The coverage of a theme or niche and the specific words used to write about it can have a massive impact on the success or failure of a travel blog.
If a blogger is interested in generating an income and growing an audience around their travel blog, it’s important to ascertain that there is enough interest in the topic. At his website, Viperchill, professional blogger Glen Allsop suggests that a search term needs a minimum of 5000 searches monthly in Google, globally, to be a viable, income-generating niche.
Google Keyword Tool for Travel Blog Content
One way to check search volume for a term, technically called “key word”, is with “ Google Keyword Tool.” The tool shows popular search terms as well as the level of competition from advertisers for those terms already. It shows the volume of searches (quantity), globally and locally, and the level of competitiveness for each term—key word. The lower the competition, the better.
The theory is that the higher the competition, the more saturated the topic area, and the harder it is for new bloggers to break into that area because existing web sites would have more authority than new entrants, and be ranked more highly in Google searches. It may be possible to compete with some of them, but a more realistic approach for new bloggers is to find a niche with less competition, but high interest in searches online.
Less competition for a term coupled with a search volume above 5000 monthly is the ideal ratio.
Having said this, it is possible to develop a successful blog in an already crowded market, but it requires patience, practice and skill.
How to Use Google Keywords Tool
Start by typing in the topic of interest like “Cooking Schools in Thailand,” for example. The tool will show how many searches are conducted globally on this topic, and give variations of the phrase, and the volume of people who searched for each variation, too. Scan the list and ensure that the general topic has more than 5000 searches a month in at least one variation of the wording, internationally.
The reason for the different versions of the same phrase is that different people use different words (or order of words) to search for the same idea. Variations of that term could be “Thailand Cooking Schools”; “Thailand Cuisine Schools”; “Cook in Thailand,” “Thailand Cooking Workshops”; “Thailand Cuisine Tours”, and many more. Believe it or not, simply reversing the order of the words can make a big difference to the popularity of the term.
20,000 people world-wide might enter the words “Thailand Cooking Schools,” but only 2,500 might enter “Schools Cooking Thailand”. Smart bloggers will write content that uses the strong key words—“Thailand Cooking Schools”—and leave “Schools Cooking Thailand” (and any other search terms below the 5000 monthly threshold) to someone else.
As another example, a travel blogger may be interested in writing specifically about Tuscan Villas. They type “Tuscan Villas” into Google Keywords Tool. The tool will then return all phrases (key words), and the volume of searches for each phrase in Google over the past month, internationally, using words related to this phrase. There will be any number of phrases like “Villas in Tuscany,” “Tuscan Villa Rentals,” “Tuscany Villa,” “Villa Tuscany,” “Villa in Tuscany,” (without the “s”), and many more. But one of those phrases will have more searches than any other.
A Realistic Market for a Travel Blog
If it’s clear that 20,000 people a month are looking for Thailand Cooking Schools, there is potential to reach a 20,000 strong market with the blog. Ideally, however, this search term will have low or medium competition, not high competition. If the competition bar is fully saturated (green), for example, it may be wise to find a term with perhaps a slightly lower search volume but much less competition. “Thailand Cooking Workshops” might have 12,000 searches a month and low-average competition, compared with “Thailand Cooking Schools”—
20,000 searches but extreme competition.
This is a fictional example for the purposes of illustrating how Google Keywords Tool works. Please check the tool directly for the actual volumes relating to the key words mentioned here.
The same process can be applied to any niche or theme a travel blogger wishes to write about or showcase through photographs and video on their blogs. Choose a Travel Blog Niche discusses the variety of niches and benefits of selecting a niche to focus one’s travel blog and stand out from the crowd. Introduction to Travel Blogging begins with the basics of starting a blog about travel.
Once the volume-competition ratio is confirmed for at least one term directly related to one’s niche area using Google Keywords Tool, a savvy travel blogger can confidently begin to develop a professional blog around this niche, using the key word term that has the best search-competition ratio.
Gayle Pescud - Co-founder of G-lish Foundation in Ghana, an award winning non-profit that welcomes volunteers in Africa.
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