I think (and HOPE) 2009 will be the year of change. Until now – traffic and rankings have been predominantly the “measure of success” for travel SEM companies. Our clients judge success on “how many visitors” vs. “how many conversions.” I think 2009 is going to help us change that.

The struggle, as I see it, lies in convincing hotel/resort/property management firms that the real work starts AFTER the traffic arrives. Many MANY travel websites offer poor user experience – and non existent calls to action or conversion paths. There hasn’t been much focus on “fixing” the issues people have with finding lodging & booking it online. NOW is the time to start having the ROI/conversion conversation with our clients. Even if the number of shoppers (thereby “traffic”) drops off, increasing their (average .5% to 2%) conversion rate by conservative increments can alleviate the pain of a decrease in shoppers all together.

So Yes, I’m happy to see this change coming about. Post click marketing and conversion optimization are two of my favorite topics and I hope I’ll get to talk about them A LOT more in the near future.