Is your website now ‘Old Hat?!
An easy way to check if it’s time you got a new website…
Is your website as visually appealing as possible?
When people visit your site, they see it as a reflection of your accommodation. If your site looks professional and is loaded with useful information, readers will rate you higher than if your site looks poorly designed, badly structured and looks out-of-date – they’ll make the same assumptions about your accommodation. The website should highlight your accommodation and the layout should look harmonious and consistent.
Is your website fully Responsive & Mobile Friendly?
The UK is now a smartphone society. We’re spending two hours online on our smartphones every day; twice as long as laptops and PCs. So ignoring the mobile market is a very risky business. It is now considered common practice to make a website mobile friendly (responsive design).
Basically, if you haven’t updated your website in a while the chances are that you may be driving mobile users and potential customers away.
All of our websites are fully responsive and mobile/tablet friendly.
Is your website 3 years old or more? Technique & Coding
Every year web standards change radically and techniques to build web sites become more advanced in order to comply with the latest standards. If your site was developed several years ago, it probably has a lot of unnecessary HTML code, and may be slowing down your website loads speeds – which may in turn impact your ranking in the Google search results.
Does your website contain Effective use of calls to actions?
Many dated websites lack effective calls to actions that convert users to customers. A call-to-action (CTA) is a button or link that you place on your website to drive prospective customers to become bookings by completing an action on your website page. Is your USP and call to actions highlighted clearly on every page? As important, are they interesting enough to persuade your visitor to complete the desired action?
Our websites can include numerous Call-To-Actions which will increase the likelihood of your website visitor of booking, or making contact.
Are you able to Measure your website’s Effectiveness?
You should be able to measure the effectiveness of your website. An old website may not be equipped with the necessary tools that will help you measure how effective your online presence is. Nowadays, there are an assortment of online tools you can invest in to help you measure what works and what doesn’t on your website, right down to the minutest detail. However, in order to use those, you will need a modern website.
We can integrate your Google analytics or other analytics into your website so you can see how effective your website is.
Does your website have the right Content?
The first impression of your website would obviously be the overall layout, but a reader is visiting your website because they are looking for information. A site redesign can also give you the opportunity to re-address how you communicate with all your visitors and to re-write your text that is simple, on target and more effective – remember, in the modern “go faster and faster” world you only have 2 -4 seconds to engage new visitors.
How recently have you looked at your SEO and digital marketing?
Just like a website your digital marketing and SEO could be in need of refresh. If you don’t update your website it’s sure to fall down in the search engine rankings. Search engines regard websites with the most recent content as the most relevant to web users. Your content might be gold but if it’s the same content as it was 5 years ago then search engines crawlers might not think it is as relevant anymore.
A re-design also gives you a chance to rethink your keyword targeting and the overall conversion rate of your website. The way people search and how they search has changed dramatically over the last few years, even more true since the explosion of smartphone devices now in use.
We include on-page Search Engine Optimisation as part of our set up fee… ensuring that Google and other search engines can quickly identify your Unique Selling Points and what your website is about.
Usability – How user friendly is your website?
Does your website provide easy navigation?
When we talk about user experience (UX), we are referring to the totality of visitors’ experience with your site—more than just how it looks, UX includes how easy your site is to use, how easy it is to find information and how little friction there is when visitors try to complete whatever action it is they’re trying to complete. Your website should be easy to navigate to allow your site visitor to easily find the answer to their question.
One of the key things we hear from our customers is how delighted they are with the ease of navigation on their website. We make sure that your website content is placed where it should be!
Is your bounce rate favourable?
The definition of bounce rate is the percentage of people who arrive on your site and leave without visiting a second page. A high bounce rate is an obvious sign of an outdated or poorly performing site. Website users usually leave a site hurriedly without visiting other pages simply because they don’t find what they are looking for instantly or do not like the look of it! Are your visitors just leaving as soon as they land on your site? You can monitor bounce rate on your website through Google Analytics. Either as a website whole or on a page by page basis.
We can add Google analytics and/or other analytics to your website so you can get a good idea of where people are coming from, how long they spend on your site and which page they leave from.
Is your website Easy to update?
Our websites allow you to be able to update your website yourself. Our websites are based on a content management system which makes it easy to add to or switch your content based on your specific goals. The ease in which our websites can be edited by their site owners is one of our key selling points. Take a look at this video here: Visit page
Are you worried about your website getting hacked? We can reduce your risk of getting hacked.
Stories of websites and social media feeds getting hacked are becoming more and more frequent. Security flaws can rear their ugly heads on any website, new or old, but the likelihood of security flaws affecting an older website is much greater as it relies on older technology.
Our hosting fee includes Ultimate Security which is one of the best ways to keep hackers at bay!
Website Integration – how functional is your website?
Your website visitors will expect access to a blog, contact form and if applicable, online booking functionality, all on one easy to use website. A website refresh is the perfect time to find ways to save admin time and improve customer service.
We can integrate any 3rd party booking system into your new website.
Conclusion
In summary, the above information highlights the most important and most common signs to look out for when you want to know if your site is becoming “old hat”. Although there may be other signals that you need a website update, there should be enough here to guide you on the right path. If you answered negatively for a few or more of the above – you can be sure it’s time to get a new website – you can only then IMPROVE your user’s experience on your site; and this is going to drastically improve your chances of converting your online visitors into booking or enquiring.
We offer a quick turnaround (approx. 2 weeks from receipt of text and photos) to create a wonderful new website for your accommodation which will provide your site visitors with an easy to navigate, attractive website with numerous calls-to-actions to increase booking conversions.