improving your website load speed, and obtaining high-quality travel backlinks from relevant sources.

Your business goals pave the way for your expectations, which will play a crucial role in the choice of an SEO agency. You shouldn’t even think about searching for an SEO agency until you have determined the specific and measurable goal you want to achieve. Why? Because it will help you vet the right agency. On the other hand, the SEO agency will assess if it can meet your expectations or if they match your travel business needs. You need to have a clear understanding of what you really need. The SEO experts will build their plan and proposition based on your wants.  

Here is an example: You have perfect travel content that is high quality and relevant for better search engine rankings, but you lack high-authority travel backlinks.  Link-building is probably what you need.

Determining your goals can also help you save money. You will decide if you need an SEO agency or a freelancer to assist you in building those high-authority travel backlinks. Either choice will depend on your budget and specific requirements.

Use Recommendations from your network

If you are in business, chances are you have a network of other travel professionals who can provide insights and recommendations on agencies they have worked with.  Honest recommendations are incredibly valuable when deciding on which agency to commit to your SEO project. Of course, if they are not your competitors, they can provide insights into their goals and how the agency helped them achieve them.

Get a clear picture of what the agency customer experience, SEO strategies, and overall satisfaction were like, as well as communication, reporting, and punctuality. A client-SEO relationship can reveal a lot about the effectiveness and impact of the agency’s services.

A recommendation from your peers or SEO partners is not a convincing enough reason to go for an agency’s services. The recommendation may not accurately reflect the agency’s true capabilities or success rate. You need to do your due diligence by vetting the agency yourself. There are lots of SEO referral programs out there where people share their experiences to receive a commission. Side note: You know what affiliate marketing is. SEO affiliate programs exist too.  It’s in your best interest to do thorough research to find a good SEO company that meets your needs. You value your travel business and money.

Request the results of previous projects.

A good SEO agency will be happy to provide concrete evidence of their past successes and the results they have achieved for previous clients. Case studies and testimonials are the equivalent of social proof.  When you find an SEO agency that seems to be a great fit for your SEO project, ask them for examples of previous travel websites they have worked on. Not necessarily travel companies, but a similar SEO tourism project can suffice.

Preferably, you should ask them for an example of a website in the travel industry or niche. They should explain to you how they achieved the results. This reflects their SEO expertise in your business field. If they can’t provide details for privacy reasons, they should at least show screenshots from Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and their favorite SEO tool. You need this information to see the progress and compare the results before and after the work is done. 

It’s a straightforward route to understand the results if you have SEO experience or skills; otherwise, ask them to explain the different graphs and dig into metrics and results. 

“If you can’t explain to a six-year-old, you probably don’t understand it yourself.”

Don’t be intimidated by the complicated portfolios some SEO agencies build to showcase their work, hoping to persuade potential clients. Your main concern as a business owner is the result, not the elaborate presentations.

Accept(reasonable)guarantees

Accept guarantees but be cautious of an SEO agency that promises guaranteed travel keyword rankings. It’s important to remember that SEO is a complex and ever-changing field, and no agency can guarantee specific keyword rankings. Walk away instead. Those are false promises. 

No professional SEO agency can guarantee a travel website’s search engine ranking within a specific timeframe.

It is a good sign when the agency gives a timeline, for example, of 3-6 months for the first results.  The expected time to see the first SEO results depends on a few factors, like competition in your travel niche, destination, and overall website structure. 

On average, it can take anywhere from several weeks to a few months to start seeing noticeable improvements in search engine rankings.

Transparency is key in the SEO project. It is a good practice to build trust and ensure that both the client and the SEO agency are on the same page regarding goals, expectations, and progress.  Businesses shouldn’t expect guaranteed results from SEO companies, regardless of their claims or abilities. 

As a travel business owner, it’s essential to be patient and understand that there is no way to get guaranteed results from most SEO companies. 

Trust the SEO strategy and commitment of the agency to reach your goals.

Understand their SEO strategy.

There is nothing wrong with questioning the SEO travel strategy the agency plans to use. When choosing an SEO company for your travel business, it is crucial to understand their approach and strategy. If the company isn’t comfortable answering questions or is withholding information, it makes sense to be cautious.

You need to understand their SEO strategy for your travel business and the process for building backlinks, optimizing content, and increasing website authority. 

Asking these questions will provide insights into how they approach SEO and whether they have a clear understanding of your field too.

