8 Simple Tips: How to Write a Travel Blog Post (With Examples)

Did you know that bloggers who publish 16 travel blog posts a month get 4.5x more leads than bloggers that publish four times a month? 

An increase in traffic to your travel blog is proportional to an increase in blog posts. Blogs that have published 21 to 53 posts can increase traffic by as much as 50%. 

To have a successful blog, you need good travel posts and you need a significant amount.

It’s easy to say but not so easy to do, right?

In this article you will find out how to:

Choose a topic that will rank in Google
Find niche travel post ideas
Quickly plan your post (example template included)
Craft a winning headline
Write a killer intro (real blog examples included)
End your post on a high!

Choose a Great Idea

Consider the following when picking your travel blog post topic.

• How will your post give value to the reader?
• Is it niche content?

What are your audience and readers looking for?

Do they need you to solve a problem? Do they need specific information on a destination?

Think about questions they might type into Google to get answers.

What’s the public transport system like in …. ? How do I catch a bus in …. ? Where can I get vegan food? What are the best beaches for families? What’s the weather like in April? What’s the best hostel for a female traveler? The best hotels for disabled tourists?

Google Is Your Friend

Google can be extremely useful when choosing a niche for a travel blog post. Google will actually tell you what people are looking for. Do a google search for travel subjects that you have an interest in. You will find many google searches  show a box like the one below, giving specific questions that other people type into the search engine. I Googled the “best beaches in Spain”. As part of the search results, the following question box came up:

These questions can make great information to include in an article you may be writing about beaches in Spain.

Other Questions To Ask Yourself Include:

What inside knowledge do you have that people want to know but can’t find elsewhere?

To get ideas you can search on forums such as Trip Advisor and Reddit. See what questions people are asking and answer them in a blog post. You can then link back to your blog posts to answer the question in the forum.

Is it niche content?

Niche content is targeted content that is aimed at specific readers.

Travel blogging is a competitive market. There are many well-established travel blogs and you will be competing with them in the google search results.

Niche content is often easier to rank in Google as there is less competition.

But you need to make sure people are searching for what you are writing about, otherwise, you won’t get traffic.

Some potential niche ideas:

• Holidays and travel for families with teenagers.
• Travel for people with disabilities
• Travel and food – restaurants, food markets, food production, cooking around the world…
• A unique destination that you know inside out.
• Travel with fitness (running on holiday, yoga retreats…)
• Answer the questions other bloggers aren’t on a specific destination or trip

Again, check what questions people are asking on trip advisor and other forums to get ideas.

If you can find a gap in the market, your blog posts are more likely to rank on google as they will have less competition.

Once you have found a winning niche post idea, you can drill down on the topic and write more in that area.

It can be easier to become an expert in a niche area and your readers will come back for more information.

Your entire blog doesn’t have to be about one niche but starting with some focused ideas can help build credibility and still reach a huge amount of readers.

If you want more suggestions of blog ideas, check out this post on 84 travel blog post ideas your readers will love. 

Start with a Post Outline

You’ve chosen your topic. Now, it’s time to outline the post.

Have a simple structure for your post to make it easier and quicker to write. It keeps your writing focused.

An outline can be as simple as having a list of 10 or 12 subheadings to organize your content and write about.

Here is an example outline for an ultimate city travel guide post:

To save time, you can reuse outlines. Write a few basic posts and turn them into templates for others.

Use the same outline for all your city guides, another outline for you how to posts, another one for top 10 tips posts etc.

Craft An Attention-Grabbing Heading.

You’ve chosen your topic and outlined your post

Next, it’s time to write a catchy headline.

It can be worth brainstorming a few ideas and picking the best one.

Start with a working title and keep editing and changing it, until you are happy.

There are a few headline rules to follow:

• Make sure it includes your keywords

• Keep the headline under 70 characters so it doesn’t cut off in the search engine

• Make it sexy. How? Use strong words. Powerful, blockbuster, brilliant. Consider alliteration “Perfect plan” or “Foolproof formula!

