How Strong SEO Made This Niche Travel Business a Success

TravelAble Vacations caters to a specific niche – and is reaching those desired clients through the power of SEO. 

TravelAble’s CEO and Accessible Adventures Specialist Sarah Marshall is on a mission: To help disabled individuals realize their travel dreams. She’s focused her business on accessible travel for clients with autism, physical limitations, and other disabilities. 

“It’s for me a chance to impart the lessons that I’ve learned travelling for 20 some years with a child that’s medically fragile,” she told TMR. 

Marshall’s son was born three months premature, and faced health challenges during chidhood. He has multiple diagnosis, including Autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, and more. Travel was, understandably, challenging for their family, but because her husband is a diplomat, it was also their way of life.

Marshall watched her son benefit from their world adventures, and felt the urge to share her knowledge and experience with other families. 

“I decided we’ve been travelling the world with this child – I’d like to support people in doing that same thing,” she said.

In just a few years, Marshall has grown the operation from a single advisor to a team of six, with independent contractors located across the country. Her website is a major lead-generator, bringing in an estimated 90% of her business. This is no coincidence – in fact, it’s by design.

Investing in your business

The TravelAble Vacations website ranks high for a number of key Google search terms, like “accessible travel Autism.” From the beginning, Marshall knew her target audience would be the easiest to reach on a search engine. 

“My clients aren’t on YouTube or Facebook, so that was never going to drive traffic to me. I knew that people were going to be searching for resources online … I wanted to be on the first page of their search results.”

Marshall launched TravelAble in 2019. Coming from a background in marketing, she understood the importance of appearing professional online. 

“I was very adamant about from the beginning that I wouldn’t cut corners,” she told TMR, noting how important first impressions are. “I want my website to look professional. I want it to work. I want it to have all the information it needs.”

Marshall’s knowledge of HTML and WordPress meant she could set up her first website herself. She invested in a ghostwriter to help produce content for the website, focusing on SEO-friendly blogs to draw in search traffic.   

Marshall also educated herself on SEO best practices. She sought out established websites to partner with for deep linking – an SEO strategy that involves linking to specific webpages.

“At first, I did a lot of reaching out for partnerships, [like] other blogs or other websites that could link to me that would increase our visibility,“ she explained.

During the pandemic, Marshall expanded her business. She brought on ICs, then hired a marketing company to upgrade the website, making it easier to create dedicated pages for her advisors. The investment was more than worth the cost.

“I spent a lot of money on [the website] because that was a priority for me, to look as professional as possible … I wanted people to trust that I knew what I was doing by looking at my website.“

Using SEO to enhance your travel agency website

The TravelAble Vacations website was designed to target specific keywords that Marshall believed her desired clients would use.

“So you have to be very specific about the keywords you use, and use the same keywords over and over so that you are basically saturating those keywords for only you – so that if someone else was to go in and have that keyword, or even buy that keyword, you would have the top billing of that keyword,“ Marshall explained.

Working with her manager, Marshall created a set of keywords and phrases for the TravelAble Vacations. They use these terms when creating content for the website.

“Every month, my manager and I look at what is driving traffic to our site,“ she said. “We make also make sure we have a a keyword list of areas where we serve. I mean obviously anyone can reach out to us, but where we have a physical agent, we have keywords that are tailored to them.“

There are multiple tools Marshall recommends for SEO, all of which are free or have free options: SEMrush for keyword analytics, Google Search Console to look for trends in your website, and Google Keyword Planning for brainstorming keyword ideas.

Maintaining TravelAble’s Google ranking requires upkeep. Marshall is always looking for opportunities to learn more about the latest SEO developments, and gets information and tips from experts and influencers making content on the subject. “I do a lot of continuous learning,” Marshall said.