The best SEO company will practice white-hat SEO techniques and ensure transparency in every move they make.

By all means, they should avoid black-hat practices, such as getting links from PBNs, writing AI travel content, or attacking competitors with malicious links.  

Some SEO agencies take shortcuts by relying on PBNs, AI content, or malicious links. However, these practices can result in severe penalties from search engines and harm the website’s credibility and organic rankings. The misery of other travel businesses won’t take you anywhere.

Analyze their pricing.

Together with your goals and expectations, you will need to ensure that their pricing matches your budget. Any SEO pricing strategy is believed to consider factors such as the scope of work, deliverables, and any additional costs that may arise throughout the project.

The truth is that there is no cheap or expensive SEO company, regardless of where they outsource their services. Even if they outsource their services to countries with lower labor costs, the price won’t necessarily be lowered.  Believe it or not, a good SEO company costs a significant amount of money.

Let’s look at the figures:

Imagine you need on-page SEO services for your website, which will include 20 backlinks and 2 articles per month. The cost of such services can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars per month.

One agency charges you $500 per month.

The second does require $1500.

The cost of the third agency’s services is $3000 per month.

The choice may seem clear based on the SEO budget.

However, it is important to consider the quality and range of services offered by each agency before making a decision. It’s not because they charge a lot that their work quality will reflect the price. Don’t make the SEO cost a deciding factor.  

Instead, keep shopping around. Don’t be tired of checking other options.  Do some more extra homework, research, and compare different agencies’ portfolios, client reviews, and success stories.

If you are not confident enough about your choice, don’t sign a long-term contract. It’s better to test the waters with a shorter commitment. This way, you can assess the agency’s performance and decide whether to continue working with them.

Review the SEO agency website.

This one is usually ignored, yet it is an important source of information about the agency’s expertise and credibility. If an SEO company’s website looks and performs poorly, it is a red flag that should be taken into consideration.

Ignoring these warning signs can lead to hiring an unreliable and ineffective SEO company. Imagine you are looking for an architect to design your dream home, yet he lives in a crappy house. Wouldn’t you be cautious?  It may be a clear indication that their skills and expertise are questionable.

A poor SEO company’s website without ranking for any keywords is definitely not a good sign. You should imagine why. If you can, use some SEO tools to analyze their website and see if they are implementing basic optimization techniques. Specifically, check their content copy and the quality of their backlinks, as these are key factors in determining the effectiveness of their SEO strategy.

Ask questions

If you are meeting with the SEO agency, you will need to have key questions to ask.

Understand the SEO Agency Team

A good SEO Agency team consists of highly skilled professionals with expertise in all aspects of search engine optimization. It also has technical SEO experts, web developers, content writers, backlink builders, graphic designers, and project managers. The diversity of expertise ensures the agency can provide a solution that meets the needs of your small or large travel businesses. One thing worth noting is deadlines. 

You should ask if there will be a point of contact for your SEO project. The proposal from the agency needs to indicate the necessary team members to run your project. If the agency can’t assign a team for your project, like backlink builders or copywriters, among others, it’s a red flag to question their capabilities and limitations. 

Request a written contract.

Now that you have chosen the right SEO company for your project, it is important to protect yourself and your investment by getting a written contract. You should avoid relying on vague promises.  An SEO project contract should outline the terms and conditions of the project, including the scope of work, timeline, and payment details. The contract will protect both parties and ensure that goals are clear and agreed upon. Monthly reports are common practices among top SEO companies. 

Requiring a written contract is not a sign that you don’t trust the SEO agency. It’s simply a professional way of doing business that no SEO expert is expected to oppose. 

Protip: If you don’t trust the agency enough, start with a short-term retainer. If you are satisfied with the results, you can consider a long-term partnership.

Understand their reports and ask for clarification if necessary.

An SEO report is an important sign of the client-agency relationship. It shows how the agency is performing and provides insights into the progress made toward achieving the client’s goals.  The reports an SEO agency provides show a list of key metrics, a backstory, questions, and answers about past successes or failures, competitors’ strategies, and future outcomes.

The reports also include recommendations for further improvements and strategies. The best agencies execute SEO strategies well and communicate clearly using concise reports, avoiding the unnecessary need for calls or emails. The use of concise reports helps streamline communication.

FAQs About SEO agencies