10 Things Your Tourism Website Needs

An organization’s website is typically one of the first results on a search console when potential visitors begin exploring options for their next getaway, making your website an all-encompassing representation of the destination’s brand and experiences. Websites are the perfect place to collect large amounts of information in the form of blogs, landing pages, business listings, etc. With a large amount of information provided, sometimes key features on your website can be overlooked. Follow these 10 Things your tourism website needs to enhance your organization’s digital representation.

1. Link Your Social Media Profiles

A best practice for enhancing your brand presence on your website is by linking your social media profiles- and vice versa. Be sure to include your website link in your social media profile bios or the About Me’ section. Luckily, websites often provide social media icons to easily link your profiles to. However, they may not always position in a place that is readily visible to users. We suggest having your social icons be placed within both the header and footer of your site.

If you’re looking to customize your social media icons, try Iconmonstr!

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2. Include Your Social Content

Another thing to incorporate into your website is to share your social media content. It’s best to place your social content feeds on multiple pages and locations on your website. There are a few ways to incorporate your social posts into your website. The easiest way is to embed single posts on your partner listing pages or blog posts. However, you can also embed your destination-related hashtag posts and your own social media feeds, too!

Multiple sites we have also integrated reviews into their partner listings to make it easier for consumers to gauge the quality of the destination’s accommodations, restaurants, and attractions.

3. Create Detailed Partner Listing Pages

Your destination partners like restaurants, taverns, hotels, and attractions are an important amenity to potential visitors. Make sure to include detailed partner listing pages on your website to ensure users won’t leave your site when viewing these listings. Your partner listings should be as detailed as possible and convenient to access. Not only do these thorough listings keep users engaged, but it can also improve your organic search marketing results.

These listings should include dynamic maps, turn-by-turn directions, and links to items like menus and special amenities. Don’t forget to include contact information, business social accounts, and updated COVID safety information.

TIP: to enhance these listings include YELP or Google reviews on the page!

4. Rank Your ‘Best’ Partner Listings

While the detailed partner listing pages are an integral part of educating consumers on the destination’s amenities, the strategic placement of these pages is essential. We suggest featuring local hotspots and locations that are unique to the destination. It’s best to highlight the amenities, activities, restaurants, etc. that provide a differential rather than list all of the generic locations categorized alphabetically.

Our suggestions to optimize the listings are: order by what you consider your best, sort by categories, or order them by reviews based on TripAdvisor or another review site.

5. Include Niche Landing Pages & Itineraries

The bulk of the content featured on your website should be centered around differentiating your travel products’ niches. Enhance this aspect by asking the following questions:

  • What makes your destination unique?
  • Do you have specific blogs/article pages centered around this differential?
  • Do you have landing pages that are centered around this activity?

Website visitors like easy access to unique and specific niches within a destination. By displaying detailed content on an interest-driven page can help tell the story of a destination and provide inspiration to visit. For example, Traverse City Tourism Is known for wine tours and wineries within their destinations, so on their homepage, they feature romantic ways to explore the area — along with itinerary suggestions

6. Include CTA’s: Above-The-Fold

Call to Actions (CTAs) are designed to prompt the viewer to respond, sign-up, read more, etc. Ideally, your CTA’s tell your viewers to continue to receive information regarding your destination, follow you on social media, or continue reading content on your website. As consumers are using the website to plan their visit, leverage your CTA’s to garner additional consumer information.

Some CTA examples that we often see on websites include:

  • “Subscribe to our E-Newsletter”
  • “Plan Your Trip Today”
  • “Save Big”
  • “Check out our blog post.”.

We highly recommend keeping the CTA’s integrated throughout the page content and “above the fold” so that users can see them without scrolling. More often than not we see websites with CTA’s listed at the bottom of the webpage that goes overlooked. Keep users engaged by strategically placing your CTA’s on your website!

7. Site Optimization/SEO

Typically, trip planners tend to start their vacation planning process at the search engine query. Due to the planning process beginning at the search engine, your SEO and Site Optimization practices are a crucial element to reach your potential visitors. Luckily, we have a few quick tips that can help keep a site relevant in the search rankings!

The first step would be to ensure that the website has covered the basic fundamentals like having the appropriate title tags and descriptions along with uploading a current site map.

An additional item to fortify your listing results would be to include a schema mark up language. To find more on www.schema.org.

Finally, site security has recently grown in importance, make sure your site includes a SSL certification.

8. Include a Site Search and Navigation Feature

Websites will large amounts of content can create some challenges in the navigation and exploration process for users. In order to simplify this process, it’s important to integrate a dynamic search tool into the site. This search tool creates ease of use and the ability for consumers to find things fast. The best place to position a search navigation tool is at the very top of the page.

Although a search feature is the easiest way for users to navigate your site, you may consider utilizing tile navigation on your landing pages. This way users can easily find the topic, attraction, or activity that they’re looking for.

9. Ensure Mobile Friendliness

With the majority of web browning happening on mobile devices, it is crucial that your website is mobile friendly. Make sure your mobile-friendly website is responsive and easy to navigate. Even if a website is mobile friendly, it’s also imperative to optimize it to load quickly.  To check your load speed on mobile, check out this link or utilize this tool in Google Analytics.

10. Brand and Personalization Integration

Brand integration is the most important part of any website, so making sure that you are on-brand is imperative. The website should relay a visual message beyond just the written content! Make sure all of your logos are consistent and you add your brand colors and fonts to the site. Display your hashtag in a prominent location and make sure that the personality of your brand is shining through. Here are 15 more ways you can improve your website’s branding.

As websites are a fundamental component of every destination’s digital presence be sure to continually update your site to ensure ease of use, ! Staying up-to-date on best practices for your site is a great way to make sure that you are doing everything needed to make a lasting impression.

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