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A flight or a hotel night is now booked on big websites in a few minutes. You won't catch up with them on those searches, and I won't suggest you try. Your place is elsewhere: the honeymoon, the multi-stop tour, the group trip, the cruise, the customer who wants to talk to someone before paying. I help you show up for those requests, in your town. For an agency of a few people, it starts with the Google Business Profile and a handful of pages.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroSeven results, only one agency you can walk into
A couple from Angoulême is planning their honeymoon and wants something tailor-made. The top six results are booking websites, a comparison site, a magazine and a national network. Your agency, in the same town, is seventh. Move it up.
Fig. 1. Seven results for a honeymoon. Only one meets the couple in person. (The first six sell holidays. None of them knows the newlyweds' first names.)
What this means for you. I build the page those websites don't have: how you plan a trip, sample itineraries, and an appointment with a real person.
SEO for a travel agency is the work that makes you visible when someone looks for an agency near them or a trip they wouldn't put together alone. It relies on an up-to-date Google Business Profile, pages by type of trip and by destinations you know, and reviews from travellers. It's judged by the number of quote requests and appointments, not by website traffic.
The problem
For “cheap flight” or “hotel” followed by a destination, the whole screen belongs to them. They put in resources a local agency doesn't have. Trying to compete with them on those terms would be money down the drain.
Offers are imported automatically, with the same texts and photos as on other agency websites. Nothing shows what you bring: your knowledge of the destinations, your support before, during and after the trip.
They take your ideas in the appointment and buy online what they think is the same thing. SEO doesn't fix everything. Clear pages about your role, your fees and your assistance do, however, attract customers looking for that service.
An audit, for real
The site below doesn't exist, but its flaws do: they're the five I spot most often. Hover over a number.
Get away
Cheap holidays all over the world.
See the dealsFig. 2. Fictional site, reconstructed. Any resemblance to yours would be a good reason to call me.
What your customers type
Here are six possible searches for a travel agency. They're made up for the example, and the audit identifies yours.
What works
Opening hours, phone number, appointment link, photos of the agency and the team, services offered. I also check that the description talks about your specialities, not travel in general.
Honeymoon, escorted tour, group, cruise, family holiday: each page explains who it's for, how you go about it and what your service includes. Five or six pages are enough. No need to publish the whole catalogue.
Three destinations described by someone who has travelled there are worth more than fifty imported listings. I write these pages from your notes: the right season, the recommended length, the stops, the mistakes to avoid.
Why book with you rather than a website: one point of contact, someone to call if something goes wrong, a trip built around the customer. This page also includes your mandatory legal notices, exactly as you provide them to me.
The right time to ask for a review is the week after they return. A simple message with the link is enough. These reviews often describe an unexpected problem handled well, which is your argument against online booking.
What costs dearly
These pages exist identically elsewhere and change constantly. Google retains almost nothing from them. Keep the feed if your customers use it, but add your own pages alongside it.
A “cheap flights” page on a local agency's website will be seen by nobody. The time spent there would be better used on a honeymoon or groups page.
Your advantage is being an agency people can walk into. If the website shows neither the team, nor the shop, nor the opening hours, it looks like a booking website with less choice.
An offer whose date has passed gives the impression nobody looks after the website. Highlight what doesn't expire: your specialities, your method, how to book an appointment.
The method
Four steps, in this order. Depending on the size of the agency, we stop at the second or go all the way.
One-minute test
Five frank questions to find out whether support makes sense in your situation. Sometimes the answer is no, and I'll tell you.
What it brings in
A ranking doesn't pay a salary. What counts is what it brings: enquiries, customers, revenue. Move your page up and see what it could bring in.
