What does your website say about you? | Travel Research Online

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What does your website say about you?

Do you ever just want to just bang your head? Like how do you get your ideal client (not the looker, but the booker) to hire you to design that trip? Sure, you get all kinds of inquiries but they are shoppers – they don’t want to pay a deposit, let alone a fee.

Then your email is flooded with hundreds of people telling you how to make more money, how to amplify your message, and you’re like “I just want to design travel”… you’re a travel expert, not a marketer, a Social Media guru, (fill in the blank here with other titles.), etc.

So, here is my latest challenge. I am a novice at reading Google Analytics but it is pretty slick. It tells me about the performance of my website.  And, the numbers don’t seem to be my friend. To bring home the point, my phone isn’t ringing off the hook.

So, let me get this right… I spend tons of time and money to build a website, and write blogs and research keywords and the numbers tell me that I don’t have many conversions and visitors are leaving my website only after seconds? Where the heck are the website gods to help me out here? Where’s the sign that says “bang head here?”

So I’m in research mode again. Sometimes it seems I spend more time researching how to make my business viable than the time I spend actually booking travel. My keyword search was “Content Writer” and started to hire one to rewrite my “content” because after all, it must be the “content” that is not clicking with them, right?

Fast forward a couple days later… I’m on a webinar and guess what the topic is? Content/Copy for your website.

Yippee… the website gods are listening to me finally!

“What’s the difference between content and copy?”… uh, what? Oh boy! (bang head here… again!)

So your website may keep your prospects engaged, and they may love your brand, but that doesn’t lead to conversion. That’s content. On your website words that convince people to take a specific action – that’s copy. Well, darn… no one taught me that in Travel 101!

As you already know, your website is your virtual storefront and how we present it speak volumes about how our potential visitors/clients perceive us. Like me, you may have some mistakes on your website that are costing you money, as I soon found out.

Here are my top 3 website mistakes – maybe they are also on your website.

  1. I thought beautiful pictures on my website would be a huge draw (someone told me once, brides like to look at pics, don’t make your website too text heavy.)  Now, I’m hearing that beautiful pics are great but my website shouldn’t be inspirational, it should SELL my services.
  2. How about the headlines on your page? Hmm…that was huge for me. I had vague headlines that were limited to a certain length of characters so my headlines weren’t grabbing the attention of the visitors.
  3. The dreaded CTA (call to action)… yup, you got it, this is a biggie. I think the left side of my brain is the marketing side because it told me to focus on pics of people frolicking in the sun and it sure didn’t tell me that nice, bold, attractive Call-to-Action buttons were important. So my CTAs were 12-pt bold Arial font telling my visitors to schedule an appointment.  In hindsight, I can see how I wouldn’t jump at the chance to do that if I were a visitor. Smh… again!

And there’s good news! I’m hiring a “Copywriter” to re-write my website copy (one-time investment with a professional) so I can attract the right audience and not just engage with them but convert them into paying clients.

My website copy, when done right, should do the selling for me. What does your website say to your visitors? Look at it critically and use Google Analytics to help you understand if it is working for you or not. If it is not, it may be time to get some copy! Until then… we’re in this together!

Judith White is the owner at White Sand Travel in Stone Mountain, Georgia. The full service agency specializes in destination weddings, honeymoon and romance travel planning for busy couples that want an incredible vacation experience without the stress of planning it. You can find Judith online at whitesandtravel.net

 

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