AN ANALYSIS OF 2000 PIECES OF CONTENT IN THE TRAVEL SECTOR

CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CONTENT FORMATS

CONTENT ACTIVITY

TITLE ANALYSIS

TOP PERFORMING CONTENT

CONCLUSIONS

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Travel content is some of the most ambitious in the industry today. From 360° holiday videos where you can try out experiences before visiting the destination, to animated reconstructions of ancient ruins, marketers are using the best in cutting edge technology to get people travelling.

As a result, we have conducted a study of nearly 2000 pieces of travel content, including infographics, interactive tools and guides, videos, influencer-written articles, and more – to find out what makes any given piece of content successful.

This study focuses on the URL Rating, Number of Referring Domains, and Number of Social Shares of each piece, format, and content title style. We did this to get an insight into the actual SEO impact of creative choices in content creation, and to identify the most successful travel pieces in terms of traditional SEO statistics.

INTRODUCTION

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INFOGRAPHICINFLUENCER INTERACTIVE ARTICLE VIDEO OTHER

OUR STUDY INCORPORATED THE FOLLOWING CONTENT TYPES:

1.0 THE STUDY

Where relevant, we’ve included both average and “reliability” results for analysis. The higher the “reliability” score, the more likely a content format or title type is likely to succeed. This is separate from the “average” scores which are weighted by outlying values and do not accurately show the potential success of any given piece. Reliability is measured independently for each metric (URL Rating, Referring Domains, and Social Shares) and cannot be compared across metrics.

1,362

32564 6233 28

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INFOGRAPHIC

INTERACTIVE

OTHER

PRESENTATION

VIDEO

NON-INFLUENCER

INFLUENCER

2.0 THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CONTENT

FORMATS

6.7

17.5

4.1

9.2

7.4

10

0.7

1,299.7

1,221.5

1,384.7

151.8

4,136

8

47.7

Referring DomainsSocial Shares

10 0 0 4,500

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URL RATING SOCIAL SHARESOVERALL REFERRING DOMAINS

After interactives, videos are the next best

option, being only 5% lower on average.

Though less than half the average social

shares of interactives, infographics are still the

second best option.

Interactives dominate all three metrics,

being on average 40% stronger than the next

most effective.

While they are the next best option for referring

domains, articles are only half as strong on

average.

2.1 TOP-LINE STATS

2.1.1 INFOGRAPHIC

01 0302 04

Infographics are a staple of modern content marketing, but their static appearance and variable quality of design can be drawbacks for higher measures of success.

That said, while on average they take in less than half the number of social shares (1299.5) of interactives (4136), they are still the second best option for that goal – and with a good standard in URL Ratings (12.2) and equal reliability to interactives in Referring Domains (11), all features combine with their relatively low cost and resource requirements to keep them highly relevant in the market.

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2.1.2 INTERACTIVE

2.1.3 ARTICLE

Interactives dominate all three of the metrics researched, being on average 40% stronger overall than the next most effective. The high performance may be due to a greater chance for users to engage with the content over formats like infographics or video.

The limiting factor for many can be the price requirements of upper end interactives. As is discussed later in this study, a successful interactive need not be high budget, but the general trend is towards higher expense and more significant resource requirements, which can put many content marketers off.

The primary selling point of content articles is their position as having the lowest resource cost of all the different content types. Neither designers and developers are required (though can be used to improve the content) and a single copywriter can produce a high quality article at a comparatively low budget.

Further good news is that articles have a high average number on both URL Rating (12.3) and Referring Domains (9.2), meaning that despite their lower resources, after interactives they are still a highly valid option – and are much quicker to output.

Video, discussed further later in this study, is highly successful for reliably earning unique backlinking domains (with a score of 2, tied for the first) – more so than articles (1), and second only to interactives (with an equal reliability score of 2 and a higher average of 17.5 compared with articles’ 9.2). It’s also a valuable option for achieving high URL Ratings (Average 13.2, Reliability Score 12).

2.1.4 VIDEO

However, its value in the travel industry is more likely to be outside of the standard SEO strategies and instead be found in YouTube views and brand recognition. Further discussion of how this applies in the most successful video pieces in the study can be seen in section 3.1 below.

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2.2 INFLUENCERS AND NON-INFLUENCER CONTENT

I N F LU E N C E R S A R E AT T H E I R M O S T U S E F U L

W H E N C O N T R I B U T I N G T O C O L L A B O R AT I V E

C O N T E N T P I E C E S , R AT H E R T H A N

A S O U T L E T S F O R T R A D I T I O N A L

L I N K- B U I L D I N G .

