Skift Take
About Travel is trying to modernize its site without ruining the search engine optimization advantages that it knows well. In the process, even though it is an ad-supported site, About Travel shouldn't be afraid to empower its experts to let their opinions fly.
About.com unveiled its redesigned travel vertical as an image-led site that seeks to leverage its trove of content, which is driven by its roster of more than 120 travel and destination experts on subjects ranging from miles and points to medical tourism and travel tech.
The "look and feel" of About Travel, previously called About.com Travel, immediately reminds you of the recently relaunched Yahoo Travel or USA Today Travel, and is an exercise in trying to take what was essentially a reference site, and turning it into a modern trip-planning service, and eventually a booking site, too.
"We are not a travel writer on a junket," says About.com CEO Neil Vogel, who took up his post in April 2013, some eight months after IAC acquired About.com from The New York Times Co. for $300 million.
"We are a person who lives it and loves it," Vogel says of the site's travel experts. "We go super-dee
