SEO & AI search playbook for travel startups

Searches to plan around

Query patterns and the intent behind them. We don’t quote search volumes: check your own Search Console for the ones you already appear for.

• “[place] itinerary [n] days”, “things to do in [place]”

  Plan

  Crowded. Only worth it with first-hand detail: timings, costs paid, what was closed.

• “[A] to [B] by train/bus”

  Route

  Route pages with real schedule or duration data from your product.

• “best time to visit [place]”

  Timing

  Data (weather, prices, crowds) from real sources beats opinions.

• “[tool] for group trips”, “trip planner app”

  Product

  Product searches. Feature and comparison pages.

• “[place] entry requirements”, “do I need a visa for [country]”

  Rules

  High-stakes and changeable. Link to the official source and date the page, or leave it to official sites.

Page families that work

• Route pages

  /routes/lisbon-to-porto

  Durations, operators, prices seen, from your data. Only routes you have data for.

• First-hand guides

  /guides/[place]

  Written by someone who went, with photos and dates.

• Planning tools

  /tools/budget-planner

  Tools that do something with the reader's own trip.

Risky page types

• AI-generated destination guides at scale

  Thin, generic and scaled. Assistants produce the same content on demand.

• Affiliate pages with copied descriptions

  Google's thin affiliation policy covers affiliate content copied without original value.

Technical pitfalls

1. 1

   Language versions without hreflang

   Google's hreflang rules need return links and self-references, or annotations may be ignored.

2. 2

   Faceted search on dates and filters

   Date and filter combinations explode URLs. Follow Google's faceted navigation guidance.

3. 3

   Vacation rental markup

   Google's vacation rental markup is limited to eligible partners via Hotel Center.

How AI assistants answer questions in this category

Trip planning is a common assistant task, and assistants will write itineraries without citing anyone. Where they do look for sources is for facts that change: opening times, route durations, entry rules, prices. Pages with dated, first-hand or data-backed facts are the ones they have reason to cite.

What tends to earn a citation

• Dated facts: “as of [month year]”, prices paid, times observed.
• Route data from your own product.
• Photos and details that show someone was there.

Check whether the AI crawlers you want can reach your site with our AI crawler checker.

Where links come from

• Travel writers and bloggers

  They link to tools and data that help their readers.

• Tourism boards and local businesses

  Local partners link to useful guides about their area.

• App and regional directories

  Mobile app and regional directories.

A 90-day plan

1. Days 1–30

   Technical

   • –Check hreflang on language versions.
   • –Block crawl of date and filter parameters you don't need indexed.
   • –Noindex thin affiliate pages.

2. Days 31–60

   Data pages

   • –Publish route pages from your own data.
   • –Write five first-hand guides with dates and photos.
   • –Build one planning tool.

3. Days 61–90

   Partners and loop

   • –Reach out to travel writers with your data.
   • –Update facts on top pages.
   • –Rewrite titles at positions 5–20.

What to watch in Search Console

The Performance report gives clicks, impressions, CTR and average position by query, page, country, device and date. Traffic from Google's AI features is counted there too, under the Web search type (Google).

Impressions by country

Shows whether language versions reach the right markets.

Route page impressions

Your data-backed family; grow what works.

Crawl stats on parameter URLs

Shows whether facet rules work.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

Checked on September 23, 2026. Search patterns and page advice are our own judgement from running this playbook; we don’t quote search volumes or third-party statistics.

1. Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search
2. Google Search Central: Localized versions of your pages (hreflang)
3. Google Search Central: Managing crawling of faceted navigation URLs
4. Google Search Central: Vacation rental structured data
5. Google Search Central: AI features and your website
6. Search Console Help: Performance report