How To Revamp your website
author: Charlotte Cullinan You wouldn’t allow your shop window to languish without any attention,
hen caught up in the day-to-day running of an agency, dedicating time and resources to revamping
your website can seem unnecessary. Yet an honest review of a tired site and clever changes to ensure it meets the demands of a business can pay real dividends. It was a suggestion at a joint managers’
so the same should apply to your website. Is it time for a spring clean online?
Spinning a new web W
the biggest priorities was conveying the firm’s personal side. “Our old site felt tired and wasn’t up to date.
We are based in a very affluent area of Surrey and wanted to show we are high end, family run, and really care about people’s holidays,” she says.
meeting that led Carrick Travel to redesign its website (below) last summer. Director Tracey Carter says: “They suggested it needed refreshing, and it hadn’t been on our list of jobs as we felt we’d already done it. Now we’re up to date and it’s fantastic for reinforcing our brand and giving a flavour of the type of holidays we do. It’s important that a site evolves.” The business worked with its website design
agency CSI Media to create the new online presence, which allows the Carrick team to easily update it in-house for the first time. “This was a big priority for us. We’ve got much more control now, so can easily add pages, upload offers and change photos,” Carter explains.
Be available across platforms The team was also keen for the new site to be fully responsive, meaning it is now optimised for viewing on smartphones, tablets as well as desktop computers. “This is an area that will only grow,” Carter adds.
Julie Ray, manager
of Knowle Travel, is overhauling the agency’s website this year, and while her team regularly updates offers on the site, Ray
5 tips to: livening up your website
Personal touch Bruce Martin encourages local agencies to have personal websites, so invest in good team photographs and staff profiles.
Keep it simple Don’t fret over online booking. Carrick, Designed4Travel and Knowle don’t have bookable sites, but do emphasise their brands and USPs.
Engage everyone Carrick Travel has a group of four agents who are trained to update the website. Online enquiries are distributed across the team to follow up.
24
TTGLUXURY.COM SPRING 2016 BUSINESS OF TRAVEL
Picture perfect High-quality imagery is transformative. Tour operators are often willing to share their photography, or look to free providers such as iStock.
Prioritise mobile A third of UK internet users cite their phone as their main device for going online, says Ofcom’s 2015 Communications Market Report.
hopes a new site will pique visitors’ interest. “We’ve had our current site for five years and
the format needs changing so it has a fresh look. I’d like it to work in a way that people are really interested in what we do and want to get in touch,” she says. As online shop windows, websites offer a
chance to showcase a business’s assets, and when Designed4Travel relaunched its website in January, investor Karen Layzell says one of
Making space for customer feedback The site now has an About Us section, where Layzell has written her personal feelings about travel, and professional team photos are planned. There will also be a dedicated area about the agency’s charity work. Layzell hopes the agency’s increased presence on Twitter and Facebook will help
to highlight what customers can expect, with buttons and a live feed for the networks on the homepage. “We want these to be platforms where people talk about our service and their holidays. Social media is so important now, and it will allow us to be an open book showing how our customers feel,” she says. Designed4Travel recruited marketing agency
Ginger Juice, and one of managing director Bruce Martin’s first undertakings was to analyse the local competition – something he suggests to anyone who is considering a website overhaul. “It’s vital that we know what we’re up against
in terms of design, content and search engine optimisation. This procedure can be great for picking up ideas too,” says Martin. However, he stresses that smaller businesses
don’t need to overstretch themselves to create a powerful virtual presence. “It’s competitive out there, and many agencies
have impressive sites with a high-end feel and appealing social-media profiles,” he says. “But sometimes less is more. Too many agencies fall into the trap of getting big websites with many pages to keep up to date. It’s smart to prioritise, and attractive design and personality are key.”
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