State’s Official Travel Planning Website Ranks 4th

Oklahoma Fares Well Compared to the Nation’s Tourism Websites

2012-08-08 — /travelprnews.com/ — The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department announced the state’s official travel planning website, TravelOK.com, ranked fourth among the 50 state tourism websites in June according to Quantcast.com, a media measurement service that tracks the top one million websites in the U.S.

TravelOK.com has consistently ranked among the top 10 most visited state tourism websites in the country, but this is its highest position to date.  States coming in ahead of Oklahoma were Michigan, Florida and Virginia.

The Tourism Department unveiled the redesigned and improved TravelOK.com in January 2010 and since then the site has climbed in the rankings from 28th to fourth. TravelOK.com includes more than 18,000 listings of Oklahoma attractions, 22,000 photos, 700 videos and countless planning resources for travelers.

“TravelOK.com is Oklahoma’s primary source for trip planning and event information and its ease of use is evident in the strong ranking,” said Deby Snodgrass, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department. “Travelers have 24/7 access to interactive maps, photo galleries and expert articles; plus city, event and attraction listings to help plan an Oklahoma getaway. The increase in rank means even more travelers are learning about the attractions and events throughout the state. This is great news for our tourism industry partners and communities statewide, since all 77 counties benefit from Oklahoma’s $6.2 billion tourism industry.”

Snodgrass said the Tourism Department has been working diligently to boost TravelOK.com’s rankings by implementing a combination of search engine optimization, linking strategies and paid-search tactics. The website is also the call to action used in all advertising, social media and public relations campaigns.   “Research tells us the Internet is the leading source for travel planning information in the U.S., with 85% of U.S. travelers researching online to decide where to go and what to do.  Our #4 ranking highlights the fact that TravelOK.com is making it easier than ever for travelers to plan their next trip to Oklahoma,” Snodgrass said.

During the month of June there were 428,035 visitor sessions on TravelOK.com and 2,075,331 page views on the site.  This was the first time TravelOK.com has exceeded 400,000 user sessions in a single month, breaking the all-time monthly visitation record for the site, Snodgrass said.

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