A good tourism SEO case study shows one site’s starting position, the strategy that changed it, and the results counted from the same source. This one follows Wild For Game Safaris, a Botswana operator whose organic traffic grew from 10 visits a month to 907, and whose pages are now cited inside Google AI Mode.
This article is written for business owners, marketers and agency teams who commission SEO work for clients or publish their own. It sets out the starting position, the strategy, the measured results and the limits, so you can judge a tourism SEO case study and write one for your own travel business.
Travellers choose where to book from what search shows them, so how a tourism business ranks decides whether it is found at all.
The wider discipline is covered by the SEO entry in the Brand Library. This article is the worked example: what happened, what the numbers mean, and which parts any tourism business can copy.
The starting point in this tourism SEO case study was a site search could not find
Wild For Game Safaris, the client in this tourism SEO case study, runs photographic safaris through Moremi, Khwai, Savuti, Chobe and the Okavango Delta from Maun. The expertise was never in question. The search footprint was.
In August 2025 the site ranked for 10 keywords in total across every regional database Semrush tracks. In December 2025 it drew 10 organic visits in a month: nine from the United States and one from the Netherlands. Low organic traffic was the starting point.
Organic search was not an underperforming channel. It was not yet a channel at all.
That left the business dependent on referrals, repeat guests and word of mouth. A traveller researching a Botswana photographic safari from scratch had no realistic way of arriving at the company.
There was no paid support: between February 2025 and August 2026 the site recorded no paid clicks in any month.
Keyword research began with what only the operator could cover
Safari search in Google is dominated by large publishers and booking aggregates with years of history. A small operator cannot outspend them or out-publish them on volume. So the SEO strategy did not chase isolated high-volume keywords, and the keyword research started from the search results travellers actually see.
Instead, the work followed the subjects where firsthand safari experience is hard for a generic publisher to reproduce. The content strategy grouped those subjects into four clusters:
- Botswana wildlife: wild dogs, cheetahs, hippos, leopards, predators and birds, the species travellers search for long before they search for an operator.
- Photographic safaris: photography safaris, technique and trip planning, the commercial centre of the business.
- Safari planning: costs, mobile safaris, accommodation choices and the questions travellers ask before they book.
- Destinations: the areas the company actually operates in, linked back to the wildlife and photography pages.
Each cluster answers a different moment in the trip decision. Together they are digital marketing that a local business can run itself.
Technical SEO and internal links turned new pages into one system
The clusters were built to connect. Someone arrives on a wild dog article today, meets the brand again weeks later while researching Botswana photography, and again while comparing a mobile safari with a lodge stay.
Technical SEO made the website efficiently crawlable. Internal linking joined each informational blog post to the destinations and safaris it relates to, which also helps users move from one page to the next.
Search intent decided the shape of every piece of high quality content. Nothing depended on a single article performing; the compounding came from the connections between pages.
A technical audit comes first on any website, because it finds the obstacles that hide good pages from search: blocked pages, slow templates and broken links. Core Web Vitals and mobile responsiveness belong in that audit. Khwai’s site health score of 87 out of 100 is the kind of reading it produces.
The organic traffic curve was a climb in steps, not a spike
The growth to 907 visits was gradual and the case study dates each stage. Groundwork ran through January and February 2026, while visibility stayed low and the content architecture was built.
In March, estimated organic traffic moved to roughly 400 monthly visits as the cluster structure began to register. By April and May it passed 600. From June to August it climbed in steps to its August level of 907.
The wider footprint grew with it: 1,426 organic keywords against 10, with 12 in positions 1 to 3, 206 in positions 4 to 10 and 402 in positions 11 to 20. The 402 below it are the next growth pool.
Targeted traffic from people who had never heard the name
The aim of the SEO efforts was to increase organic traffic from people searching for a subject, not the brand. More traffic of that kind is what lets a small company achieve results without paid clicks.
All 907 visits are classified as non-branded. Nobody in that figure typed the company name into Google search. For an operator whose growth had been capped by referrals, that is the point of the exercise: the site now introduces the business to people who have not met it.
The traffic is also international, and it is targeted traffic that no advert paid for. The United States contributes 447 visits a month, Canada 129, Australia 77 and South Africa 77, with France at 27 and other markets at 150. Every market except the United States started from zero.
The authority signals moved the same way. Backlinks rose from 99 to 202 and referring domains from 83 to 117 between the 2025 and 2026 readings, while paid traffic stayed at zero throughout.
AI search: where the pages were cited as sources
Search engines now answer some questions directly, so the case study also records AI search.
