SEO and local tourism – real data from Târgu Mureș
Alpar TorokI spoke about SEO at the Regional Tourism Conference in Târgu Mureș
On October 17, 2024, I was invited as a speaker at the Regional Tourism Conference organized by Visit Mureș in Târgu Mureș. My talk focused on SEO and how it can support local tourism visibility — in practical terms, not in theory.
Why SEO matters in tourism
For most tourists, the first contact with a place happens through Google. If your site or business profile doesn’t show up properly, you’re invisible. SEO helps guesthouses, restaurants, museums, and local organizations get discovered by people actively searching for destinations in Transylvania.
And SEO isn’t just for big online shops or corporations. If you run a guesthouse, a museum, a café, or organize events, how you appear in Google directly affects how many people walk through your door. A missing schedule, outdated photo, or poor review can turn people away before they ever find you.
What I presented at the conference
I gave a practical overview of how SEO works in tourism and highlighted these key points:
- Optimizing your Google Business Profile
- A good profile has fresh images, 80+ reviews, answered questions, correct hours, and a link to your website.
- A neglected profile has a photo from 2017, no description, no working hours, and no replies to public questions.
- Why reviews, hours, and photos matter
- I gave an example from a local tourist attraction I visited. It showed open until 18:00, but when I arrived at 16:45, it was already closed.
- No one visits a place with 1-star reviews.
- Using the right keywords
Case study: Târgu Mureș Zoo
I used the local zoo as an example. Here’s what the data showed:
- zoo tg mures – 3,600 monthly searches
- program zoo tg mures – 480 monthly searches
- gradina zoo tg mures – 210 monthly searches
The profile is decent — well-maintained overall — but there’s always room to improve. Adding answers to FAQs, more photos, and clear custom descriptions can significantly increase its impact.
Case study: Palace of Culture – huge potential, underused
I showed how the Palace of Culture appears in Google. The profile exists, but it lacks event listings, service descriptions, and external links. It’s one of the most visited sites in the city — but for someone who’s never heard of it, Google won’t help them discover it unless the profile is consistently updated.
Free platforms that can boost local tourism
I also talked about tools that bring visibility outside of traditional SEO:
- Geocaching: Târgu Mureș already has 118 active geocache locations. None are mentioned on official tourism sites. These can be turned into themed trails for families, schools, or cultural routes — at zero cost.
- Strava: Cities like Cluj and Alba Iulia use Strava to publish public running and cycling routes. We could do the same — connect attractions, cafés, and hotels. All it takes is a segment and a short description.
- Komoot: Perfect for guesthouses that want to share a morning walk or a sunset hike. You can create, download, and embed routes — and your guests will find them without needing to ask.
Multilingual content is a must in Transylvania
Romanian, Hungarian, English — and sometimes German. If you don’t have meta titles and descriptions in at least HU and EN, your site won’t show up in search results for those languages. One missing language = one lost market. A short translation of your title and intro can make a big difference.
Everyone with their own site? Yes. But better if we link them.
A guesthouse can recommend a nearby café. A museum can list local lunch spots in their blog. When we link to each other, we strengthen everyone’s visibility — and Google loves that.
These are called backlinks — but you don’t need to know the term. Just ask yourself: who would you recommend locally with a straight face? Write about them. Link to them. That’s it.
What you can do in the next 30 days
- Review your Google Business profile. Add new photos, a real description, open hours, and answer questions.
- If you don’t have a website, make a simple one. If you do, connect it to Google Search Console.
- Use clear page titles. Not “About Us”, but “Pensiunea X in Sângeorgiu de Mureș”.
- Translate the homepage and meta data into HU/EN.
- Write a short blog post: “Top 10 things to do nearby” and link to others.
- Create and publish simple routes on Komoot, Strava, or Geocaching.
And if you need help…
You don’t need to be an SEO expert, but you do need to be visible. At Dalbe, we do straight-talking audits — no buzzwords, no overpromising. If you want a partner who tells you what works (and what doesn’t) for your online presence, you know where to find us.
