Rank Dough compared 6 UK travel AI SEO agencies, ours included, and charted 11 client sites in Ahrefs. Only 4 of the 6 had client results we could check, and 9 of the 11 sites charted ended above their first month.
TL;DR
Six UK travel AI SEO agencies are compared here, with 11 client sites charted from Ahrefs data. Only 1 of the 8 client sites we charted for the other agencies came with a dated start, so a traffic chart alone does not show what an agency did. Eight travel problems follow, from legacy CMS workarounds to who ranks on commercial searches, and five of them come from my own work.
Not sure which of the 8 travel SEO problems matches your site? Take the quick quiz. Pick one and the matching section opens, with a question to put to any agency.
How this was researched
The work behind the numbers, so you can judge them for yourself.
EFFORT
11 client sites, pulled 12 Oct 2026
We pulled monthly organic traffic from Ahrefs Site Explorer for 11 client domains, with 30 to 69 months of data each, checked the UK results for 3 travel searches, and read the case studies on the Adido, Ink Digital and north9 sites.
ORIGINALITY
Charts nobody publishes
The traffic charts are our own Ahrefs pulls. The Aer Lingus, Hostelworld and migration stories come from my own work.
SKILL
Written by someone who did the work
Roman Sadowski ran SEO for Aer Lingus at iProspect and was SEO Lead at Hostelworld.
ACCURACY
What this does not prove
Ahrefs traffic is an estimate for a whole domain and cannot show what an agency did. Start dates are unknown for 7 of the 8 other-agency sites, 1 agency was not researched and 1 had no verifiable client results, the charts stop at June 2026 and the findings on who ranks and on AI Overviews come from 3 searches.
Which UK travel AI SEO agencies did we compare?
We compared 6: Adido, Ink Digital, SALT.agency, north9, Boost Brands and Rank Dough. Rank Dough is ours, so it is disclosed and scored on the same evidence as the rest.
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Adido
Bournemouth
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Ink Digital
London
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SALT.agency
Leeds
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north9
Leeds · ex SEO Travel
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Boost Brands
Not yet researched
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Rank Dough
700a London Road, Essex
That’s Us! |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basics | ||||||
| Founded | 2003 | 2019 | 2014 | 2011 | Pending | 2025
Roman in search since 2004
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| Years trading | 23 | 7 | 12 | 15 | Pending | 1 |
| Team size | 20 | 9 to 20+
Sources conflict
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<49
Upper bound only
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11 to 50
Sources conflict
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Pending | 2
Named on our site
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| Travel-only | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Yes | Pending | No |
| Recognition | ||||||
| Awards | AITO member (late 2023) | UK Search Awards 2025: Travel/Leisure SEO (Small) | Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2022 | B Corp and Google Partner badges | Pending | Listed on our site, winners-list links pending |
| Client evidence | ||||||
| Travel clients named | 4
SPL Villas, Latin Routes and 2 more
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5
Girls’ Guide and 4 more
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2
Named by third parties
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7
Rainforest Cruises and 6 more
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Pending | 3
1 client, 2 earlier roles
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| Clients charted below | 2 | 3 | 0
No client confirmed
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3 | Pending | 3 |
| Largest rise on a charted client | 3.0x
SPL Villas, Mar 2024 to Mar 2026
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5.3x
Girls’ Guide, Jan 2024 to Feb 2026
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Not charted | 5.9x
Grand Prix Grand Tours, Jan 2022 to Apr 2026
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Pending | 4.9x
Aer Lingus, Jan 2021 to Mar 2022
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| Evidence status | Partly | Partly | Not verified | Partly | Not researched | Partly |
Source: agency websites and trade press, checked 12 October 2026. Years trading counts from founding year to 2026. Team sizes are as stated by each source, and sources conflict for Ink Digital and north9.
Adido
Bournemouth digital agency and AITO member
Adido had 20 staff in 2024, according to trade press. It became the first full-service digital agency in the Specialist Travel Association (AITO) in late 2023. Named travel clients include SPL Villas, Latin Routes and Canadian Affair.
