The online travel industry is more competitive than ever, and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) like Booking, Expedia, and Kayak are investing in increasingly sophisticated strategies to dominate organic search results. In 2024, the focus is on creating new pages and features that enhance user experience and boost organic traffic.
Successful Organic Growth Strategies in OTAs
OTAs have proven to be experts in identifying organic growth opportunities. This year, their strategies revolve around two key pillars: generating relevant content and improving user navigation. Below, we explore some of their most successful tactics:
New Flight Route Pages
Flight route pages are one of the key SEO trends for OTAs 2024. These new pages are designed to answer specific user queries, such as “flights from Madrid to New York” or “routes from Barcelona to London.” By offering detailed and customizable information on available itineraries, OTAs not only improve their visibility in search engines but also deliver a better user experience, resulting in longer session durations and higher conversion rates.
Booking
Booking has started implementing flight route pages that provide detailed information about available itineraries. These pages not only show flight options but also recommend accommodations in selected destinations. This strategy enables:
- Increased organic traffic by ranking these pages for specific route-related queries.
- Improved user retention by offering a complete service that combines flights and accommodations.
Expedia
Expedia has taken a similar approach by creating specific pages for popular flight routes. The key differentiator is the integration of interactive tools that allow users to compare flight prices and durations more efficiently.
- Competitive advantage: Personalizing results based on user preferences.
- SEO optimization: Leveraging structured data to improve visibility in search engines.
Kayak
Kayak has taken this strategy a step further by incorporating advanced filters on its route pages, allowing users to refine their searches based on airlines, schedules, and layovers. These filters not only significantly improve the user experience by facilitating more precise and relevant searches but also increase session duration. From an SEO perspective, these features create more dynamic and specific content that helps rank for long-tail queries, driving high-quality organic traffic. Additionally, Kayak has optimized the loading speed of these pages, a key factor for SEO.
Last-Minute Deal Pages on Expedia
Another standout strategy in 2024 is the creation of dedicated last-minute deal pages. Expedia has observed a significant increase in traffic from users searching for such deals, resulting in higher CTRs and conversions on these pages. Moreover, by optimizing for specific keywords related to “last-minute deals,” these pages have improved their organic ranking for high-intent queries. To further enhance performance, Expedia has added visually appealing elements and clear calls to action, encouraging quicker decision-making.
- SEO benefits: High relevance for search queries related to “last-minute deals.”
- Increased conversion: The implied urgency in such offers motivates users to act quickly.
- Dynamic content: These pages are constantly updated with new offers, improving search engine indexing.
Common Mistakes: The Case of Empty Pages on Hotels.com
Not everything in SEO is about success. A recurring mistake among some OTAs is the creation of empty or low-content pages, which negatively impacts both user experience and organic rankings. Hotels.com recently encountered this problem after a noticeable increase in bounce rates and a drop in the visibility of certain pages in search results. Upon analyzing traffic, it was found that many of these pages were either empty or lacked sufficient content to meet user intent. As a corrective measure, Hotels.com implemented an automated system to identify and remove such pages while strengthening its content creation strategy to ensure that all new pages provide real value.
- Negative SEO impact: Empty pages generate high bounce rates and send negative signals to search engines.
- Proposed solution: Implement a system that automatically detects and removes pages without relevant content.
- Lessons learned: Page creation should always be supported by a clear content strategy to avoid penalties and offer real value to users.
Final Recommendations for OTAs
To stay competitive in the SEO landscape, OTAs must continue adapting to new trends and user needs. Key recommendations include:
- Optimize loading speed: Speed is a crucial ranking factor and directly affects user experience.
- Improve internal navigation: A well-structured site helps search engines correctly index pages and improves user session durations.
- Implement structured data: This enables search engines to better understand page content and improve visibility in search results.
- Avoid generating empty or duplicate pages: Content quality should always be a priority.
- Leverage search trends: Identify patterns in user queries and create specific pages to capture that traffic.
OTAs are leading the SEO battle thanks to continuous innovation in their content and optimization strategies. From creating new flight route pages to last-minute deal offers, these platforms focus on delivering real value to users while improving their organic rankings. However, they must also remain vigilant against common mistakes, such as generating empty pages, which can negatively affect performance.
In such a competitive environment, only those OTAs that manage to combine high-quality content, technology, and a user-centric approach will continue to win the SEO battle in 2025. Moreover, it is crucial to keep evolving and adapting to the constant changes in search engine algorithms and new user expectations.