Influencers have become a major part of the modern world of marketing. Where previously celebrity endorsements were potentially only available to companies with larger budgets, influencers with blogs or social media presences are now present anywhere on the budgeting scale, and are more specific to any given industry.

Accordingly, they’ve seen reasonable use by many brands – but are they good value for money?

While they largely can’t be compared in terms of Referring Domains – as the influencer themselves would usually provide the link to the brand they’re supporting rather than seeking to receive them themselves – they can be considered in line with URL Rating, which can measure the value of their site’s contribution to the brand, and in terms of social shares, which are often the main inspiration for a brand to use an influencer.

However, the news is poor in terms of on-site content from influencers: their scores are significantly lower across the board.

In terms of URL Rating, influencer posts score 2 lower on reliability of success, and on the successful pieces, the average URL Rating is 3.1 lower. Even on social shares, where influencers are generally hoped to excel, the reliability of success was 8 points lower. And among successful pieces the number of shares was likely to be much lower – averaging only 151.8 as opposed to the 1384.7 of other content formats.

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But do influencers have a place outside of providing backlinks and commentary on your brand? Colin Carter, Director at weather2travel.com says:

“It’s become increasingly difficult to use travel bloggers in a traditional link building way. “Many bloggers are negative to the process completely, others will only offer nofollow links or demand high monetary reward, which has risks for all parties.

“Content will always be ‘hit and miss’ with no guarantee of success no matter which route taken, however it’s fair to say that great content still works. Brands may be drawn to influencer marketing but still struggle to measure accurately the ROI compared with more traditional content marketing techniques.“

Influencers, then, are being used incorrectly in many cases – rather than gathering many influencers and seeking backlinks, brands are better served by either connecting with individual influencers in order to build joint content, or to make use of their other offerings.

“Partnering with travel bloggers can be effective if you approach it holistically and take referral traffic and the halo effect of their social media reach into account beyond just the link. If you’re in the lucky position to be able to put together fabulous experiences for them it’s much easier. If you’re not, it can be tricky as most of the true “influencers” can take their pick.”

JA M I E S TA R RH E A D O F M A R K E T I N GD AY O U T W IT H T H E K I D S

We would recommend going down the route of content col-laboration, where both parties contribute to create something more authentic, meaningful and,

ultimately, shareable.

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3.1 MOST ACTIVE BRANDS

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3.0 CONTENT ACTIVITY

Among the research set, there were some brands creating more content than any others. What was of greatest interest was the breakdown of their

industries – the table below shows the travel subsectors which featured in the top ten for marketing activity in the research:

Travel Comparison

Hotel Chain

Insurance

Hotel Reservations

Vehicle Renting

Route Planner

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One of the most active in terms of high-quality video was the Marriott International hotel chain. They have produced two short, cinema-feel films with plotlines and actors in order to promote travel locations.

These films, Two Bellman Three and French Kiss take place in Seoul, Korea, and Paris, France, respectively. Neither is a direct advertisement for the Marriott brand, but instead display it and the locations where one can stay through an immersive experience.

In terms of SEO and social media, Two Bellman Three failed to gain significant traction, although the URL rating was above average. French Kiss, on the other hand, achieved strong URL Rating and Referring Domains, despite falling below average on social shares.

This may potentially be in part due to the location of the piece – Paris. More discussion of the effects of including a location can be found later in this study, in “Locational Titles”.

“Determined to remedy Ethan’s obsession with work, Margaux tricks him into following her and her string of clues all over Paris.”

FRENCH KISS

URL Rating: 33

Referring Domains: 81

Social Shares: 916

Runtime: 24.33

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3.2 INTERACTIVE CONTENT ACTIVITY

Interactives are the best option for traditional link-building, but videos may be more useful for a brand awareness strategy.Despite interactives being the most effective format, when compared with infographics there were comparatively few being produced across the industry, and only marginally more than videos, which, as mentioned, only stood against interactives on a URL Rating footing.

The quantity of interactives doesn’t appear to be connected to the premium standard of the brand. Low budget companies such as the defunct website of a tour guide in Florence and luxury brands like Swissotel both seem to be producing interactive content – while other high-end brands, like Marriott, invest exclusively in video.