Ink Digital
London digital agency with travel and leisure case studies
Ink Digital relaunched under that name in late 2023, per London Loves Business, and reported a headcount of 9 in April 2024. Its travel case studies cover Mercury Holidays, Ocean Florida, Arctic Direct and a women-only travel client.
SALT.agency
Leeds agency, Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2022
SALT.agency is a Leeds agency with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise from 2022. TravelSupermarket is named as a client by a third party, but I found no dated source for it, so it is not charted.
north9
Leeds travel marketing agency, formerly SEO Travel
north9 is the same company as SEO Travel. seotravel.co.uk now redirects to north9.agency, and both show Rombald Group Ltd, company number 8417732. Its site lists 7 case studies and positions it as a travel-only agency.
Boost Brands
Appears in Ahrefs for the search “travel seo agency”
Boost Brands is listed because it appears in Ahrefs for the search “travel seo agency”. We have not yet researched it.
Rank Dough
Small team, founded 2025, travel work from earlier roles
Rank Dough is based in Loughrea, Co. Galway and Essex, and was founded in 2025. Our site names 2 people. Our travel record is Cheaper Than Cars, a client, and my earlier work at Aer Lingus (iProspect) and Hostelworld (in-house).
What happened to their clients’ organic traffic?
We pulled estimated monthly organic visits for each client’s whole domain from Ahrefs Site Explorer on 12 October 2026. All 11 charts run to June 2026.
Source: Ahrefs Site Explorer, estimated organic visits a month, subdomains included, pulled by Rank Dough on 12 October 2026.
Over each chart window, 9 of the 11 sites ended above their first month. Girls’ Guide to the World grew 5.1 times, Cheaper Than Cars 4.4 times and Grand Prix Grand Tours 3.6 times. Mercury Holidays (0.8 times) and Oliver’s Travels (0.9 times) ended below where they started.
Aer Lingus’s June 2026 figure (196,387) is far below May (579,333) and may be an incomplete month.
Sites tied to Adido, Ink Digital, north9, Hostelworld and Aer Lingus all fell between March and May 2026. That looks like a market-wide pattern, not one agency’s doing. It is a hypothesis, and I have not tested why.
What do Adido’s clients show?
SPL Villas had 667 visits in March 2024, the month its partnership with Adido started on 1 March (Nitravelnews). It reached 1,205 in June 2024, a peak of 1,986 in March 2026 and 1,118 in June 2026. The peak is 3.0 times the March 2024 figure.
Latin Routes shows the opposite. It had 719 visits in January 2025 and 255 in March, after a rebrand and new website that Travel Weekly covered in February 2025.
Adido says it prepared the site for launch and now leads the SEO. I do not have Adido’s start date, so this is a pattern, not proof.
Up 81% in the 3 months after Adido started (667 to 1,205), back to 1,033 in May 2026.
Fell from 719 to 255 in 2 months after the relaunch. 971 in Jun 2026 after 281 in May.
What do Ink Digital’s clients show?
Girls’ Guide to the World is the clearest result. It had 605 visits in January 2024, a peak of 3,226 in February 2026 and 3,061 in June 2026, which is 5.3 times the start. Ink does not publish its start date, so I have used January 2024 as the first month of the chart only.
Mercury Holidays went from 65,333 visits in January 2024 to 140,319 in August 2025, then 50,358 in June 2026. Ink’s case study marks the project completed on 8 April 2025 and reports 181 percent more keyword impressions. Ocean Florida peaked at 32,672 in September 2024 and had 18,307 in June 2026.
Rose from 605 to 3,226 by Feb 2026, then held between 2,593 and 3,061. Engagement dates not published.
Peaked at 140,319 in Aug 2025 and had 50,358 in Jun 2026. Jan 2024 was 65,333.
10,489 in Jan 2023, 32,672 in Sep 2024, 18,307 in Jun 2026.
What do north9’s clients show?
Rainforest Cruises rose from 28,242 visits in January 2022 to 132,958 in May 2025, then fell to 53,212 in June 2026. north9’s card says organic traffic rose 326 percent year on year but gives no dates. Oliver’s Travels reached 261,623 in June 2024 and had 78,974 in June 2026.
