With some travel media and bloggers reporting a drastic drop in website traffic since the latest update by search engine Google, travel tech firm Stay22 has asked users to reduce their dependence upon Google.

In a press statement, Stay22 says that following the introduction by search engine giant Google in March of a new update, Stay22, a travel tech company that offers affiliate revenue generation opportunities for travel bloggers and media, has reported that some travel bloggers immediately saw reductions of as much as 75 pc in their organic traffic.

Meanwhile the impact has been felt across the whole of the travel space, with many of those dependent upon organic search, including hotel and smaller OTAs, seeing major falls in traffic, the statement adds.

Stay22 was founded in 2016 and is based in Montreal, Canada.
The company uses artificial intelligence and innovative machine learning technology to connect online travel content creators such as bloggers and media publications seamlessly with the affiliate marketing programmes of travel sellers.

The company says that publicly Google has never revealed details of how its search algorithm works, and always stated that each new update was in the best interests of search users, not intended to hinder or hurt websites themselves, and rather ironically called one update the ‘Helpful Content Update (HCU)’.

Stay22 says that as Google only ever issues some high-level guidance on how websites should respond, this has led to criticism labelling Google as ‘untransparent’ in this respect. It says that according to research by Digitaloft, since the first HCU rollout in August 2022, 78 pc of 671 travel websites they analysed have lost traffic.

The company says that in addition, recently a leak of Google internal documents reveals not only details of how the algorithm worked but also that on some occasions Google may have been misleading websites by telling them information that was perhaps untrue, it claims.

Rami Nuseir

“The recent leaks show that Google has not only been untransparent with website owners, but it also seems to have often been misleading us. This is the last straw for us at Stay22 and should be for the wider travel media and blogger community. Some of their changes also seem a bit unfair, not rewarding quality websites. If they don’t help us and we can’t be sure they’re not misleading us, then why should we trust them? How do we know that they are not really just trying to push us to buy their Google Ads? I for one feel that’s their goal,’’ says Rami Nuseir, Head of Marketing, Stay22.

“In the past, many people dependent on web traffic from Google have just shrugged their shoulders and said ‘what can you do, we need Google’. But we don’t agree with that approach and now strongly recommend that travel bloggers, or anyone in the travel industry who depends on organic traffic, start to diversify away from Google, to look for other sources of traffic for their website. It won’t be easy and it won’t happen overnight, but little by little they can make themselves more independent from Google,” he adds.

The statement adds that to achieve this, Stay22, which works with over 2,500 travel bloggers and travel media websites, has suggested five actions that travel content creators, or anyone in travel dependent on website traffic, should consider taking right away to diversify.
It says that the users should leverage Pinterest. Stay22 says that although many people think of it as a social media platform, Pinterest functions more like a search engine and is already a high-traffic source for many bloggers.

The statement also asks users to develop a strategy to use Bing, a search engine launched by Microsoft. It says that though it may be smaller than Google, it is very transparent about its ranking factors and has a URL analyser that will recommend ways to improve users’ content for Bing SEO.

Stay22 also emphasises the use of email marketing campaigns, saying that one should not overlook this form of communication as users own this channel, whatever happens.

It also advises travel media and bloggers to add content to Flipboard, which can be automated through an RSS feed. The article curation website lets users flip through articles from different publications, like magazines. It also asks them to develop short-form videos for social media to get your website discovered and finally to start publishing guest posts on other websites to attract new readers.