| The Europelowcost project originated as a | | | | effective in terms of its thematic focus: a |
| search engine and price comparison tool for | | | | large number of pages with unique, |
| both leisure and business travel. The | | | | specialised content, which are rich in |
| subsequent development towards themed | | | | hypertext information. |
| directories has a clear strategic validity, | | | | |
| both in terms of positioning on search | | | | The model of directory development can be |
| engines, and ease of use, by allowing | | | | summed up as follows: |
| travellers to make the best use of the | | | | |
| information. | | | | 1. Home page, with the usual search function, |
| | | | special offers and top searches, as well as |
| Preliminary analysis | | | | links to the four main categories of the |
| | | | directory (e.g.: and static pages containing |
| The fundamental assumption is that the | | | | useful information; |
| organisation of data into categories with | | | | |
| varying levels of depth is the most logical | | | | 2. Unique internal pages. Great care was |
| solution for providing simple, rational and | | | | taken in the differentiation of the title tag |
| fast data retrieval. This type of structure | | | | (which not by chance includes the |
| on the web is known as a directory. | | | | europelowcost brand), the meta description |
| | | | and the introduction texts; |
| We discovered the best way to organise the | | | | |
| content available by analysing two possible | | | | 3. Rewriting the dynamic URLs. |
| alternatives: | | | | |
| | | | The whole design of the site fully conformed |
| • Sub-division by country, grouping | | | | to the search engines' quality guidelines, |
| together all the services for that | | | | there was no addition of graphics to slow |
| destination (i.e. flights, hotels, hostels | | | | down access, and despite what the many |
| and cruises are offered together). | | | | detractors of all things Microsoft have to |
| | | | say, the Asp.NET programming language proved |
| • Vertical sub-division by service, | | | | itself to be robust, fast and versatile. |
| separating and "specialising" the individual | | | | |
| directories (i.e. organisation by service: | | | | Organisation of content |
| just flights, just hotels, etc). | | | | |
| | | | Large databases and a proprietary |
| After the necessary consideration, the | | | | multi-service search engine allow us to |
| development team opted for the second | | | | record and trace a large quantity of data |
| solution: to divide the information by theme. | | | | based on user behaviour (the toolbar for |
| | | | Internet Explorer and Firefox was also a |
| The logic that led us to reject the first | | | | significant factor). The crucial point was to |
| option resulted from the fact that, in terms | | | | decide how to make best use of this mass of |
| of ease of use and of indexing by the search | | | | information, by rationalising it and making |
| engine spiders, developing a multi-service | | | | it easy to consult. |
| directory organised according to destination | | | | |
| would have resulted in information overload | | | | The most important sector in strategic terms |
| (and therefore a sense of disorientation for | | | | was the flights, which were organised in the |
| the end user), due to information on | | | | usual way, listing destinations by continent, |
| airports, airlines, hotels, hostels, cruises, | | | | country, and city.This classification of |
| etc. all being on the same page. | | | | results was extended to the other directories |
| | | | (hotels, hostels, cruises). The way the |
| It was therefore clear that we should | | | | information is structured allows for two main |
| specialise and sub-divide the search by | | | | search criteria: for flights to and from a |
| service, with cross marketing of services by | | | | destination or airport, each country is |
| destination (e.g. from the page of flights to | | | | linked to the list of national and |
| a particular destination, there are links to | | | | international airlines that serve that |
| hotels and hostels in the same city/country). | | | | destination. The area dedicated to airports, |
| | | | which is also present for every single |
| Search Engine Optimisation Requirements | | | | location, allows users to consult information |
| | | | on every airport worldwide, shown on |
| From the point of view of search engine | | | | interactive maps with satellite photos. |
| optimisation, the path we chose is more | | | | |