Grand Prix Grand Tours is the most volatile. It had 78,248 visits in May 2022, 9,172 in August 2022 and 99,758 in April 2026.
north9 claims a 16,057 percent traffic rise, and the client quote says about 1,500 visits a month grew to over 20,000. Ahrefs shows no month below 6,028 between January 2022 and June 2026, so a 1,500 start would predate our chart.
28,242 in Jan 2022, 132,958 in May 2025, 53,212 in Jun 2026. Start date not published.
Swings hard: 78,248 in May 2022, 9,172 in Aug 2022, 99,758 in Apr 2026.
89,237 in Jan 2022, 261,623 in Jun 2024, 78,974 in Jun 2026.
What do Rank Dough’s results show?
Rank Dough has one client in the data, Cheaper Than Cars. The other two sites, Aer Lingus and Hostelworld, are my work before Rank Dough.
At Aer Lingus I worked at iProspect from January 2021 to March 2022. Site traffic went from 89,003 to 435,642 visits a month, 4.9 times. Travel reopened over the same months, so I do not credit that to SEO alone. The site peaked at 895,506 in June 2024 and had 196,387 in June 2026.
At Hostelworld I was in-house from May 2022 to January 2025. Whole-site traffic went from 801,060 to 954,250 visits a month, up 19 percent. It peaked at 1,522,154 in May 2025, after I left, and had 883,602 in June 2026.
Cheaper Than Cars is a Rank Dough client. The earliest file I have is from February 2023, when the site had 649 visits. It had 4,619 in June 2026, but I have not confirmed the engagement dates, so I make no claim from it.
Travel reopened over the same months. Dec 2022 dips to 46,520 for one month. Jun 2026 may be incomplete.
Whole site. 954,250 vs 801,060 from start to end of my time in-house, up 19%. Peaked May 2025, after I left.
649 in Feb 2023 to 4,619 in Jun 2026. Engagement dates to confirm.
What makes travel SEO hard?
Travel SEO is hard because sites are international, built on old systems, database-heavy and seasonal. Eight topics follow, and under each are the items we have seen. Five of the eight come from my own work.
01International natureLanguage migrations on a site sold in many countries.From my work: Hostelworld, 19 languages.▼
Why is international travel SEO hard?
Travel brands sell to people in many countries, so the site often exists in many languages. Hostelworld had 19.
From my work: Hostelworld, in-house, May 2022 to January 2025.
What does moving 19 languages from subdomains to subfolders involve?
We moved language subdomains such as german.hostelworld.com to subfolders such as hostelworld.com/de. It took 8 months and went one page type at a time: countries, then cities, then properties. [PENDING: start and end dates.]
Moving data out of the legacy databases broke parts of the backend that we did not spot at first. The payoff shows in Ahrefs at site level, but I cannot separate it from everything else that changed. Figure 5 shows the whole-site traffic.
What happens to conversion when you redesign pages during a migration?
At Hostelworld the new page designs lowered conversion for a while. [PENDING: how big the dip was and how long it lasted.]
More traffic that converts worse is not a win. That is why I look at conversion next to traffic after any migration. It is my working rule, not a measured result.
02Legacy custom CMSWorkarounds when the CMS cannot host a blog.From my work: Aer Lingus, WordPress behind a reverse proxy.▼
Why does a legacy or custom CMS cause SEO problems?
Aer Lingus ran a legacy custom CMS, so a blog needed a workaround.
From my work: Aer Lingus, at iProspect, January 2021 to March 2022.
How do you run a blog on WordPress when the main site is on another system?
The blog sat on blog.aerlingus.com and ran on WordPress. The main site ran on the custom CMS, and you cannot move a folder between two systems. We put a reverse proxy in front, so the blog served from aerlingus.com/blog and the old URLs redirected.
Blog traffic rose 17 percent, for the blog only and not the whole site. [PENDING: time frame.] Google says to expect temporary ranking fluctuation during a site move, and that permanent redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank (Google Search Central).
