Travel HerStory

Over the past 12 years, Travel HerStory has hosted over 150+ blog posts informing travelers about tourist destinations across Europe and North America. These posts feature several itineraries for popular destinations, reviews on tourism passes, packing guides, and budget travel tips.

I’ve collaborated with hospitality and tourism brands such as YHA Youth Hostels, SYHA Hostelling Scotland, Marriott Rewards, Visit Niagara, the Michigan Film and Digital Media Office, Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, Yamashiro Los Angeles, and Visit New Bern.

As of March 2024, I revived this blog after four years away by editing outdated posts and writing new articles, resulting in 80+ guides viewed by 29k visitors monthly—a 1218% increase over 5 months.

Accounts Managed:

Working on WordPress

Throughout my career, I’ve primarily worked on WordPress as my blogging platform. I’ve optimized my site and worked to increase page speed continually, which is vital for ranking and user experience. I’ve also customized themes, integrated images and video, and used widgets and plugins successfully.

The graphic above shows Travel HerStory scores exceptionally well for these values on GTmetrix. It also scores well on Google PageSpeed and passes Google Core Web Vitals Assessment.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In addition to updating old posts to keep the content relevant, I’ve optimized them for targeted keywords. By researching attainable keywords for my domain authority, I’ve increased Google Search ranking for several blog posts. Google now shows many of my blog posts as ranking on the first page of search results. It also promotes many of my posts on their Discover platform.

By tracking the ranking of my targeted keywords, I have quantified the success of my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work. The example above on the left shows a featured snippet of my Sherlock Holmes Museum post. On the right, you can see a graph of one of the keywords I’ve been tracking as I continually improve my SEO.

In addition to on-page SEO, I’ve utilized social sharing to boost off-page SEO. I’ve also built backlinks to my site through a blogger network and collaboration opportunities, which improved my DA score.

For technical SEO, I’ve optimized images, increased site speed to pass Google Core Web Vitals, and ensured mobile friendliness.

Blog Writing and Copywriting

Writing over 80 blog posts has given me a great understanding of blogging and content creation. Researching is a large part of creating a comprehensive blog, as you want to answer the user’s questions and provide them with the best information available. I’ve continued to update old blog posts with new information to keep the content relevant and give viewers the most in-depth information I can provide while also helping to boost my SEO.

As part of my collaboration with Visit New Bern, they informed me that my blog post, “The Outlander Tour of Tryon Palace,” was their top-converting collaboration of that year as the post was in-depth, contained high-quality images, and spoke to their ideal audience.

Content Calendar

I created a weekly content calendar to promote my blog posts at optimal times of the day. In addition to blog content, videos, travel tips, and topical content from similar brands are shared. Using social media software to create engaging captions with AI and then scheduling natively on Instagram and Facebook, I have automated posts to hit high-traffic times to obtain the best engagement possible.

Through tools such as Facebook Business Manager, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics, I have been able to track the effectiveness of my posts and use that data to discover what resonates with my audience. This, in turn, informs my content calendar.

June 2024:

- Facebook Post Reach: 62,000+
- Facebook Post Engagements: 1,900+
- Instagram Accounts Reached: 9,000+
- Instagram Accounts Engaged: 400+

Instagram Growth

As a micro-influencer, I’ve grown a strong community of followers interested in history and travel. With an Instagram following of 3,500+ and a 5% engagement rate, I craft a consistent-looking feed using Canva and Lightroom to edit my images.

Several Instagram posts have ranked for Top Hashtags in the hundreds of thousands and millions. These posts garner hundreds of thousands of likes, which has led to more profile views and blog traffic. In addition to daily community management, I’ve paid to boost posts to gain access to new audiences and increase account growth.

Facebook Ads

By utilizing Facebook Ads Manager, I’ve grown from 300 to 22,000+ Facebook followers while maintaining a low CPR/CPA (an average of 3-7 cents per follower). I have also been able to increase traffic to my blog with paid media campaigns promoting select popular blog posts.

Pinterest Optimization

By researching keywords specific to Pinterest, I have more than doubled my views on the platform, increased blog traffic, and my following on Pinterest. I created eye-catching graphics to accompany each post and wrote keyworded content to hit my target audience and increase search visibility. Other strategies, such as Pinterest Group Boards, have further grown my Pinterest account’s following.

June 2024: