A hotel website is crucial for keeping up with today’s competitive online market, but as a hotelier, are you aware of the standards your website needs to meet for it to effectively advertise your hotel and generate the best results?
Cutting-edge website design is a solid marketing investment for your hotel - a dedicated space to sell your guest experience through visually striking media and compelling written content that’s been carefully designed around your brand to increase customer demand and convert more visitors into guests.
Whether you have an active website or you're a hotelier looking to get started, here are seven things your hotel website must deliver in 2020.
Speed
Quick loading times are important when considering increasingly fast internet speeds and the impatience we have as a result of this standard.
As a guide, a good-quality website will load in under 3 seconds - if your web pages are taking three or four times this amount, you risk losing a potential booking. Speed and responsiveness offer the best first impression, indicative of a website that has been professionally built while reducing the risk of visitor frustration.
User-Friendly Layout
How easy is it to navigate your website and all the information it contains about your hotel?
Likewise with speed, a cluttered, complicated website that’s confusing to navigate has a good chance of leaving visitors frustrated. A straightforward navigation menu should be at the centre of your website experience, laying out what your hotel has to offer and where to go for the information your customers will be eager to find out.
Call to Action
The main purpose of your hotel's website should be to drive bookings, so making sure that it takes an effective CTA approach is essential.
From the homepage, your customers should get the impression that they have arrived at the precise place to book - both smoothly and securely - through attractive written content and enticing web design. Along with tactically placed links to your hotel’s bookings system, all your content must be expertly stylised in a way that incentivises customers into taking action.
High-Quality Media
High-quality media should be present throughout your website, displaying the most eye-catching aspects of your hotel to stimulate, excite and offer a taste of the experience your hotel provides.
As your hotel and location have a unique experience to sell, you don’t want poorly captured photos underselling what that experience entails - hiring a professional photographer is absolutely worth your while, with more media formats to consider if you want to take your website to the next level, such as video content and interactive virtual tours.
Branding
Does your website reflect the guest experience, location and customer service your hotel has to offer?
Your website should be representative of your brand, evoking a sense of trust and importance from the second visitors view your homepage. When it comes to overall website design, shapes, colours, fonts and textual content all have a significant impact on mood - and these, utilised effectively, will assert your hotel’s authenticity as a brand.
Search Engine Optimisation
An impressive website doesn’t serve its purpose if it’s not generating traffic. This is where search engine optimisation steps in: a marketing strategy that will ensure your website reaches its desired audience.
SEO content is key to making your website search engine friendly, which will boost website traffic and give you an edge over competitors. Not only should your website’s written content be compelling, but professionally formatted and optimised to meet the ever-changing criteria of the SERPs.
Responsive Web Design
With today’s choice of smartphones, tablets and internet browsers, it goes without saying that you’ll want your hotel website to work flawlessly across all platforms.
You could be drastically limiting your reach if your website isn’t optimised for the latest devices. Responsive website design adapts your website to be thumb-friendly and, if utilised optimally, guarantees that all the essential features of your website are integrated into an intuitive, scaled-down layout that is fully functional and attractive on any device.
Have Your Website Evaluated for Free with eTourism
Want to know how your hotel website holds up in 2020?
Get a free website evaluation with eTourism - our expert team can carry out a professional, to-the-point website evaluation against current industry standards, giving you an invaluable insight into its performance, design and marketing conversion, as well as any key areas where it might be letting your business down.
Request now - it’s free and requires no obligation.
Find out more by just visiting eTourism Free Website Evaluation.
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