Using Travel Headlines That Don’t Suck

One sure-fire way to bore your visitors to tears and send them running to the back button is to offer content with boring, bland and generalized headlines.

It’s a problem seen all over the travel site landscape. Boring headlines stop visitors in their tracks like a big, muscular bouncer at a great nightclub.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

Poor Travel Headlines

“Amalfi Coast Italy”

“My Trip to Spain”

“Hawaii Honeymoon Vacations”

“Enjoying Las Vegas”

“Save Money on Hotels in Seattle”

What do all of these headlines have in common?

1. They are all b-o-r-i-n-g. I about fell asleep writing them.
2. They are very, very vague.
3. They don’t create interest.
4. They could be rewritten to be vivacious and titillating.

Your headline should be slanted toward your target audience, but here are those same headlines rewritten with a general audience in mind. And while the headline for each of our examples changes based on the type of content, I can still show you what I mean by “better headlines.”

Let’s see if we can’t spice things up.

Better Travel Headlines

“How the Amalfi Coast Will Help You Rekindle the Romance from Days Gone By”

“$87, a Matador, and the Policia—Spain for Those Who Hate the Ordinary”

“Six Things You Must Do That Will Make Your Hawaii Honeymoon Stand Out from the Crowd”

“Let the Suckers Pay for Everything While You Get Free Drinks, Free Rooms and Free Las Vegas Shows”

“Don’t You Dare Pay Full Price for a Seattle Hotel Again”

Can you see the difference in the headlines? I sure hope so. All of these headlines could be rewritten a hundred times with different slants.

The main thing to takeaway here is that the first group was too generalized and boring. The second group was very specific and worked to create interest.

Specific Travel Headlines

Think about this last example. You’re about to visit Italy for the first time. You do a search for information and are presented with these three article listings:

1. Italy
2. Italy Travel
3. The Perfect 5-day Italy Itinerary for the First-Time Italy Vacationer

I’m betting you’d click on #3. While we could have been a little more specific (Italy is a big place), you should get the point.

Headlines “preview” the content that is to follow. They should be as specific as possible. And for that extra boost, headlines should work to create interest.

Travel SEO

I know many travel site owners tailor their content for the search engines first. Unfortunately, this is a mistake. Take care of your readers first.

Here’s the good news. When you create great content, you’re naturally improving your SEO anyway.

Let’s imagine that our keyword phrase for targeting was “Italy travel.” Many travel site owners would use a headline like one presented in the #2 slot above. But take a look at #3 for a minute. By simply inserting the word “travel” after “5-day Italy,” we can improve the headline for SEO reasons and still keep it wonderful for visitors.

Don’t get stuck in the trap of writing “keyword only” headlines.

Service your readers with lively, precise travel headlines and they’ll love you for it.