03Index bloat from too many similar pagesWhat happens when a site has far more pages than it needs.From my work: Cheaper Than Cars, 60,000 pages cut.▼
How does index bloat build up on travel sites?
Travel sites create many pages from filters, dates and destinations, and many end up near-identical. Index bloat is what you get when search engines index more of those pages than they should.
From my work: Cheaper Than Cars, a Rank Dough client. Engagement dates to confirm.
What happens when you cut a travel site’s pages sharply?
Cheaper Than Cars had too many pages that were similar to each other, and we cut 60,000 of them. [PENDING: the date, and how many pages the site had before and after.] Traffic and rankings did not return in one step. They came in waves.
The chart shows peaks in August 2023 (2,035 visits), August 2024 (6,166) and August 2025 (8,143). Every peak falls in the same month, so some of the waves are seasonal. I cannot separate the two without the removal dates.
04Finding an edge in non-commercial, saturated, long-tail nichesWhere a brand can win when commercial searches are taken.From my work: Hostelworld solo travel project.▼
Where can a travel site find an edge in saturated search?
Commercial searches such as “hostels in Barcelona” already have established results. In my experience the opening is in non-commercial, long-tail searches that fewer sites have built for.
From my work: Hostelworld, in-house.
Can you win non-commercial, long-tail searches?
At Hostelworld we ran a project around “things to do for solo travellers in [location]”. We built it country by country and city by city across Europe, such as “things to do in Barcelona for solo travellers”. Results took about 2 months to show, and then grew fast. [PENDING: traffic number from a Search Console export.]
05Using a large database to create indexable pagesTurning a database into pages that deserve to be indexed.From my work: Hostelworld filter and point-of-interest pages.▼
How do you use a large database to create indexable pages?
A large database can create thousands of indexable pages. That is the same power that causes index bloat, covered above, so each page type needs a reason to exist. That last point is my judgement, not a tested result.
From my work: Hostelworld, in-house.
Can filter pages earn their place in the index?
Hostelworld has a large database of properties. We used it to create filter pages. [PENDING: example filters, number of pages and results.]
Can point-of-interest pages earn their place in the index?
We also used the database to create point-of-interest pages. [PENDING: what the pages show, number of pages and results.]
06SeasonalityDemand that follows the calendar.From the charts: Grand Prix Grand Tours.▼
Why does travel traffic swing so much?
Demand in travel follows the calendar.
From the charts: Grand Prix Grand Tours, a north9 client. Not my work.
How much can a travel site swing in three months?
Grand Prix Grand Tours went from 78,248 visits in May 2022 to 9,172 in August 2022, a drop of 88 percent in three months. The shape suggests a link to the F1 calendar, but I have not tested that.
Compare the same month year on year, not month on month. That is my working rule, not a measured result.
07Rebrands and relaunchesTraffic after a new site goes live.From the charts: Latin Routes.▼
What happens to traffic after a rebrand or relaunch?
A rebrand or relaunch is a migration, whatever the design team calls it.
From the charts: Latin Routes, an Adido client. Not my work.
What happened to Latin Routes after its relaunch?
Latin Routes had 719 visits in January 2025 and 255 in March, after its relaunch. Five months in a row in 2026 sat between 281 and 545 before the June spike to 971.
One example is not proof that relaunches cost traffic. It is the reason to ask any agency how it protects traffic through one.
08Who ranks, and AI OverviewsThe mix of sites on commercial travel searches.From Ahrefs SERP data: 3 UK searches.▼
Who ranks for commercial travel searches, and where do AI Overviews appear?
The mix of sites on a travel results page changes by search. I checked 3 UK searches in Ahrefs to see who ranks.
From Ahrefs SERP Overview, 3 UK searches, 12 October 2026. Not my work.
Which kinds of site rank for commercial travel searches?
For “hostels in barcelona”, 4 of the 8 organic results are OTAs or metasearch sites: Hostelworld, Kayak, Booking.com and HotelsCombined. For “villa holidays croatia”, none of the 8 are. The results are specialist and operator sites such as James Villas, Solmar Villas and Oliver’s Travels, with domain ratings from 26 to 72.
