Building a Better Website by Andrew Hayes

This post is written by Andy Hayes, CEO of Travel On-line Partners.  Andy is passionate about helping other small businesses in travel and tourism make the most of the Internet to support and grow their business. You don’t need to tell Andy about the woes of running a small travel company because he’s been there.  Andy is one of the few professionals focused on helping small travel and tourism businesses deliver big results with their online brand.  Plenty of people have expertise in social media, blogging, or online marketing, but few target small businesses in this industry with holistic travel marketing solutions.  You can find out more about Andy and Travel On-line Partners at http://www.travelonlinepartners.com.

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Having an easy-to-use, simple yet snazzy website is an important feature in this always-connected age. Your site is your 24×7 salesforce and marketing channel, offering customers information about your products and services, as well as booking tools using your Rezgo account. Don’t you want to make the best impression possible? What they say really is true: you never have a 2^nd chance to make a 1^st impression.

TOP Tips

Here are a few creative tips to help you make the most of your online presence:

• Less is More. Strong sales copy doesn’t have to be long. Can you say the same thing more clearly but with fewer words?
• Snazzy versus Fluff. Are those dancing widget and auto-start videos adding pizzazz to your site or just fluff? Don’t lose the focus on your sales messages by adding unnecessary graphics and media.
• Speak your customers’ language. Do you use words like you would use when having a chat with a customer? Don’t speak at them and don’t shout at them, just write like you’re having a conversation.

Learning by Example

Here’s an example of a tour operator using Rezgo: Conti-Reisen http://www.conti-reisen.com

Here’s a few things they are doing very well:

• The site is attractive, yet simple and easy to understand. There isn’t any need for auto-start videos or flashing graphics.
• The tour descriptions include a healthy amount of information but isn’t too long that the reader is overwhelmed.

What could be better?

• The PDFs in the sidebars causes a jarring experience; when the media format will change, you should warn the user. Sidebar links should really be to pages, not files.
• The newsletter signup has several fields – I would slim this down. Every time you add a field, you lose a few more people who don’t want to give you more personal data.
• I would also standardize the sidebar so it doesn’t change as much. While a randomly changing sidebar does make it more likely a user will read what is in it, continuous changes impact the readability of the site as every page refresh the user has to re-orientate themselves.

Want some suggestions for your own website?

Then be sure to check out the Travel Online Partners http://www.travelonlinepartners.com (TOP) website where you’ll find more resources to help make your online presence work better, including a free small business assessment.