Travel sites fail to rank

Reading Time: 8 minutes

When I am searching for a good air fare or want to make a hotel booking, I don’t use Google. I go directly to sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Kayak and their Australian counterparts. That’s because I have found good bargains in the past and have bookmarked them. What chance does a travel portal have these days of ranking high in Google, given that many SEOs are saying that brand is important for ranking?

Let’s fire up the Google Keyword tool and get some of the most searched travel terms in the US:

  • adventure travel
  • air travel
  • all inclusive vacations
  • antigua travel
  • bahamas vacation
  • business travel
  • cancun vacation
  • car rentals
  • caribbean cruises
  • cheap plane tickets
  • cheap travel
  • cruise deals
  • discount travel
  • disney cruise
  • disney tickets
  • disney vacation
  • disney world vacation
  • disneyland vacation
  • hawaii vacation
  • honeymoon destinations
  • las vegas deals
  • las vegas hotels
  • las vegas shows
  • plane tickets
  • st lucia travel
  • student travel
  • travel advisor
  • Travel Deals
  • travel guide
  • travel insurance
  • travel to europe
  • turks and caicos travel
  • vacation ideas
  • vacation packages
  • weekend getaways
  • world travel

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Solution: unable to save 100 results in Google search?

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I prefer to get the maximum number of results in a Google Search, namely, 100 results. For the past few days I noticed that I was getting only 10 results even after I went to the Search Settings (Preferences) and changed the number from 10 to 100. My preference was not sticking.

Default search preferences
Default search preferences

Why was this happening? The likely cause is that the Google Instant feature generates a lot of data traffic (more so for Google than you) as you type the search term, so Google nobbled it. This is not so likely when you realise that Google could have simply taken away the option to see more than 100 results. Anyway, the solution was easy.
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WhereIs Maps now powers Google Maps

Reading Time: 2 minutes

You probably know the streets in your neighbourhood better than other suburbs, so what better way to test your new GPS than to plot a route from your home to some known destination. I have evaluated a few car GPS units and own a couple of Garmin units. The most recent one is a Garmin nuvi 1390T, which is powered by Sensis® WhereIs® Maps. But this post isn’t about the GPS — it’s about the maps.

Have you tried to plot a route in Bing lately? Here is what one of my local routes looks like. I live a couple of streets off Wattle Avenue in Werribee in an area that was a market garden eight years ago. Wattle Avenue borders the dairy and agricultural technology training colleges, in other words, we have green paddocks and sheep along Wattle Avenue.

Impossible route in Bing
Impossible route in Bing (click to enlarge)

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