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