There are specific types of blog posts that perform well. They can be a good basis for your travel blog post headline. Here are five examples:

1.) Listicles – Numbered posts are very popular. Example: 42 Ways You Can Make Money and Travel the World | Wandering Earl

2.) The “Best” Headlines. Powerful for SEO because people type the word best a lot when they are searching on google. Example: The Best Time to Visit Israel | The Points Guy

3.) How To Posts. Another Powerful phrase for SEO. Example: How To To Visit Egypt On a Budget | Nomadic Matt

4.) Ultimate Guide to a Destination or Skill. Use your inside knowledge to write an in-depth guide. Example: The Ultimate Guide to Travelling When You Have No Money | Nomadic Matt

5.) Experience Headlines. This is where you teach people what you have learned in your travels. Example: 12 things I’ve Learned Through Living in Spain | MigratingMiss

Check out more tips on how to craft a catchy headline quickly. 

A Powerful Introduction

Once your reader has clicked through via your headline, you need to keep them on the page.

There are many ways to do this.

A short and snappy sentence that arouses curiosity often works.

It could be a shocking statistic. An interesting story. A burning question. A promise to solve a problem. Or a quote.

Here are some travel blog introduction examples:

A Quote
Emily Dickinson once said, “To shut our eyes is Travel.”
I disagree
From: Will the Coronairus change how you live? It will for me.| Nomadic Matt

An Interesting Story
Let’s ride a motorbike through Borneo
“I was thinking to myself, this is crazy. I’m riding a motorbike through Borneo with two people I met only a few days ago.”
From: Off-the-Beaten Path: Motorbiking Borneo | BeMyTravelMuse

Burning questions
Have you ever asked yourself, “How will I possibly make money while traveling?” or “How will I survive on the road?” or maybe “How can I start traveling when I don’t have much money?”.
From: 42 Ways You Can Make Money and Travel the World | Wandering Earl

And here is one I just put together:

Promise to solve a problem:
In London? Short on time? Take my suggested 48 hour whirlwind tour. The most efficient and cost effective way to see all the major landmarks in this amazing city.

Write for the Internet

Most people won’t read your articles word for word.

Maybe they will when they realise how great you are. But when they first land on your page, they will be scanning.

This is why you have to write travel posts that allow people to scan as well as read.

Scannable text has the following elements:

• Short sentences.
• Subheadings.
• Short paragraphs.
• Bullet points
• Larger font
• White space

You can also highlight pieces of text in different ways. Have important parts in bold, italics, or in a slightly different font. Pictures and images break up the text. And perhaps the most important point of all:

Be Concise

Don’t use 10 words when you can use five. Don’t say the same things over and over again. Eliminate fluff. Edit ruthlessly. Only keep what’s important.

Use Your Own Voice

Forget what you were taught about writing formally at school.

Writing blogs is about connecting with your reader. To do this you need to have a conversation with them.

How do you keep a conversational tone?

• Keep the language simple

• Try and address the reader like you would if you were chatting.

• Tell stories – think about what you do when you speak to people. You tell them stories about your day. People connect with stories. But make your stories human and interesting. Share your fails as well as your achievements. The goal is to identify with other humans as a flawed human being yourself.

• Create an imaginary reader. One good way to help achieve a good conversational tone is to write a profile of the person you are writing for. Create a persona with a name, job, occupation and lifestyle. Imagine you are having a conversation with them. What questions are they asking? Write like you are talking to them and a conversational tone will come naturally.

Photographs

I don’t need to tell you that photographs are important in a travel blog.

Take and share lots. Practice photography as well as writing.

Photos inspire your reader. They will evoke emotions of desire to see the places you write about.

Therefore it important to learn the basics of taking a good photo.

Invest in good gear. And learn how to edit photos.

Images and photographs are also brilliant for improving your SEO.

Add alt tags to your pictures. This will help your photos become featured by Google. You will often find images rank in google before a blog post.

Have a memorable conclusion

Don’t let a well crafted blog post tail off.

End well.

How do you do this?

Leave your readers what something to remember, inspire or call them to action.

An amazing photo
A bonus tip
An insightful lesson you’ve learned from your experience.
Something they can do next.

Often bloggers will have a link in one of their concluding sentences, so the reader has somewhere to click to next.

There are your 8 tips.

But I’m going to finish with the most important point of all.

Just write.

Have fun with it.

Write what you know. Write what you love. Write what excites you.

But the important thing is to write. Yes, you’ll write bad posts. Yes, you’ll write posts that won’t get any traffic. But this is a right of passage for any blogger. You’ll learn how as you go. But you won’t learn anything until you publish and then publish again.

Get started. Write your first blog post. And enjoy!

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