There are some things you can’t help but envy. It’s human nature. A person with features you’d kill for. Someone living in the mansion of your dreams. Watching your favorite car cruise past you.
In the tourism industry, this envy comes in the form of successful websites. Knowing that there are websites out there stealing your leads and getting your clients is a thought that haunts you and every other business owner.
But what good is being jealous if you can’t get something out of it? We’re here to tell you that you can be better than these super successful websites.
The trick is simple. All of these great websites that induce jealousy follow a secret trend. Every one of these have some values in common which get them the success that they have today. And after a thorough study, we have compiled these features into a list to help you grow.
Follow these tips and soon you’ll be the website your competitors envy.
5 secrets of every successful website
Through our years of experience working with countless websites, there were 5 features which contributed as a common denominator to every website’s effectiveness. Although well known, these features are surprisingly slept upon by most hospitality websites, dooming them to fail.
They’re all super easy to use
The first thing to note when designing your website. It’s no use making your website pretty and feature heavy unless it’s not easy navigate and use. This is a common mistake with hospitality websites. They end up focusing too much on the graphics and fancy features to include. This isn’t usually a problem, but its the shift of the emphasis from the usability of the website which creates the issue. When your website has too much content, or too many unnecessary graphics, it won’t be long before your visitors decide to leave your site for good.
Your website is the easiest way to your customer’s heart. Making sure that it is easy to use and gives them a pleasant experience will ensure that you leave a positive impact on your visitors, converting them to clients. The easier it is for them to find that they are looking for in your site, the more your chances of conversions. As a cherry on top, the better user experience will also develop your customer and brand loyalty as visitors recall the ease of use and comfort that you provide.
Responsive design is a must
How do you ensure that you reach to as many people as possible? By keeping in mind that most users will be using their mobile phones to look you up. Majority of visitors are going to be scrolling through your website on small screens. If your website is made in accordance to the general laptop’s screen, this can be a big problem, putting off your visitors. Distorted images, unformatted texts and misplaced CTAs. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. Until you create a design that is responsive.
Your website’s design is optimally responsive when it automatically scales its elements, graphics and texts according to the size of the screen in which it is being viewed. This means your users get a personalised experience and how your website looks to them will depend on the size of the screen which they use. This works incredibly to improve your visitor’s experience and makes things much better and profitable for your business.
Genuinely helpful features
Being in the hospitality industry, your website is basically the epitome of your service. It gives you a chance to show your visitors how great of a host you are. This does not mean that you bombard your users with unnecessary features and graphics that ends up as nothing but a distraction. Quality is always better than quantity. The reason successful websites are a minority is because they use features that haven’t been used before. They help their visitors in a way that other websites’ fail to. Tacky features and redundant graphics don’t attract the audience anymore. You need to be different.
The best way to go about this is to zero down on what you would look for in a website as a tourist. Step in to your audience’s shoes and craft the optimal website features. Brainstorm on things that would make your search easier and end quicker. One such feature, for a hotel site, could be to include a compare and contrast table under various heads for different rooms in your hotel. This can be used by tourists to compare the amenities and rate charts to come to a smarter decision quickly. The trick here is to make your visitors feel like they know things after visiting your site. It won’t be long before you see your conversion rate rising.
Checking the performance
Now that your website is up and running, you can focus on other things, right? Wrong.
A website is your face online. Just like you wash your face every day, this needs constant and consistent attention. After setting it up and making it go live, your new role is to actively assess its performance. This will teach what you’re doing right and highlight the areas which need to be further worked on. A thorough analysis will also tell you what works for you and what doesn’t. This is important because it helps you understand not only your business and how to go about it, but also your audience and what they expect from you. Once you get a hold of where your audience’s demands lie, the only thing left for you would be to get them the supply. This supply could be in the form of the added focus on the content that is getting attention and traffic.
In essence, analyzing your website’s performance is a crucial step to update every other aspect any feature of your website. The formula here is simple: You never know until you find out. In other words, it won’t be possible for you to design a successful website until you have a thorough understanding of the things that will get you that success. This fact makes checking your website’s performance high priority.
Active maintenance
Website isn’t a one-time thing that you add to your business. It’s an asset that keeps on giving. But it won’t take long for it to become a liability if you don’t maintain it. It might end up as just another cost that you add to your business expenses. You know it can be so much more. You’ve seen examples, you’ve heard stories of how websites are a consistent source of revenue. This is all because they are consistently developing. Keeping up with the times. You might be convinced that your website is updated, but technology will surprise you every week. It’s extremely important for you to stay on top of your website’s maintenance to achieve your growth potential.
It is equally important for you to keep your website active and posting regularly. This will make you stay in touch with your audience and help you build a deeper connection and meaningful relationships. Your name will be one which is always on the back of their minds when you stay active and interact with you visitors regularly.
Now that you know what it takes, don’t compromise on the implementation. If you want the best results, you need the best service. That is why are here. We’ll study your target audience and craft for you a personalized website that is designed to succeed.