This may be a strategic move – despite the lack of social

shares for either of the Marriott International videos discussed already, there is possible greater potential for sharing them through other platforms. Two Bellman Three, for example, has over 9 million views on YouTube despite its lack of onsite metric achievements. French Kiss, the more successful piece in terms of traditional link-building, has 6 million.

It’s likely, therefore, that interactives are being taken up more often by brands looking to invest in their SEO, while videos are more appealing to those looking at a brand awareness strategy.

“From an SEO perspective we haven’t engaged with travel bloggers for a few years now;

our PR team still work with them occasionally for product launches or new hotels to raise awareness. PR have also partnered with a few celebrities over the years

to boost our image with our target audience, e.g. in https://www.firstchoice.co.uk/braggage-handlers. In this case, the content marketing half of my team were responsible for developing the hub, with the support of our external SEO consultants. If we see an opportunity to drive growth then we’ll get involved.”

Osman Khan Head of SEO First Choice

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4.0 TITLE ANALYSIS

Differently worded titles are unlikely to have a major impact – though creating a how-to guide can see some success, and when doing a locational piece, greater specificity might yield improvements.

QUESTION WORD TITLES

Question Words - 0.5 miles

4.1

It’s not just the format which can contribute to the success of a content piece. One of the first things that a journalist or potential content sharer sees is the piece’s title. Accordingly, we investigated the efficacy of different title structures in order to track which words inspired the most interest.

Question words are frequent in content titles. In fact, 251 – 13% - of the content pieces investigated featured at least one question word. The breakdown of which question words were used (and the number featuring a question mark) is as follows:

HOWHOW

WHATWHATWHYWHY

WHEREWHEREWHENWHEN

WHOWHO

??

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Although we have listed these as question words, it’s important to note that they can be used adverbially, or as a conjunction – i.e. “why is X true” or “this is why X is true”. This played a large role in these results – highlighted by the much lower frequency of question marks compared with the words themselves.

For example, the abundance of “how” indicates not the number of “how” questions available, but the frequency of “how-to” guides among content pieces. This isn’t a trend unique to travel content – we saw a similar trend in our analysis of FinTech content.

Likewise, it’s unsurprising that “who” is one of the lowest featuring, as personalities tend to be less relevant in travel.

The reason is primarily due to the instructional nature of “why” – a significant proportion of those titles contain phrasing akin to “why you need” or “why you should”. 34% of the “why” headlines, in fact, are actually “why you” – broken down into 16% being “why you need”, and a further 19% being “why you should”.

The efficacy of question word titles is slightly different from their usage levels, as can be seen below:

But it is interesting that “why” features much more significantly than “where”, which has the locational focus one might expect in travel content.

Who What When Where Why How

Average URL Rating

Average Referring Domains

Average Social Shares

Reliability URL Rating

Reliability Referring Domains

Reliability Social Shares

12.0

10.5

2.5

3.0

5.8

45.9

11.2

11.0

1.0

7.0

4.6

111.2

11.3

11.0

1.5

7.0

3.1

27.8

11.9

11.0

1.0

6.0

3.5

9,039.1

10.2

10.0

1.0

7.5

2.1

334.9

12.0

11.0

2.0

10.0

9.7

2,545.7

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4.2 NUMBER HEADLINES

While 398 – 21% - of the titles researched feature at least one number, there is no clear advantage to including them in terms of Referring Domains or URL Rating, as can be seen above.

There may be some benefit in terms of social shares, though a significantly lower benefit than changing to an optimal format, or using a suitable question word.

Overall Number Containing

Average URL Rating

Average Social Shares

Reliability URL Rating

Reliability Referring Domains

Reliability Social Shares

11.7

8.3

1

1,150.7

7

11

11.58

6.01

1

1,454.81

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Average Referring Domains

“How” “Where” “Why”is not only the most used, it’s also the most effective overall, with the highest reliability in URL Ratings and Social Shares (11 and 10 respectively), and the second highest on referring domains – beaten only by the rarely used “who”.

also has the highest potential social shares among successful pieces by a significant margin - though the mid-range reliability makes it impractical to invest heavily in this type of content in the hopes of success.

meanwhile, despite high usage, isn’t the best option for any of the metrics researched; it has the lowest results on both URL Rating and Referring Domains, and a mid-range one on social shares.

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4.3LOCATIONAL

TITLES

Locational pieces see some clear advantages on social shares, with the average number being nearly double that of the overall average, and the Reliability score being more than double.