Semrush’s AI Search toolkit, captured on 10 August 2026, listed which pages from the site were cited as sources inside AI answers. The AI visibility score was 14, and 3.2 per cent of the Google results the site appears in are Google AI Overviews.
| Where the pages were cited as sources | Pages cited |
|---|---|
| Google AI Mode | 47 |
| Google AI Overviews | 17 |
| ChatGPT | 4 |
| Gemini | 0 |
The business is cited most where Google’s own AI features answer a long, conversational question, and barely at all in ChatGPT or Gemini. A score of 14 is modest. It is a starting position, reached by building a site for search first.
Google’s own documentation supports that order of work. Its page on AI features says there are “no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode” beyond being indexed and eligible to show a snippet.
It also says no special markup is needed, and that any structured data should match the visible text on the page.
The study reports the citations. It does not claim that any single change caused them, and it does not report a booking that came from an AI answer.
Measuring SEO success beyond rankings: revenue, leads and customers
Rankings are the start of the story, not the end. The strongest SEO reporting follows organic search through to leads, sales and organic revenue, which is what tourism marketers in the tourism sector need to defend a budget.
A published tourism example shows the scale other travel sites report. AIOSEO’s Visit Atlantic City page reports a 661% year-over-year increase in organic traffic, from 17.3K to 141.2K monthly visits, after several websites were consolidated under one domain with 301 redirects.
AIOSEO sells SEO software and the page names no data source, so read it as a reported result.
Neither Brandesis tourism study reports organic revenue, bookings or leads. Both stop at traffic, rankings and impressions, and say so. Importantly, that is a limit to respect, not hide: the footprint is the asset, and the revenue figure comes from tracking enquiries from future customers against it.
A second tourism SEO case on the Delta: 37 keywords to 1,700
Khwai Expeditions Camp sits in the Khwai community concession on the north eastern edge of the Okavango Delta. In December 2023 its site ranked for 37 search terms and drew 6 organic visits a month. Bookings arrived through agents and word of mouth.
By December 2024 the camp ranked for 1,700 search terms and drew 312 non-branded organic visits a month. Keywords on page one rose from 3 to 47, with a further 116 in positions 11 to 20. Six international markets that had been at zero now send monthly traffic.
Competing lodges with larger marketing budgets owned the terms travellers search, so the work was plain. The camp wrote down its real position first: guiding quality, camp size and its place inside the Khwai and Moremi concession.
It organised the website around what a traveller researching an Okavango safari actually searches for. It published answers to the questions travellers and agents ask before booking, and kept site health at 87 out of 100.
Google’s own Search Console recorded 70,100 impressions and 3,530 clicks over the campaign window, with no paid search spend. That is a click through rate of about 5 per cent, worked out from those two figures. The study claims the gain was content-led and claims nothing for links.
What makes a tourism SEO case study worth trusting
A case study earns trust by showing how its numbers were counted, whether it is written for an agency’s clients or for your own board. The two examples above share habits you can look for in any tourism SEO case study, or build into your own.
The strongest ones also tell the story in order: the client’s problem, the solution, the results and a short summary of what changed. Year-to-year comparisons and specific metrics such as sessions, keywords and conversions give that story weight.
1. Name the tool and the date for every figure
Wild For Game’s numbers come from a Semrush Growth Report, the SEO platform’s year-on-year comparison, captured in August 2026. Khwai’s come from Semrush and from Google Search Console, with the dates stated. A figure without a source and a date cannot be checked.
2. Show the starting position and split branded from non-branded
Both studies begin with a weak position: 10 keywords, and 37 mostly branded keywords. Branded visits come from people who already know the company, so report them apart from non-branded visits.
3. State what the study does not claim
The Khwai study claims nothing for links. The Wild For Game study reports citations without claiming a booking came from one. Those limits make the rest more credible.
4. Name the problem, the competitors and the audience
Khwai’s study states the problem plainly: competing lodges with larger marketing budgets owned the terms travellers search. A case study should say who the competitors were and which audience the content was written for.
5. Say what is still unsolved
Wild For Game’s study says plainly that being found is largely solved and the next problem is commercial: turning a large informational footprint into qualified enquiries. That candour is what a reader looking for SEO success should expect.
Local SEO, on-page SEO and link building for a tourism site
The two studies describe their approach in outline. For a tourism site planning its own effective SEO strategies, the usual parts of the work are worth naming, because search engine rankings depend on all of them.
Many small tourism businesses lack specialist SEO knowledge, so it helps to see how the parts fit. SEO strategies combine on-page, off-page and technical SEO. Fast loading speeds support rankings, and long-tail keywords that match a real trip question improve visibility in search results.
Local SEO improves local search visibility and puts a travel website in local search results for nearby travellers and for people planning a trip from abroad.
Online reviews on Google and travel sites back up what your pages claim. Keep your Google business listing and other business listings accurate, since Google lists keeping Business Profile information current among its best practices.
Thorough keyword research comes first, because it shows the relevant keywords travellers use. Use local keywords where a place name is part of the question, and give each place you operate in its own landing pages.
