Many of our customers feel overwhelmed or even frustrated when asked about the performance of their websites. With the pace at which websites and technolgy changes the feeling of not knowing, or misunderstanding is 100% normal. The hope with our list of "7 Must Haves" is to identify the leading concepts that you should consider addressing.
1.) Mobile Optimization:
We are well past the tipping point when it comes to mobile browsing. Today, more people browse the internet with a mobile device than a desktop computer. Mobile Optimization doesn't mean that your site and reservation system just shrinks to fit the size of the window. Test your site to see if you are truly mobile friendly: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/
2.) Social Media Links
The various social media platforms are evolving into powerful search platforms. Furthermore, people like to be spoon fed things they are interested in; and social media serves that purpose. Encouraging your tour, activity and lodging customers to like, follow, or subscribe to your various social media channels makes it easy for your content to be in front of them on a regular basis. The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Creating Social Media Buttons
3.) Calls to Action
When a visitor lands on your website what do you want them to know? And, more importantly what do you want them to do? Placing your "book now", "buy", "shop" links in obvious and prominent locations on your site is critical. More information: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/02/20/call-to-action-buttons
4.) Poor Design
Your tour site, online store and reservation system needs to be visually pleasing, and representative of your products and services. Many of our customers operate in some of the most beautiful locations in the world. Your website should be representative of your location and the experience a customer should expect. 85% of customers people visit your website before they call. What will they see? Terrible Websites From Around The Web
5.) Blog
If you haven't heard the expression "content is king" yet...you will. Search engines can't see how your website ‘looks’ to visitors, all they care about is content, content, and content. Take some time and review this previous post titled: 3 Things Tour Operators Should Do Today for more details.
6.) Performance Metrics
The great thing about spending time, effort, and money on your website it that there is measurable ROI. In other words, through the analytics of your site you are able to see exactly what is working, what isn't, and what are the effects of changes. Analytics paint a crystal clear picture of the performance of your website. Here is a great Udemy course: Getting Started With Google Analytics (It's free... btw).
7.) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The best explanation and definition I have read in long time was posted by Kevin Cobus (@KevinCobus) at Treefrog, Inc.:
"SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a magical art, created in the center of an active volcano by a colony of friendly yet mischievous gnomes.
SEO can’t be seen, it’s hard to quantify, it’s not altogether tangible, and it’s constantly shifting and moving around like the smoky essence of the universal ether.
SEO has had a tainted history. In the past few years, snake oil salespeople have been pulling their wagons into town and offloading their wares on the unassuming villagers. SEO was packaged and sold as the way to get to number one on Google. In the past, there were some questionable ways of making this happen. Evil SEOs of old employed backlinking magic, keyword stuffing, and various other wayward tactics to fool the poor Google. And it worked. But then the Google woke up, and it was angry. - See more at: https://www.treefrog.ca/five-essential-parts-of-seo#sthash.MjxQ9GEI.dpuf"
If this list of 7 concepts convinces you to take a second look and just one aspect of your website, than this post is a success. Website performance is akin to brushing your teeth. If you stopped brushing your teeth everyday, eventually your mouth will be littered with cavities. There is no magic pill, no one time quick fix, no magic bullet...website performance needs to be done weekly, if not daily. The only mistake you can make is to do nothing.