Yesterday, I sat in my Amsterdam apartment, staring at a photo of my daughter exploring the Van Gogh Museum for the first time. That moment – watching her eyes light up at the swirling colors – represents everything we moved across continents for.
Then, I thought of after because when I picked her up from school as we biked past the Van Gogh Museum, she shouted, “Van Gogggghh!” as she saw his self-portrait outside the museum. It’s reasons like this why I’m doing what I’m doing.
But now, the form of authenticity in travel has become a serious question at the hands of massive corporate travel sites that have never set foot in these places and will never have such moments.
I’ve been having trouble writing this article for a year now. But here we are. I’m writing this because I want others to gain a first-hand perspective and awareness of what is happening behind the scenes and how that might influence how they research and plan travel.
I also want to stress the importance of supporting independent creators who focus solely on providing you with one thing: value, information, and first-hand perspectives.
After moving across continents from Minneapolis to Amsterdam to live a full-time travel life, providing the perspectives and vision we believe travel so desperately needs is becoming more challenging.
My family and I changed everything for this lifestyle, so it’s heartbreaking to see it collapse solely due to the factors I’m about to show you.
The Moment Everything Changed
I’ve been reluctant to look at any of the reports, and whenever I do, I start at our analytics dashboard in disbelief. Our traffic has plummeted from over 1 million monthly readers to just 30,000 – a 97% drop (continuously dropping without explanation).
Before the Collapse:
After:
- 30,000 monthly readers (97% drop)
- Most guides completely vanished from search
- Our own images directing traffic to competitors
But what hurt most wasn’t the numbers.
It was watching our authentic travel stories – years of real, first-hand experiences from across 150+ countries – vanish from search results, replaced by content from sites that had never set foot in these destinations.
A Broken Search Experience
Even worse, searches for our brand name have displayed our images while sending traffic to our competitors. It’s like we’ve been shadowbanned from existing on the internet. You can see this in our video, where I scroll through our images.
One image used was a very specific one from the Van Gogh Museum, which featured a temporary art exhibit that was there many years ago (not many people have this exact photo). Here it is with the upload date in the permalink.
Or, let’s examine what I found when researching things to do in Minneapolis, my hometown, to see if my images were being used.
Yes, this was a card for an activity in Minneapolis…
We’re not alone in this struggle, and today, we’re revealing how Google’s evolving search landscape has decimated our travel blog and other independent travel blogs like ours.
The Human Cost Behind the Data
This isn’t just about traffic. We were thrilled to see our readership grow steadily when we started our travel blog. That led to assembling an incredible team of writers who shared my passion for what we stand for. Our team of writers had collectively:
- Explored 150+ countries
- Visited every US state
- Documented 100+ national parks
- Generated over 15,000+ original travel photos
- We visited over 30 countries in 2023 as a team alone.
But now, our writers have been unable to tell the stories they so rightfully should be able to tell because our resources have become so limited. That alone is heartbreaking.
Behind these numbers are real people:
- Stuart Jameson: Our true globetrotter who’s visited over 70 countries and once hitchhiked from Germany to Cambodia (!). Read his articles here.
- Amanda Finn: A Chicago-based writer who’s been to dozens of countries, visited every Disney park, and is an expert at one of ViaTravelers’ favorite destinations, Prague. Read her articles here.
- Kim Magaraci: Her award-winning photography from the Tetons to the White Mountains has helped countless travelers experience authentic outdoor adventures. Read her articles here.
- Woodrow Matthews: A travel expert from Hawaii who’s visited all states, lived in France for several years, and has deep expertise in points, miles, and loyalty programs has helped readers save big on travel. Read his articles here.
This dramatic decline has left us questioning the future of independent travel blogging. How can small, passionate creators compete in a landscape increasingly dominated by big media companies?
I’ve been fleeting, working around the clock to revive and restore our presence on Google Search because there were so many moments when I felt like I was doing something wrong.
But I’ve finally come to realize it wasn’t anything we were doing wrong at all.
The Bigger Picture: Death of Independent Travel Publishing
As we dug deeper into our traffic decline, we uncovered some troubling trends in travel-related search results:
- Multi-site domination: Large media conglomerates now own multiple travel-related websites, allowing them to flood search results for popular queries.
- “Keyword swarming”: Big publishers create vast amounts of content targeting specific keywords, drowning out smaller sites that previously ranked well.