Example assumptions, open to challenge: 300 searches a month for a tailor-made trip from your town, 3% of visitors make an enquiry, one enquiry in three is signed (this varies a lot from one trade to another), €3,500 per customer. Click-through rates by position are rough estimates, and they've been shifting since Google started showing AI answers above the results. Redo the calculation with your numbers
Possible revenue€0
Close to home
From Charente, a trip starts with a journey to the station, the airport or the port of departure. An agency in Angoulême, Cognac or a small town such as Jarnac or Ruffec can explain that journey precisely, on its pages as well as on its Google Business Profile. I co-founded my SEO agency, Newp, near Cognac.
In both towns, the search “travel agency” leads to the Google map. Customers compare reviews and check whether they can book an appointment. A profile with photos of the agency and replies to reviews builds trust before the first contact.
Where do you leave from, how do you get to the airport or port, do you need a night there? A page explaining the departures you organise from the region gives travellers useful information, even before they choose a destination.
Clubs, associations and committees in small villages organise an outing or a trip each year. The organiser looks for a nearby agency, easy to reach, that takes care of everything. A groups page naming your area gets you known by these volunteers.
Beyond Google
Travellers now plan their trip with an AI such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Mistral. Some ask it for a complete itinerary. Others ask who to turn to: “which agency near Angoulême can organise a two-week honeymoon in Japan, with a single point of contact?”. The AI then suggests a few names.
To name you, it has to have read somewhere that you do this kind of trip. A feed of offers doesn't tell it that. A “honeymoon” page, a page on Japan written by your adviser and reviews that mention it do. When the itinerary is simple, the AI is enough for the traveller. When it's complicated, they need you. So tailor-made is what you should write about.
Question asked to an AIWhich agency near Angoulême can organise a two-week honeymoon in Japan?
Three possible answers for this project:
Fig. 3. Reconstruction, names hidden. This is the spot we aim for: on the list, with the most precise description.
Three typical cases
Three fictional agencies, to show where I start depending on size and ambition. None of them is a client.
Starting point: a Google Business Profile audit.
Starting point: a few hours of coaching, or a short training session for the team.
Starting point: ongoing support, because the website is a real sales channel.
In practice
Pricing
The fee depends on four things. I give you a precise amount after a free first thirty-minute conversation.
Fancy a game?
Quote platforms, directories, comparison sites: they swim between you and your customers. Take the coin and slide it into the machine.
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Fig. 4. Sixteen seconds. No sharks were harmed, only their commission.
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Who you're talking to
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
Yes, provided you don't target the same searches. They own prices and simple bookings. You can own your town, your specialities and the trips that need advice. I can't promise you any ranking, but these searches are within your reach.
Not always. If your customers come back on their own and recommend you, look after your Google Business Profile and your follow-up with past travellers first. SEO becomes a priority if you want new customers for a specific type of trip.
Keep it if your customers use it for ideas. Don't count on it to be found. It's your own pages, written by the team, that show up in searches and trigger an enquiry.
Rough figures, yes: an indicative budget per person for a given type of trip, stating what it includes. Customers want to know whether they're in the right range before calling. Price display rules apply; check them with your trade body.
I reuse your mandatory notices exactly as you send them to me, and make them easy to find. I don't write any myself and I don't interpret any rules. Their content is validated with your trade body or your adviser.
I don't need finished texts. A short interview with the person who knows the destination gives me the material for a page. They proofread, correct, and the page carries their name. It's quicker and more accurate than a generic text.
At least as much, because the amount involved is high. Customers read travel stories and above all how a problem was handled. Ask for the review after the trip, without offering anything in return, and reply to each one.
Not a general blog. Ten articles on “things to do” in some capital won't bring you any enquiries. A few in-depth pages on your destinations and types of trip are more useful, and need less upkeep.
Fixes to the profile take effect within a few weeks. Speciality pages take several months, and travel is seasonal: a page written in spring mostly serves the following season. I don't guarantee any figures. We count quote requests.
An independent consultant with fifteen years of SEO practice. I've co-written four books on the subject, two of them on the Google Business Profile. I start with a short format when it meets your needs, and I tell you when it's enough.
See also
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