For many people, blogging about travel is a real passion. It’s not only great fun, but it’s also a way to meet new people in the online community. You can also make some money on the side and add to your income with advertising or affiliate marketing if you so wish.
It’s a fine art, however, and you not only need to be a good writer, but also skilled in SEO in order to ensure you reach your target audience. Knowledge about a CMS and social media would also stand you in good stead. To help you on your way then, here’s your basic survival pack guide to being a successful travel blogger!
Get yourself on a CMS (and learn the basics)
There are plenty to choose from, but WordPress is the most famous across the world. This CMS is particularly effective as it powers 27% of the internet and Google loves it (excellent for SEO purposes – more on this below).
More importantly, however, you’ll want something you can easily get to grips with. WordPress allows just this – it’s responsive to multiple devices, easy to use, great fun, and WordPress.com offers an active community you can quickly and easily tap into.
This basic guide to WordPress is the best place to start. It’ll direct you on the right path and you’ll be blogging in no time.
Get an understanding about SEO
You’ll need to get to grips with SEO in order to further the success of your travel blog. To do this, you can use Google’s free tools (such as Keyword Planner) to find the target search terms you can use. From this, you can write blog posts or landing pages which target your audience and can rank in Google, landing you additional traffic. This basic introduction to keyword research is the best place to start.
You can use SEO services to get a better understanding of this if you want to take your travel blog a step further. You can shift to WordPress.org and get your site monitored by a web host if you’re really serious – if this is the case, you’ll want your blog to be looking the part and this is where SEO and a possible professional web design makeover can be considered.
Just remember, the central elements to SEO include the right keywords, how you apply these to your meta tags, and the content you write. Bearing in mind Google’s quality expectations, your content needs to be clearly written, doesn’t stuff keywords in like crazy, and respects white hat SEO tactics. If you’re wanting to deploy quality SEO tactics and methods, it could be a wiser decision to look into professional SEO agencies such as these here at https://victoriousseo.com/markets/enterprise-seo/ that know what Google like and dislike when it comes to utilising various SEO strategies.
Read travel writers!
Finally, you should read famous travel writers to get your understanding of writing (and, indeed, travel writing) up a level. There are many famous modern travel bloggers you can follow, but famous writers such as Apsley-Cherry Garrard, Jack Kerouac, Wilfred Thesiger, and many more offer candid insights into their travels.
Books such as On the Road, the Worst Journey in the World, and the Marsh Arabs are a perfect introduction to how to write compelling copy. You can take this as inspiration for how you should write in the internet era and structure blog content which is not only superbly written, but guaranteed to rank well in Google’s SERPs whilst also being top quality stuff.
You can read this guide to the best travel books for further inspiration on what you can read. There’s plenty to get stuck into, so take your pick from whatever you think is your best bet. A personal favourite is Gerald Durrell’s wonderful My Family and Other Animals – always a favourite amongst readers and travellers. This list of the best travel books is a good place to get inspiration!