There’s also scope to suggest that it may be a more reliable basis for achieving referring domains, as the Reliability score is 2, compared with an overall 1, though this is less clear-cut than with social shares.

India Containing

Australia Containing

Paris Containing

Rome Containing

Overall Stats

Overall

Average URL Rating

Average Referring Domains

Average Social Shares

Reliability URL Rating

Reliability Referring Domains

Reliability Social Shares

9.34

10

1

1.5

1.81

193.09

12.3

11

2

12.5

6.8

303.2

12.22

13

2

76

3.78

524.56

14.0

11

3

38

5.6

1,343.5

11.1

9

2

17

4.1

2,150.1

11.7

11

1

7

8.3

1,150.7

India is the location most commonly mentioned, occurring in 32 of the content pieces researched, while Australia occurs 24 times. However, Australia has markedly better results, particularly in regard to Referring Domains, showing that an abundance of articles about a location doesn’t correlate with the end results or interest of journalists and sharers.

In terms of capitals, the most frequently occurring is Paris, occurring 10 times, with Rome occurring only 8. As with the India/Australia comparison, greater frequency doesn’t necessarily align with greater success – Rome has higher scores in most metrics except the Reliability of URL Ratings and Social Shares.

In general, capitals fared slightly better than countries, despite the lower number of occurrences – possibly suggesting that more refined targeting has greater value than a wide net.

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M E TA D ATA

“TOP” TITLES4.4

Though less thematically wide than the other categories investigated, it’s worth noting the prevalence of the word “top” in headlines. It occurred in 98 of them, more than any question word except “how”.

Top’s inclusion is suggestive of “listicles” – list-based content. However, as can be seen below, its value is less than that of question words, and as such it should not be considered any significant benefit to a title.

Meta data was not a major part of the study we conducted and does not feature greatly in the results.

However, we did track its lengths – and found that meta data is being underused on average.

While the optimum meta title length is 55 characters, and 155 for meta description, the averages were

only 26.1 and 49.7 respectively – meaning there are frequently opportunities for taking advantage of the

SEO opportunities that are being missed.

Top Question Words

Average URL Rating

Average Referring Domains

Average Social Shares

Reliability URL Rating

Reliability Referring Domains

Reliability Social Shares

11.0

11.0

1.0

6.0

3.9

510

11.4

10.8

1.5

6.8

4.8

2,017.5

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TOP PERFORMING CONTENT

The best content doesn’t include anything extraneous to the core story. Everything needs to be in there for a reason.

Among the content pieces researched, these were the top-performing content pieces for Referring Domains, the metric most representative of SEO content success:

11 Untranslatable Words From Other Cultures 40 Tourist Scams to Avoid This Summer

The Ultimate Guide to Worldwide EtiquetteHow Music Travels

The 23 Most Common Languages In The World

Most Popular Countries in the World7 ancient ruins around the world, reconstructed

The Straight Scoop on Ice Cream

Fall Foliage Map 2017 & Nationwide Peak Leaf Forecast

The Average Cost of Business Travel

956

620

324

305

203

167

149

138

119

77

5.0

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THE FALL FOLIAGE MAP 2017 & NATIONWIDE PEAK

LEAF FORECAST

5.1

This piece was created by Smoky Mountains, a travel comparison site specific to the Smoky Mountains National Park in America. The piece is, therefore, particularly on-brand – focusing on the falling of leaves in the autumn, tying back to nature and parks in general.

We saw this in one of our own projects – the Commuter Hotspots piece we created for TotallyMoney. While this featured a more widespread dataset than the foliage content, the concept was still a simple one: providing information on where commuters could live outside of London for lower cost. While the data could

As with other interactives featuring in the top five results, the advantage of the interactive functionality isn’t in unnecessary additions to the story, but is central to the presentation of the comparatively simple dataset.

potentially have been presented as a series of static images, as again with the Smoky Mountains piece, it’s much easier to process and use when presented with interactive elements, allowing the user to view the data in simple form.

Our content achieved 38 Referring Domains and a URL

Rating of 25 – 80% and 1.17% respectively higher than the average for the format.

It’s worth noting that the Smoky Mountains piece was also the most successful in terms of URL Rating, and the fifth most successful in terms of social shares.

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Unfortunately, the second most successful content piece is no longer available to view directly. The interactive, in which users could see how early music developed by location into modern sounds, has the same valuable takeaway as the Fall Foliage piece – it’s a simple piece of data, not overloading the user with information, and is displayed in a simple and easy-to-comprehend fashion through the use of the interactivity.

