How We Helped A Global Travel Platform Gain +32 Million New Visitors

Travel is a hugely competitive industry.

Luckily, our client was already a global household name. But with so many ways to find information, see reviews, and make travel bookings, it takes more than a recognizable name to stay on top in search rankings.

The best way to do this for our client was to outpace the competition by building more higher-quality backlinks, faster than its rivals could manage.

Here’s how we helped them increase their traffic by +70% and build a profile of 89.2 million backlinks.

💡 Our Strategy

The way people search for travel information is unique, and we developed a strategy to leverage that behavior:

✅ Travelers use local search terms like “near me” or “in [city]” to discover attractions and available accommodation options. We secured links on pages that focused on these terms.

✅ National newspaper travel sections prefer to link to authoritative sources where readers can find out more. We built links with leading publications to drive authority and traffic to our client’s platform.

⛰️ The challenges

Because of our client’s established authority in the industry, they compete on multiple fronts—with travel companies, review sites, and directory websites.

Its competitors include some of the biggest names in the industry:

• Yelp (DR 95)
• Booking.com (DR 93)
• Expedia (DR 89)
• Trivago (DR 78)
• Travel Guru (DR 57)

Competing in such a saturated market meant we needed to build higher-quality backlinks than their competitors, with a strong focus on local authority and brand presence.

⭐ Our solution

Here’s how we helped our client stay ahead:

✅ Local business and roundup backlinks: We built links from pages that focused on specific areas, often on authoritative local media outlets. This helped the platform rank higher for local search terms.

✅ Secured media links: We targeted national media with a focus on travel and attraction-based articles. We managed to secure backlinks from influential outlets like The Guardian and other high-authority sites.

✅ Unlinked brand mentions: Given our client’s strong brand presence, there were plenty of opportunities to turn unlinked mentions into natural backlinks.

✅ Brand name anchor text: We incorporated our client’s brand name into the anchor text of our links to maximize brand recognition and trust with users and search engines. This helped drive traffic to linked pages.

🚀 The Results

Our strategy delivered some impressive results:

✅ The platform now has an incredible 89.2 million backlinks from 320,000 referring domains.

✅ Traffic skyrocketed from 45.4 million to 77.5 million monthly visitors over the course of 24 months. This would have cost around $7,482,457 to achieve with paid advertising:

✅ Our client’s platform secured top 3 rankings for high-traffic local terms such as:

• Food near me (Search Vol – 10.1M)
• Breakfast near me (Search Vol – 2.1M)
• Fast food near me (Search Vol – 795K)
• Restaurant near me (Search Vol – 403K)
• Mexican food near me (Search Vol – 310K)
• Places to eat near me (Search Vol – 267)

✅ We secured link placement on high-authority sites like:

• Adobe (DR 96)
• Yelp (DR 95)
• New York Times (DR 94)
• The Guardian (DR 93)
• BBC (DR 93)

🔥 Ready to Dominate Local Search in the Travel Industry?

In the ultra-competitive travel industry, staying ahead means having a smart link-building strategy that targets high-intent, local searches.

We helped our client drive over 32 million new visitors, secure 960 backlinks, and dominate search results for high-traffic local keywords.

Let’s explore how we can do the same for you. Book a free strategy call today!