“florida holidays” sits between the two. Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and TUI take 3 of the 8 organic results. Ocean Florida is sixth, on a domain rating of 39, with an estimated 7,507 monthly organic visits to that page, the highest of the 8 and ahead of Virgin Atlantic’s 6,277.
Three searches are a sample, not a study. They show that the mix of site types changes by search.
How often do AI Overviews appear on travel searches?
Ahrefs shows an AI Overview in its latest snapshot for 2 of the 3 searches: “hostels in barcelona” and “florida holidays”. “villa holidays croatia” had none. Three searches is too few to give a rate, so check your own money searches before you plan around either result.
The Florida AI Overview links to 10 pages. One of them is a Hays Travel page about Ocean Florida, not Ocean Florida’s own site.
Which of these travel SEO problems does your site have?
Pick the problem closest to yours. The matching section opens below, with a question to put to any agency.
Which problem is closest to yours?
These 8 problems come from my own work and the charted clients. They are a shortlist, not an audit.
How should you choose a travel AI SEO agency?
Four checks follow from the data above. They are my judgement. I have not tested whether they predict results.
- Ask for the client’s domain and the dated start of the work. Only 1 of the 8 other-agency sites we charted came with one.
- Put the agency’s chart next to the market, not next to zero. Sites tied to 5 different agencies or teams fell between March and May 2026, so a flat line may be a good result.
- Ask how it protects traffic through a migration or relaunch. Latin Routes fell from 719 to 255 visits in two months after its relaunch.
- Check a percentage claim against Ahrefs. Grand Prix Grand Tours’ 16,057 percent needs a start month nobody published.
What do people ask about UK travel AI SEO agencies?
What does a travel AI SEO agency do?
It works on rankings and bookings for travel brands: technical fixes, destination and itinerary content, migrations and links. Adido, Ink Digital and north9 also run paid media or PR alongside SEO.
Is a travel-only agency better than a generalist?
We could not test that. north9 is the only agency here that positions itself as travel-only, and its 3 charted clients ended between 0.9 and 3.6 times their first month.
How long does a travel SEO result take?
SPL Villas rose 81 percent in the 3 months after Adido started, from 667 visits in March 2024 to 1,205 in June. My Hostelworld solo travel work took about 2 months to show. Both are single cases.
Can I trust the percentages in an agency’s case study?
Only with a domain, a start date and an end date. Grand Prix Grand Tours’ case study claims a 16,057 percent rise, but no start month is published, and Ahrefs shows monthly visits between 6,028 and 99,758 in our window.
Does organic traffic equal bookings?
No, and we did not measure bookings. north9 reports 9,543 percent more conversions for Grand Prix Grand Tours, and we cannot verify that without the client’s analytics.
Who is Rank Dough, and what are the limits of our own record?
Rank Dough is a small team. Our site names 2 people, Roman Sadowski and David Mason. We trade as Fortunata and work from Loughrea, Co. Galway and from 700a London Road, Essex, SS0 9HQ.
I have worked in search since 2004. My travel work is Aer Lingus at iProspect from January 2021 to March 2022, Hostelworld in-house from May 2022 to January 2025 and Cheaper Than Cars as a Rank Dough client. The first two were not Rank Dough engagements, so I do not count them as agency clients.
We have traded for 1 year and we are not travel-only. Our site lists 3 awards from my earlier work, and I have not linked the winners lists yet, so I do not count them here. This article is published by Rank Dough, which appears in the table, so check every claim against the named domain in Ahrefs.
The limits are clear. The traffic is estimated at domain level from one pull on 12 October 2026. The search results check covers 3 UK searches in one snapshot. There is no before-and-after test, and 7 of the 8 other-agency sites have no known start date.
Sources
- Ahrefs Site Explorer, estimated monthly organic traffic for 11 client domains, and Ahrefs SERP Overview for 3 UK searches, pulled by Rank Dough on 12 October 2026
- Google Search Central, How to move a site
- Nitravelnews, SPL Villas partners with Adido, start date 1 March 2024
