April marks one year since we launched visitnorthyorkshire.com, combining the previous sites of Discover Hambleton, Explore the Heart of Yorkshire, Visit Harrogate and Discover Yorkshire Coast as a next step in bringing the whole county’s tourism offer together under one site and brand.
Each of the previous sites had dedicated content and listings that needed to be retained and had built reputation with search engines which are invaluable in reaching visitors.
By recognising and protecting these valuable resources we launched a site that established itself within weeks and was able to attract an audience in the tens of thousands in its first month, going on to receive 1.5 million visits in the first year.
After the first 12 months we are seeing the site return at the top of search results for thousands of queries about North Yorkshire. Increasingly AI models are using the website as a reliable source of accurate information and services such as ChatGPT regularly appear in our top web referrals.
Number of popular search queries where Visit North Yorkshire pages return in the top 20 results on Google Source: SEMrush
Our first year in numbers
In the first year we displayed 2.3 million pages to 1.1 million users, who visited the site 1.5 million times.
After one year the website now lists over 1350 tourism businesses across North Yorkshire, from Ingleton to Sandsend, from Hawes to Filey.
We also detail over 450 points of interest such as landmarks, walks, and open spaces.
Over the first year we listed over 7500 events across the county, from the big festivals and agricultural shows, to gigs and garden fairs and everything in between.
We have published:
- 37 suggested itineraries
- 85 blogs
- Over 250 content pages
The next year of visitnorthyorkshire.com
Building the site was always going to be the start of the journey. We are already starting on the next set of enhancements and introducing new features and functionality, enhancing the site to help visitors smoothly plan their visit, showcase the breadth and depth of what North Yorkshire can offer visitors and work smoothly with new AI models. At a time when behaviour and technology are changing rapidly, standing still is not an option.
You can read about how we are adapting our website for the future here.
Graph showing the growth in AI Overviews in Google search where Visit North Yorkshire is a used. Source:SEMrush
Is your business getting all available benefits of working with Visit North Yorkshire?
The best way to make sure you are benefitting from the new features now available, is to download and complete an update form. You will only need to complete the sections that require an update, and it’s the best way of not just changing the information already on your listing, but also getting new features we recently launched.
Update your listing
