Client Overview
- Client: Expedia
- Industry: Online travel and hospitality services
- Market Position: Global travel leader serving consumers and travel partners worldwide
- Engagement Focus: Authority-driven link acquisition across travel and hospitality ecosystems
The Problem
As a dominant brand in online travel, Expedia operates in one of the most content-saturated and competitive digital markets.
Key challenges included:
- Aggressive competition from OTAs, airline and hotel brands, and travel aggregators
- Publisher landscapes crowded with affiliates, reviews, and deal-focused content
- High editorial standards among top-tier media outlets, limiting promotional placements
- Need for relevant authority signals tied to travel planning, destinations, and services
- Requirement for brand-safe, scalable link acquisition aligned with enterprise standards
The challenge was not awareness—Expedia was already a household name—but earning authoritative placements in editorial environments that search engines trust most.
Strategic Objective
The engagement aimed to:
- Secure high-quality editorial placements on industry-relevant and top-tier media sites
- Strengthen off-site authority signals supporting Expedia’s core travel offerings
- Align brand mentions with travel planning, discovery, and hospitality topics
- Build a repeatable, compliant link acquisition framework
The Solution
Digital.Marketing deployed its link building and editorial outreach team to manage content creation and publisher pitching end to end.
Travel-Focused Content Development
- Produced original content assets designed for editorial acceptance, including:
- Travel insights and trend-driven narratives
- Destination and planning-related content
- Data-informed travel commentary
Publisher & Media Outreach
- Identified and pitched:
- Industry-relevant travel and hospitality websites
- High-authority lifestyle, business, and media publications
- Prioritized outlets with:
- Strong trust and authority signals
- Relevant audiences
- Established editorial review processes
Editorial Placement Strategy
- Secured placements where Expedia was:
- Contextually referenced within travel-focused content
- Integrated naturally as a trusted travel platform
- Positioned alongside relevant industry entities
Brand & Quality Controls
- Ensured all placements met:
- Expedia’s brand and tone guidelines
- Editorial integrity standards
- Enterprise SEO best practices
Execution Highlights
- Delivered end-to-end execution, from content creation to publisher pitching
- Earned placements across industry-specific and top-tier media outlets
- Focused on contextual relevance and editorial value, not link volume
- Maintained consistency across diverse publisher environments
Results (High-Level)
While detailed metrics remain confidential, the campaign resulted in:
- Improved off-site authority signals supporting key travel-related pages
- Expanded presence in trusted editorial travel ecosystems
- Increased brand visibility across high-value travel content
- A scalable framework for ongoing authority-driven link acquisition
Why It Worked
- Combined content creation and outreach under one strategic framework
- Treated link building as editorial placement, not transactional SEO
- Focused on publisher relevance and trust, not shortcuts
- Delivered placements that compounded Expedia’s existing authority
Takeaway
For travel leaders like Expedia, visibility comes from earning trust in the same publications travelers rely on.
Digital.Marketing helped Expedia secure authoritative, industry-relevant placements through a brand-safe, editorial-first link building strategy designed for scale.