Building Trail Routes That Get Explored (And Found)
Best practice for creating Trail Routes on your DestinationCore site
Trail content is some of the highest-performing content a destination website can produce. People searching for walks, hikes, and cycle routes are highly motivated, often planning a visit around exactly this kind of content — which makes a well-built Trail Route both a great visitor resource and a genuine SEO opportunity.
This article covers both sides of that: what makes a Trail Route genuinely useful to the person following it, and how to make full use of the tools available in the Trails section to build it properly.
Why do trails matter so much for a destination website?
Trails are great for SEO and can drive significant traffic to your site from search. People searching "best walks near [place]" or "[place] cycle routes" are looking for exactly this kind of practical, ready-to-use content — and if your site answers that search well, it can become one of your strongest sources of organic traffic.
Beyond search, a good Trail Route also does the job any great piece of destination content should do: it turns "somewhere to visit" into "something to actually do while I'm there." A well-built route with genuine local insight woven through it is far more likely to get used — and shared — than a route description with a map pin and nothing else.
How do I set up the basics of a Trail Route?
Start with the Content tab, where you'll set:
- Trail name — clear and descriptive, ideally including the kind of search term a visitor would actually type (e.g. "Peak District Waterfall Walk" rather than "Route 4")
- Entry Body — your main descriptive copy about the trail
- Duration — how long the trail typically takes
- Trail Distance — the length of the route
Getting these basics right matters more than it might seem — Duration and Distance in particular are often the first thing a visitor scans for when deciding if a trail fits what they have time for.
Why does categorising my Trail Route matter, and what are my options?
Categorisation isn't just about tidy organisation — on DestinationCore, each category you assign generates its own landing page automatically. That means every category is effectively a new page your Trail Route can be discovered through, which makes categorising trails a direct and genuinely powerful SEO opportunity, not just a filtering convenience.
There are two categorisation types every client with Trails enabled will have:
1. Trail Category — themed categorisation, such as Waterfalls, Family Friendly, or Coastal Walks
2. Trail Length Category — organised by distance or duration, such as Under 2 Miles or Half-Day Walks
Depending on your site's specific setup, you may also have access to:
- Global Categories — if your site has themed global category landing pages, trails assigned here will appear on them
- Place Categories — if your site has place-based landing pages, trails assigned here will appear on them
- Region Categories — if your site has region-based landing pages, trails assigned here will appear on them
Global, Place, and Region Categories depend on your site's specific product configuration, so these won't be available on every site. Trail Category and Trail Length Category, however, are available wherever Trails is enabled.
All categorisation is managed in the Categories tab, and administrators can create as many categories as needed — so there's no need to force a trail into a category that's a loose fit just because it's the closest option available.
💡 Top Tip: Because every category becomes its own landing page, it's worth thinking about categorisation the same way you'd think about keywords. A trail categorised thoughtfully under "Waterfalls" and "Family Friendly" gives you two extra chances to be found by two different kinds of searcher.
How do I actually build the route?
This is done in the Trail Points tab, where you construct the route a visitor will follow.
Add a Start Point and an End Point. Each can be set either by address or by latitude/longitude — useful for trailheads or endpoints that don't have a formal street address.
Add Trail Points along the route, each with:
- Point Title
- Point Description
- Point Link
- Point Image
- Related Entry (if applicable)
The Point Link field is where your destination expertise really comes through. This is your opportunity to connect a point on the route to a real Business Profile, point of interest, or landmark — a café worth stopping at, a viewpoint with a story behind it, a historic site along the way. This is what turns a route into a trail rather than just a line on a map.
Use images at every point where you can. A good photo at a trail point shows a visitor exactly what they can expect to see or experience — and trail content lives or dies on whether people can picture themselves there.
If a Trail Point has a Related Entry assigned (linking to an existing Business Profile), the map will automatically display an icon at that point and pull through the business's summary information into the map preview — so linking to existing entries where relevant genuinely enriches what a visitor sees, with no extra design work needed from you.
Note: the map preview design itself is standard across all trails — the layout and content of these previews can't be individually customised beyond what's pulled through automatically.
Should I upload a GPX file or a map document?
Yes, wherever you have them available. Both are managed in the Links tab:
- Trail GPX File — a .gpx file gives visitors (and their devices or walking apps) an accurate, downloadable route to follow. Add this if you have it.
- Trails Document — a PDF version of the trail for offline use. Where possible, make this branded with your destination's own identity rather than a generic export — it's often the version a visitor saves to their phone or prints, so it's a genuine touchpoint for your destination brand, not just a functional document.
The DCMS accepts GPX files as standard .gpx XML uploads, but doesn't validate, enhance, or troubleshoot the file itself — so it's worth checking a GPX file works correctly in a walking app before you upload it.
What about the trail's location on the map?
Beyond the individual Trail Points, the Location tab lets you set the trail's overall position on the map — search for the entry's location and adjust the pin if you need a more precise starting reference. This is separate from the Start Point/End Point set in Trail Points, and helps make sure the trail appears correctly wherever the site surfaces trails by location.
What will visitors actually see once this is published?
Once your Trail Route is live, visitors will see:
- A step-by-step trail guide, built from the Trail Points you've added
- An interactive map showing the full route
- A trail info panel, displaying key details like distance and duration at a glance
This is another reason it's worth investing time in the Trail Points specifically — they're not just data entry, they directly become the guide a visitor follows on the day.
Quick checklist before you publish
[ ] Trail name is clear and reflects how someone might actually search for it
[ ] Duration and Distance filled in
[ ] Trail Category and Trail Length Category both assigned
[ ] Global, Place, or Region Categories assigned, if your site has them and they're relevant
[ ] Start Point and End Point added
[ ] Trail Points added in order, each with a title, description, image, and link where relevant
[ ] Related Entries linked wherever a point matches an existing Business Profile
[ ] GPX file uploaded, if available
[ ] Branded PDF uploaded, if available
[ ] Overall trail location checked on the map in the Location tab
💡 Top Tip: The trails that perform best tend to read like a local expert walked the route with you — a café to stop at, a view worth pausing for, a bit of history at the halfway point. If your Trail Points are just a string of GPS coordinates with no colour to them, that's the easiest place to add real value.