Having all the data on a single page would be daunting, considering the number of directions the music takes, but by showing the development over time the data becomes much more manageable.

A similar piece worth investigating in place of this defunct one is a non-locational version produced by Concert Hotels. It has greater functionality, allowing the user to listen to pieces of music of each kind represented on the content. In terms of the user interface, however, the additions are seamless – nothing significantly extra is displayed on screen to distract from the core story.

Accordingly, it has somewhat higher SEO metrics – achieving 678 Referring Domains compared with How Music Travels’ 620, and an equal URL rating of 50. Social shares were significantly lower, however – only 2,300 compared with 248,894 for How Music Travels. This potentially corresponds with the earlier analysis of locational headings – though How Music Travels doesn’t include an actual location, the suggestion of travel could be factoring into a greater social presence.

5.2 HOW MUSIC TRAVELS

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This static infographic is remarkably simple. The only data is the words themselves, their origin, and their meaning.

The design quality is high, but the priority – and the reason for the success of this piece – is the straightforward, relatable content which fills a need. The words are untranslatable because they fill a specific niche that everyone has – like the commonly used “schadenfreude”.

11 UNTRANSLATABLE

WORDS FROM OTHER CULTURES

5.3

5.4 7 ANCIENT RUINS AROUND THE

WORLD, RECONSTRUCTED

This animated 3D model set from Expedia features exactly what it suggests in the title. While presented as an article with copy underneath, this is entirely secondary to the main strength of the content – the animated visualisations of the ruins themselves.

They have a high design standard, but the core selling point is the actual exactitude of the reconstructions. As these aren’t available elsewhere, the value of the piece is dramatically raised. It also reached the top four in URL Ratings, achieving 42. It didn’t, however, score as highly on social shares – only achieving 902.

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5.5THE STRAIGHT SCOOP ON ICE

CREAM

Another static infographic, this one features information about ice cream using high design standards. Information includes a timeline regarding the creation of the sweet treat, a map of where it’s most consumed, and a range of interesting facts – from how many licks it takes to finish a single scoop to survey results on how people eat them.

The main advantage this piece has is its connection to a commonly enjoyed food. We saw a similar effect when we created the Desserts Around the World With the Highest Calories piece for TUI – which received almost double the average number of referring domains for a static infographic, and above average URL Rating.

Both pieces share a focus on dessert food, which appeals to publications as, like the untranslatable words of the content mentioned previously, it’s a relatable topic which can fit into a range of niches, regardless of the target audience.

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While there is no clear formula for successful content, this study should help display the specific benefits of the major format options available to use in your content strategies. By combining these insights with a focus on the creation of valuable content, marketers should be able to develop effective campaigns.

6.0 CONCLUSIONS

ACROSS ALL OF THIS ANALYSIS, THERE ARE SOME SPECIFIC, KEY TAKEAWAYS TO NOTE:

• Interactive content is the most successful and reliable for all metrics.

• Interactives, however, cannot be created for the sake of it – their interactivity must be central to telling the story of the content.

• Question words will, on the whole, not provide any specific advantage – though content guided by a “how” principle may have some merit.

• Locational titles aren’t inherently better, but making the location more specific than just a country may improve the chances of the content being picked up.

• High quality videos are unlikely to see success in terms of traditional SEO metrics. They may well, however, function better for brand awareness and strategy.

• Influencers are not effective for traditional SEO strategy. If they are to be used effectively, the best approach is collaborative content where a single influencer or small number of influencers are contributing significant value to a piece.

While there is no clear formula for successful content, this study should help display the specific benefits of the major format options available to use in your content strategies. By combining these insights with a focus on the creation of valuable content, marketers should be able to develop effective campaigns.

“Other” refers to any articles listed as such from the visual.ly source from which the majority of the content was selected. Content is largely mixed-media and thus cannot be placed in any of the other categories, and analysis of the category has primarily been of this as a top-level statistic rather than in-depth.

“Reliability” is calculated as the median result from the research. This was not treated as the main score as it provides too little variation in data to create valuable analysis.

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CONTENTMADE TOBE SEEN

CONTACT US

Kaizen creates content using advanced industry insights and specialist technology to generate exceptional performance and visibility growth.

Get in contact at contact@kaizen.co.uk or 020 3286 1806.

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