Today’s luxury travelers aren’t as caught up in trivial elements of the travel experience as they once were. Instead, winning the luxury travel SEO game means convincing wealthy guests that you can offer the convenience, choice and power they crave. Overstated opulence will soon be forgotten, as likely will the companies that once offered it.
In the current marketplace, brands that provide connectedness and meaningfulness, at any price, prove more successful than those who don’t. Implementing an SEO for travel strategy with the proper luxury travel keywords, therefore, becomes a mission in targeting and attracting those who can – and are willing – to pay for an encounter that transforms.
How are Wealthy Travelers Different?
Travel companies can reach luxury travelers along various points of their decision-making journey, just like other types of travelers. But the wealthy consumers’ paths to purchase are ones filled with resources that buy just about anything, in any place. Winning the business and loyalty of the 1%, who have the mind to travel with personal transformation as their sole intent, takes a strategic look at what makes these travel buyers different, as well as carefully planned search engine optimization.
Luxury travelers look to check destinations and activities off of their bucket lists, just like millennials do.
However, extremely wealthy travelers have the unique ability to be open to a wide array of accommodations and experiences. This is what gives travel brands a perfect place to jump into the customer journey, as well as to get extremely personal. That personal connection, after all, is what travel marketing is all about. Many travelers desire customization today, but luxury travelers want customization several levels above. Opportunities for travel brands to cater to these needs are endless.
Who Are the Luxury Travelers?
Affluence doesn’t necessarily equal luxury when it comes to travel, although most luxury travelers do make a considerable amount of money or have large net worths. In addition, not all wealthy travelers travel in the same way. They don’t all like staying in lavish suites or villas, and many don’t want to engage in anything experiential that is out of the ordinary on a business trip or vacation. Some affluent travelers simply travel to get somewhere or to get something done.
Luxury travelers, however, spend quickly and freely on travel experiences, with the intention of being transformed as a result. These experiences will often include those at hotels and resorts, as well as transportation and activities. These wealthy travelers are willing to pay top dollar for anything related to traveling, for any reason.
What Do Luxury Travelers Want?
Those in the luxury travel segment have very high expectations. They’re used to precision in the services they receive, and they want their individual idiosyncrasies catered to. Every experience they choose must include top-tier service, and allowing privacy and consideration for time is essential. Luxury travelers want what they want at their own pace and in their own way.
The luxury travelers in today’s world don’t want to worry about the details or deal with annoyances. Fortunately for them, they don’t have to, because someone usually takes care of it for them. At airports, they relax in exclusive lounges until they fly out of private terminals on sometimes private, but often semi-private/commercial plane hybrids – like those that JetSuiteX provides. It’s all about fluidity, logistics, access, control, security and trust with these travelers.
Using Luxury Travel SEO to Attract Luxury Travelers
Since luxury travelers have the money to buy freedom from the norm and exclusive access, they want what seems unreachable and unimaginable to most. The essence of travel for them is completely bespoke. Popular with this set might be choosing someone to arrange dinners with dignitaries or coordinate the chance to play onstage with a renowned orchestra.
No matter where in the world they come from, luxury travelers are the same in that they’re hungry for discovery and on a quest to consume adventure that changes their lives.
Travel companies can facilitate this change and build brand loyalty with a group that might be stronger than with any other travel segment by effectively using luxury travel SEO to target the luxury traveler. This includes the right travel SEO keywords and a properly executed content plan.
Luxury Travel SEO Strategy Development
As you outline your luxury travel SEO strategy, consider that:
- Luxury travelers went on 4.8 leisure trips in comparison to 3.24 leisure trips taken by merely affluent travelers in recent years
- 16% of luxury travelers expect to travel more in the future, compared to just 4% of affluent travelers who do
- Luxury travelers are twice as likely to turn to travel agents for trip planning
Keep in mind that a solid SEO plan for attracting the luxury traveler must have a real luxury offering in terms of programming or product at its basis. Jumping on the luxury travel bandwagon and incorporating tactics that aren’t backed by significant, transformative experiences won’t get you anywhere with the discerning customer.
When you’ve designed experiences that are so appropriate for individual travelers that they change them at distinct moments in their lives, in perfect timing, you’ve made the first step in attracting the luxury traveler.
Executing a Luxury Travel SEO Strategy
Next, it’s time to integrate SEO strategies to reach these consumers on their personal timelines, which will include the moments when they desire outward manifestations of internal transformation.
You can do this through:
- Keyword Research – Luxury travel keywords play a role in the content you create for wealthy travelers, but long-tail keywords get you further in targeting those whose wealth allows them to be much more specific about their wants than asking for a “flight to China.”
- Content Strategy – Having a good mix of branded content with indexable destination and experiential content on your website is essential, as is optimization of title tags, meta descriptions and alt tags to reflect your copy’s luxury theme. Make sure all text is spot-on when it comes to relevance and that you have complete and in-depth content that reflects the long-term vision of creating customizable value.
- Site Architecture – When you’ve mapped out your keywords and content strategy, it’s time to develop the online assets that will carry them to luxury travelers. These assets must be designed to be searchable and indexable, and they have to have logical navigation paths to guide luxury travelers toward what they’re looking for. Strategies for optimizing schema markup should be part of your SEO plan.
- Local Profile Optimization – Whether luxury travelers want to buy transformative experiences from you directly, through a third party or with the help of a travel agent, you’ll boost your chances of being found and chosen if you optimize local profiles for luxury travelers. Social and listing sites like Google Business Pages and TripAdvisor should all be given luxury SEO consideration.
Targeting the luxury traveler also involves implementing proper off-site tactics, including building quality backlinks.
Each of these SEO tactics poses challenges. As such, having a managed SEO company tackle them for you can be extremely effective and efficient. Galileo Tech Media offers luxury travel SEO services, and we build comprehensive optimization campaigns for brands focused on engaging the luxury traveler. Contact us today!
