SEO Nets Big Results for One LGBTQ+ Travel Specialist
byDori Saltzman/当您比旅行顾问更多地了解巡航时,旅行者该怎么办?
Get into this business, of course.
这就是斯科特·维斯蒙特(Scott Wismont)在2015年意识到自己对巡航的了解比他打电话预订旅行的顾问更了解巡航之后所做的。
"He had just started out and I knew more about cruising than he did. And he asked me, 'do you want a job?'"
Unsure of how legit the business was, Wismont, nevertheless decided to jump in and get his feet wet. Like so many other advisors, he started out selling Disney. But it wasn't something he was passionate about.
威斯蒙特对TMR说:“即使很早就我正朝着LGBT社区努力,因为这是我的社区,我可以使用它,而且我知道。”“继续迪士尼的重点是限制性的,因为在他们的品牌下出售,您并不知道我有LGBTQ+重点。”
然后,随之而来的是Covid-19-19的大流行 - 以及重新品牌的机会。
He left the agency he'd been working with and started Rainbow Getaways (a member of Ensemble), using the downtime provided by the pandemic to get his website up and running, earn his CTA from the Travel Institute and start getting the word out.
SEO超过建议
Rainbow Getaways的第一批客户是Wismont的朋友和家人,然后是他们的朋友和家人。但是Google搜索结果很快就开始交付客户端。
他说:“这不断震撼我的想法,因为十分之九,当我得到一个新客户并询问他们是如何找到我的时候,这是Google。”
Wismont uses his website, and specifically a blog on the site for SEO purposes, though when he started it he didn't realize that's what he was doing.
他告诉TMR:“我开始使用博客来激发旅行灵感,并主要专注于社交媒体上的营销。”“但是我很快发现,大多数旅行者在寻找同性恋旅行社或酷儿旅行社之后在Google上找到了我。我开始关注关键字排名,并专注于专注于SEO而不是其他营销方案。”
While some of his blog posts are what he calls "filler" most are geared towards specific SEO terms related to gay travel that he picks to focus on.
他补充说,弄清楚如何使用关键字是一场反复试验的旅程,但他也花时间学习尽可能多的学习。
“多年来,我已经与SEO的一些专家进行了交谈,并采用了他们的技巧来调整我的关键字,努力构建反向链接以提高我在Google上的网站的信誉,并找到了一些SaaS工具,这些工具跟踪的东西比比谷歌分析。
尽管过去两工作进展years, some of his earliest blog posts are actually paying the biggest dividends.
His top referring keyword for the past two years has been "Is Sandals Gay Friendly." The blog posts that ranks for that keyword are "The Surprising Experience of Being Gay at Sandals," which was first published in January 2021 and "How Safe Is It to be Gay in Jamaica at Sandals Negril," also published in early 2021.
他说:“ SEO实际上按照他们说的方式工作。”
Wismont tries to post a new blog article twice a month. (He tried weekly, but found it to be too much work.) He focuses on long-tail keywords (longer, more specific keywords that have less competition) as much as possible, while at the same time posting destination content, trip reports and more.
One of the best things about all the new clients he's gotten from Google over the past two years? They're already coming back to him for second and third vacations. And referring him to their friends and family.
With so many new and repeat clients reaching out, Wismont has already added two independent contractors over the past year and hopes to grow to 10 in 2023.
Choosing Gay Friendly Destinations
Despite the fact that "Is Sandals Gay Friendly" is the top referring keyword for Rainbow Getaways, the company is not Wismont's go-to all-inclusive for his clients.
The reason, he told TMR, is partly because many of the Caribbean islands that Sandals resorts are located on are not gay-friendly. But he also finds that the language Sandals staff use is full of what he refers to as "micro aggressions." Meaning, if he were to go to breakfast by himself, a Sandals staff member might ask him "Will your wife be joining you?" instead of something gender-neutral, like "Will your partner be joining you?"
"Other companies are in destinations that are a little bit more welcoming and their sensitivity training a lot better. They actually focus on inclusivity training and making sure that everyone actually feels welcome."
当被问及他喜欢客户的加勒比海目的地时,威蒙(Wismont)告诉TMR,他喜欢圣马丁。
"St. Martin my favorite island right now because they've got a couple of all-inclusives… and because it's on St. Martin where there's Dutch and French, there's a lot more flexibility for LGBTQ couples because there are laws protecting them. And the people don't care."
他补充说,与牙买加这样的地方补充说,如果一对同性恋夫妇留在全包中的范围内,但如果他们离开,他们会遇到问题。