On-page SEO covers the parts of each page you control: relevant keywords in headings, meta tags, meta descriptions that sum up the page and lift search visibility, and relevant content that answers the question. It also means pages that enhance user experience on mobile devices.
Off-page SEO covers link building and other websites that mention you.
Backlink building done well earns high quality backlinks, not volume. High quality backlinks from respected travel sources raise a website’s authority. Wild For Game’s backlinks rose from 99 to 202, while the Khwai study claims nothing for links. Link building strategies worth trying include listings, partner mentions and coverage in travel publications.
An SEO audit ties the three together. It lists what is blocked, slow or missing before any new page is written.
Content creation and content marketing for online visibility
Content creation is where a small tourism site can win. Compelling content gives travellers practical insight into a place: when the water is high, what a drive is like, what to pack.
That is content marketing built on destination storytelling, not brochure language, and it helps attract visitors and attract organic traffic from people who are planning a trip rather than browsing.
Match user intent at every stage, from inspiration through comparison to booking, and aim pages at high-intent queries such as planning and cost questions. Tailored strategies like this are cost effective marketing for a small company, because they need a writer who knows the subject more than a large budget.
Seasonal swings in search demand are normal in the travel industry, so plan updates around the seasons. Sound SEO practices keep search rankings steady through them, and high search engine rankings take months, not weeks.
What a tourism business can copy from these two examples
The habits below are drawn from the two studies, which describe the approach rather than any one page.
Choose the subjects you genuinely know, such as the species, places or trip types you handle firsthand.
Keep content freshness in mind too. Wild For Game’s study notes that older content kept ranking while new content added keywords, so review the pages you already have before commissioning new pages.
Write the page that answers the whole question a traveller asks, so a search engine or an AI answer has something to quote.
Join the pages together through internal links. Keep the technical base sound with crawlable pages, fast mobile loading and images that carry plain alt text.
Then measure search and AI separately: keywords and non-branded visits in your search reports, and cited pages in AI powered tools such as the Semrush AI Search toolkit.
The key elements are content, a sound site and a clear audience; consumer preferences and a global audience follow from them.
For wider examples and the wider field, what is answer engine optimisation and what is AI visibility cover AI search in depth, and SEO examples from brands that rank shows the method outside the tourism industry.
Search engine algorithms and emerging trends in travel marketing
Search engine algorithms change often because search is constantly evolving, and AI search is the newest of the emerging trends in travel marketing. Google’s guidance on helpful content stays steady through each change.
It defines people-first content as content created primarily for people and not to manipulate rankings, and it lists experience as one aspect of E-E-A-T, the signals of experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Firsthand safari knowledge is exactly that.
Content quality of that kind builds brand visibility, a stronger digital presence and a competitive advantage with potential customers and international tourists.
Being found is the first problem, and enquiries are the second
For a tourism business the goal is direct bookings, not traffic for its own sake. The 402 keywords in positions 11 to 20 are the clearest opportunity, because improving a page that already ranks is cheaper than creating one that does not.
Where the visitor goes after the click is a separate job. Tourism lead nurturing covers it, and the best CRM for tourism businesses covers the tool. The content side is covered in the ultimate guide to content strategy.
Getting pages in front of more people also depends on where else they are shared. What is content distribution explains owned, earned and paid reach, and the Distribution Strategy service is where AI search sits as a module. The Content Strategy service covers the cluster work.
To see where your own site stands first, the Brand Diagnostic is one session with the strategists and a written read, priced at P 7,500 and credited in full against a Sprint, Discovery or Build booked within ninety days. Book it through the contact page; every price is on the plans page.
For the free route, the Rank in Botswana ebook and workbook covers claiming your Google profile, pages that rank and tracking without expensive tools. The Ground Truth newsletter arrives weekly, on Wednesdays.
You can read both full studies: Wild For Game Safaris and Khwai Expeditions Camp.
FAQ
How do you write an SEO case study?
Start with the baseline, name the strategy, then report the results from a named tool with dates. Show organic traffic, ranking keywords and impressions, split branded from non-branded, and state what the study does not claim.
Is SEO dead now with AI?
No. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet. Wild For Game’s pages were cited in Google AI Mode 47 times after being built for search first.
Is SEO still relevant in 2026?
Yes. Both studies here produced measurable gains with no paid clicks: 1,426 keywords for Wild For Game and 1,700 for Khwai.
Can you give examples of tourism SEO case studies?
The two here are small tourism operators: Wild For Game Safaris (10 to 907 organic visits a month) and Khwai Expeditions Camp (37 to 1,700 keywords). Both are published in full on the Brandesis work pages.
What is SEO in the travel industry?
It is the work of making a travel business’s pages easy for search engines to find, understand and rank for the questions travellers ask, from the species or destination to the trip type. It is the same craft as any SEO, applied to trip planning.