Orbitz uses SEO to boost site visits

8th August 2008

Travel website network Orbitz has seen an increase in online visitors since it moved to a new search engine-friendly platform, it has been revealed.

According to a Travolution report, Orbitz chief executive Steve Barnhart told analysts in a conference call regarding the company's second-quarter earnings that it expected to move the rest of its sites to the global platform by the end of 2008.

He said: "Where we've rolled our new platform out in Europe, we are seeing good improvement in traffic from SEO."

Despite this, transactions relating to the arena of paid search have dipped by a fifth year-on-year, Mr Barnhart noted.

The company signed a deal with Microsoft that will see the Orbitz.com and ebookers.com sites provide travel search services to the MSN.com portal earlier this year, which Mr Barnhart said was particularly exciting for the firm.

Other Orbitz Worldwide brands include CheapTickets, HotelClub, RatesToGo and Away.com.