A picture tells 1000 words - but not for travel firms

Travel companies are failing to make the most of videos and images to maximise their visibility in online searches on Google, according to new research.

Monarch.co.uk makes the best use of video and TripAdvisor makes the best use of images, said search marketing agency Epiphany, but it claimed most other travel sites perform poorly.

Epiphany said its study, which was part of a comprehensive report that reviewed search marketing in the travel sector, highlighted that very few travel-related sites seem to have any notable presence in search engine results via video and images.

This is a huge missed opportunity for many travel sites, said director of operations Andy Heaps. "Google often brings video and image results on the first page of its search results and visual content such as this provides a natural way to attract the attention of people who are searching for holiday destinations, hotels, flights or other travel related information."

Heaps said it was surprising travel firms made such little use of photography and video as the industry was "extremely sophisticated" in its use of search.

"Because images and videos appear very prominently when they are displayed within Google's search results pages, they often get high click-through rates, meaning they generate a significant amount of additional traffic," said Heaps.

"But obviously the research indicates that many travel brands are missing out on these benefits by not doing enough work with optimising image and video content on their sites to help them appear in search results."

By Linsey McNeill

Wednesday June 20th 2012