Last week, I was on a call with a client (hi, Tamika!) and she asked me a great question: How long should her travel agent blog posts be?
She had been doing some research, and some gurus said shorter posts (like 400 words) were the ticket, while others were claiming that mega 2,000 word posts (yikes!) worked best.
My answer? You need both.
And there are a couple of reasons for that.
Reason #1:Mix Up Travel Agent Blog Posts for SEO Success
The first has to do with SEO. Blogging consistently (like once a week) is GREAT for SEO, because 1) Google likes to see you updating your site often, and 2) it gives you more opportunities to rank for keywords.
One way Google can tell which keywords are most important to you (i.e. the keywords that are most pertinent to your travel biz) is by the length of your content. That’s why you do want a few longer, in-depth blog posts centered around your most important keywords.
Typically, these keywords will align with your travel niche or niches.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re a romance travel specialist. The kinds of trips you plan typically fall into three buckets: destination weddings, honeymoons, and anniversary vacations. So, you’ll want to write longer, well-researched blog posts for each of these three categories.
Then you can write shorter (400-600 word) posts that support these categories, and you can link to your mega post in your shorter post. So, you might write a blog post about the best all-inclusive honeymoon resorts in the Caribbean, and then from your post you’ll link to your mega guide on honeymoons (btw, this longer guide is called “cornerstone content”).
Reason #2: Give Readers a Variety of Travel Agent Blog Posts to Devour
Does all this SEO talk got you feeling like this???
S-E-whahhhhh???
No worries — there’s another reason you should have a mix of post lengths on your blog. And it doesn’t have a thing to do with SEO.
The different lengths satisfy different needs in your readers.
Longer mega guides are a great way to build authority. When a reader sees that you’ve written 2,000 words on a travel subject, they’ll think, “she really knows what she’s talking about.” These long posts position you as an expert in your niche.
BUT — readers don’t (typically) want to read 2,000 words from you every week. They crave bite-sized nuggets of info. That’s where your shorter, more specific posts come in.
This is especially true if you reuse your blog posts as the feature article in your ezine (<– great idea, btw). A 2,000 word article is wayyyy too long for email.
So! Mix it up. Variety — it’s the spice of life, and the key to blogging 😉
Don’t Know What to Write About for Your Travel Agent Blog?
For killer travel agent blogging ideas that work for ALL lengths, join the Blog Brainstorming Challenge, below! You’ll walk away with a year’s worth of blog ideas 🙂
Just wanted to compliment you on your way of communicating and teaching us travel experts by showing examples (doing as you say). It is always easy to understand and follow your methods. Looking forward to the 10-day challenge on blogging.
I appreciate that, Mimi! And thanks for reading!