Having a new website built shouldn’t be daunting. It’s an exciting opportunity for you and your tour business to make it your main point of selling, build a stronger online presence, create a firm base to market from, and, of course, create or reinforce a brand that will attract your target audience.
However, before the process begins with your website designers, there are a few elements to consider and prepare. The key to a successful website build is having a clear goal for the new site, but it can be difficult to imagine what goes on in the process. You may also have questions you want answered before hiring a web designer.
And that’s why we’re here! Let’s discuss a few items that we recommend you think about before or right after signing up for a new site—we hope you find it useful!
Goals for the site
Before we do anything, you should first understand why you’re looking to create a new site and understand your value proposition. Even if you don’t have an existing site, you can still ask yourself some of the following questions:
- What is the reason for the new site build?
- How does my current site perform?
- What do I like and don’t like about my existing site?
- What hasn’t my old site done that I want the new site to accomplish?
- Is my site ranking in Google and do I want to bump it up with a user-friendly, SEO-enhanced structure?
- How many pages will I need? What admin and product pages do I need to convey the company’s point of difference and display products efficiently?
- What design and layout elements have I seen on other people’s websites that I think will work on mine?
- Who are my competitors?
Maybe you’re not getting enough bookings via the website and it’s something you’d like to focus on. Or, perhaps want to update it and give it a beautiful yet functional new makeover.
All of these elements alongside the answers to the questions above are what you need to communicate to your website designers so that they can understand what your goal is, which will, in turn, give them a clear path to help create your vision. You don’t need to have an answer for everything, but it is good to consider these elements. This will help mentally prepare you for they type of questions that your web designers may have for you during the build process. We are here to translate your ideas into the right website structure, features, and content, and to do that we want to get the best idea of what the company is about.
At Tourism Tiger, we value our client’s goals and they are the focus of our website build projects. We send these questions to clients before the first project meeting so they have time and space to think about what they want to convey.
Website design
Thinking about how the website will look can seem like an intimidating task. But it shouldn’t be! In fact, it’s a time to better understand your business and portray it through visuals. Effectively communicating these points to the designers will only help them translate those answers into a design that will work best for you and your brand:
- Having a sense of brand identity, how you want to present your image to the consumer
- Know what type of company you are, who your target audience is, and how you want to be perceived by them
Also, begin considering a colour palette. Sounds fun, right? If you don’t have a logo and branding guidelines, fear not, most good web designers will provide you with what you need. But having an idea of a colour scheme in mind is a great starting point.
Here are some things to consider:
- Choose a primary colour, your main brand colour
- Choose one or two secondary colours – colours that will complement the primary and bring awareness to elements such as buttons, text, etc.
If you are feeling a bit lost and need help with some direction, our friendly design team here at Tourism Tiger will help you get started and create something in line with your goals and vision. Because, and you may not know it, colours say a lot about who you are and what you’re selling. See what our hard working project team have to say and how they work one on one with clients.
Photos
Keeping on the design track, photos are next up. Photos and videos are an imperative part of any successful website and photos help you sell tours.
Having a variety of photos ready before the website build begins will help ensure a smooth process. When you’re focusing on giving feedback on content and design, you don’t want to be worrying about digging out those photos you got a professional photographer to take 5 years ago. Here are some quick tips for some perfect tour website photos:
- A variation of mainly landscape (horizontal) but also some vertical images
You want to show real people enjoying your activities – avoid the cheesy posed stock photos! - Show off what makes you special. Beach? Let’s see the sunset and people in the water! City tour? Let’s see the main sights!
- Guide photos: to help create that trust with the user, ensure you have photos of the owners and guides on the about us page – in recent years research has shown that about us pages are some of the most visited by users.
- Video: hero videos are becoming ever more popular and having a good hero video isn’t necessarily essential but it’s a great way to show people what you do and the places you do them in. It also encourages people to spend more time on the site, which sends Google the message that you have high-quality content and, in turn, will push you up the rankings.
- Have the original files for any photos or videos, web designers will need to resize and compress them and there’s nothing that puts people off more than a low-quality photo.
Tour itineraries
This may sound obvious, and many of you will have everything ready, but having the core of your tours (even in bullet point) formed will go a long way. Some web designers will even take care of the writing or collaborate on it with you. Having the core points (prices, meeting points, what’s included, what to bring, what isn’t included, what people will see and do, and anything guests need to know, etc.) and the foundations of your tour itineraries will ensure a smooth process and efficient communication when building a new website.
The technical side
Domain registrar information: whether you have an existing domain or you’ve just purchased a new one, ensure you have your details ready to share with your web designers. Without it, it’s impossible to launch the new website!
Google Analytics is an integral part of our post-launch services at Tourism Tiger. We not only set up this powerful tool but also ensure its flawless functionality, guaranteeing that your website’s user interactions are meticulously tracked. The data generated becomes a goldmine, offering insights into the effectiveness of your online presence. Beyond the basics, we emphasize that the depth of analysis is entirely in your control. From understanding user demographics to tracking device preferences and monitoring page-specific engagement durations, our commitment is to tailor the analytics to your preferences. With access to this valuable information, we conduct comprehensive reviews during scheduled calls a few times a year. Whether you’re eager to delve deep into the data or prefer a more hands-off approach, we adapt our analysis to meet your specific needs. Consider it another essential box checked off before you sign up.
Processing payments: have you considered how you would like to receive payments for your products? Nowadays, there are lots of different solutions: booking software (Peek, Rezdy, etc.), payment systems like PayPal or Stripe, itinerary creation platforms, and online booking forms. A lot of options are available but there is always one right for you and if you do decide to sign up with us, don’t hesitate to ask for professional advice and recommendations!
Recap
Building a new website should be an exciting time and the above information is simply a guideline of things to consider. There may be questions to be answered, confusions to clear up, itineraries to be adapted, photos to be refreshed – but that’s normal. A good website designer will not only provide you with tips, pointers, and suggestions to help get you started and on the right path… but also guide you throughout the process. If you want to get the most out of the experience, and when you’re investing your hard-earned cash, it’s worth putting in some thought and organization before you start the process of building a new website. Having a clear idea of who you are and what you sell will make building a new website a walk in the park.
Throughout the process of creating your new website, all of these points above should be asked and considered. Ultimately, you want a website that sells your tours. However, there are other important elements that need to be brought to light so you can get the most out of your experience and you’re left with a website you love!
Talk to our sales department today if you have any questions about our process and to learn why you should choose Tourism Tiger to build your new tour website and most importantly get you on your way to selling more tours!
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