Menu

Resources

feature articles



Why do you want a website?


Family with laptopBefore you start, think about what you want your website to do for your business. The following will help to guide you on selecting the right type of website for your business.

Brochure website

All tourism and food and drink businesses should have an online presence. The simplest type of website is a brochure style website. This is a site which simply provides your site visitors with information on your business or services. Site visitors should be able to email you from the site from an email link or an enquiry form.

This type of site will be informative but if you’re an accommodation provider you should ideally be able to show if your accommodation is available or booked. Many visitors now expect to find up to date availability when they visit a site before contacting the business. Should this information not be available then there is a real risk that they will move onto a competitive site that does provide this information.

A brochure style website is probably going to be the cheapest option but it will have its limitations because unless you have some coding knowledge you’ll have to pay a web designer to update the site.

If you need to update your site frequently or want to show up to date availability it would make sense to upgrade to a website that you can update all or parts of it yourself. This type of site is often referred to as a ‘Content Management Site’ which allows you to update text and graphics on your website without any programming knowledge.

Remember your competitors are only a click away and it’s always better to provide your site viewers with the information they need to make a decision.

Back to top

Websites you can update yourself


Most good web designers should be able to offer you a website that you can update yourself. When you start to think about a new site, imagine how convenient it would be for you to update the text and images yourself. You won’t need any programming skills but you will need to be familiar with Microsoft Word or similar programmes as the editing on a Content Management Site (CMS) follows a similar pattern.

It is recommended that you plan your site and then provide a written brief explaining your requirements. Your marketing consultant or web developer will then be able to guide you on the best way to achieve your objective and provide you with both an estimate for the work and a time scale for the construction of the site.

Remember your web designer isn’t a photographer or copywriter therefore to achieve maximum results you may prefer to use the services of a marketing specialist who would coordinate all aspects of the site construction to ensure that the website is developed from a marketing perspective. Additionally copywriting for the web is very different to brochure copywriting and therefore you should ensure that your copywriter is familiar with writing well constructed optimised text.

The main advantages of a CMS website are:

  • You will be able to update information through your browser quickly and easily and preview the changes before publishing them on the web.
  • You can easily add more pages to the site which will provide you with a great deal of flexibility.
  • Accommodation providers will be able to show a chart with up to date availability, this will encourage viewers to make a booking.
  • You will be able to add special offers and test new marketing ideas immediately without having to wait days for website changes.
  • You will have the facility to make each page more search engine friendly by using specific key words in your site description but be careful not to change these without some training on optimisation.

Back to top

E Commerce website

Starting an online business is a natural extension for many businesses. There are several online shop software packages available and your website designer should be able to recommend suitable software to set up an online shop for you with various online payment options.

Once it’s set up you should be able to upload/download products, change prices, create special offers etc just as you would in a shop and you’ll be able to take payments online. People want to buy there and then so don’t expect your online shop to work if you only ask for payment by cheque.

The web site will act as your shop front for the products and services you wish to sell online. Think about your site visitors as people who are window shopping for the goods and services they require. When they find your site your job is to convert these viewers to buyers. Don’t expect your site to attract thousands of viewers or automatically reach the top of the search engines. This takes investment and online marketing such as Google Adwords. There’s more on this in the online ‘Creating an online shop’ section.

E commerce is a natural extension to any business that wishes to widen its distribution base or sell direct to the public.

Here are a few hints and tips on developing an e commerce site:

  • The web site should be designed to effectively guide people through their buying decision process. You’ll have to consider what information people will require before they are prepared to purchase and create a site menu that leads them through this process.
  • The images you select should ideally be professional shots which effectively communicate the benefits of your goods and services. Poor photography is an immediate turn off.
  • Sales text must be grammatically correct. Any misspellings undermine the confidence of the viewer and can cause them to leave the site without purchasing.
  • The text on the site has two roles; firstly you’ll need text that has relevant keywords and phrases. These are common phrases that people use to search for their requirements on the search engines, e.g. Google. Then the text has to be well written in a way that actively sells to your site visitor.
Back to top