- AI-generated content: Some major sites are partnering with AI companies to produce massive amounts of travel content quickly and cheaply.
- Brand authority trumping expertise: Well-known publications leverage domain authority to rank for travel topics, even without demonstrable expertise.
Quick Fact: The “Big 4” travel sites (TripAdvisor, Expedia, Booking Holdings, and KAYAK) control approximately 95% of the online travel market
Our Approach
It’s scary considering that we don’t take sponsored deals for travel, we’ve never been paid once to promote a product, and we spend our money to travel.
Meanwhile, the many different publishers in Google Search continue pushing sponsored promotions and non-authentic curation. These brands showcase “names” and “experts” behind them, which are more like a façade than the raw curation that truly deserves to be heard.
This results in these jaw-dropping statistics:
- Google’s travel features (like Google Travel, Hotel Search, etc.) have reduced organic traffic to travel sites by an estimated 40%
- Large media companies with multiple domains now occupy 70% of first-page results for travel queries
- Independent travel blogs have seen an average traffic decline of 55% since 2022
- The average cost to produce original travel content has increased by 45%, while ad revenue has decreased by 60%
This becomes a vicious cycle since our content is not cheap to produce when you factor in zero visibility with no rhyme or rationale. We can no longer travel to produce content and cannot provide the well-rounded perspectives that should be conveyed.
The implications go far beyond ViaTravelers:
- Authentic voices are being silenced
- First-hand experiences by actual experts who do this for a living are being devalued
- Real travel expertise is being replaced by AI-generated content, scraped data, and generic information
- The diversity of travel perspectives is disappearing
The Personal Impact
This isn’t just business either between other people – it’s personal. My daughter has now officially spent more time in Amsterdam, experiencing a beautiful mix of cultures. She’s been so incredibly flexible throughout this whole process.
I remember the first day at school when she walked into a school where they only spoke Dutch, and she had never had someone formally speak it to her for more than 5 minutes as an 18-month-old.
Not only that, but my entire family has changed around this journey that we want to take. Yes, at our own cost and discretion.
After nearly 3 years in Amsterdam, my daughter speaks Dutch at her local school, recognizes Van Gogh’s work on sight, and has experienced dozens of different cultures through our neighbors and community. I’m super grateful for this alone.
Of course, we signed up for this. The point is that it’s infuriating to see me, our incredible writing teams, and so many others muted for so long while also sacrificing everything for this passion.
Algorithms favoring corporate content farms and generic aggregated content are burying the stories of our adventures, the hidden gems we discover together, and the real experiences that could help other families.
The Fight for Authentic Travel Content
ViaTravelers will not give up. We’ve come too far. We’ve experienced too much from our actual experiences. I love travel so much. We’ll continue to provide you with the best experience possible, but please be patient as we try to find ways to navigate this new environment.
It’s apparent to me that Google Search’s dysfunction and its official monopoly mean that its governance needs to be more transparent and fair and actually demonstrate what Alphabet puts on paper.
Without that, independent creators living and breathing these passions will continue to be muted, and most of society will be fed the “consensus” level of thinking.
This isn’t just about our site – it’s about:
- The future of authentic travel content
- The survival of independent travel publishers
- The quality of travel information available to readers
- The diversity of voices in travel media
A Call to Action for Google and Travelers
While Google may control the search results, it can’t control our passion for authentic travel storytelling. We’ll continue documenting our experiences and finding new ways to reach travelers who value real, first-hand perspectives and our unique travel photography.
If you love to travel, I’d encourage travelers to do the following:
- Share this story (#SaveIndieTravel)
- Support independent travel blogs through direct visits, newsletter subscriptions, and social sharing
- Question the sources of your travel information
- Look beyond the first page of search results for unique perspectives
- Sign up for our newsletter to get authentic travel content directly
To preserve the richness of the online travel community, we call on:
Google to:
- Reevaluate how domain authority is weighted in travel-related queries
- Develop better ways to identify and reward genuine expertise in niche topics
- Consider the impact of algorithm changes on content diversity
The internet needs more than just corporate travel content. It needs real stories, authentic experiences, and genuine perspectives. Help us keep authentic travel content alive.
We appreciate everything you’ve read, commented on, shared, and liked. If you ever want to discuss travel, please email me at [email protected].
#SaveIndieTravel
