website builds

9 Must-Haves For Tour Operator Websites

by t@aamp.agency | Aug 4, 2020 | Web Development

together now — Photographer: John Schnobrich | Source: Unsplash

Have a website but it’s not ranking well on search engines or leading to online conversions? Don’t have a website at all and you’re still using expensive mailers and billboards to promote your tour? Stop messing around, because now is the time to assess your digital presence and fix what is broken. In the digital age, consumers are looking for a trustworthy website before completing a purchase. What does your website say about your tourism business? Here are the top 9 Must-Haves For Tour Operator Websites!

1) Clear & Fixed Navigation

One of the most important things you can do for your tourism website is having clear navigation! Make sure that your navigation makes sense, not just to you but your team and anyone with an outside perspective. Before launching your website, ensure that everything in your navigation leads to the appropriate page or content. If a website visitors takes a look at your page and wants to explore further, how can you expect them to if your navigation is confusing or not set up correctly? Chances are, they’ll leave your site and head straight to your competitor.

Another feature that your site should include is a sticky menu! A sticky menu, AKA fixed navigation, is when your navigation bar is locked into place so that it does not disappear when the user scrolls down the page. By having fixed navigation, your website visitors will be able to quickly navigate through your website and find what they want.

Stars & Stripes – Sail USA 11 | San Diego, CA Sailing Charters

2) Easy Booking

Booking with your tourism business needs to be simple! If a visitor wanted to book with your business, but you require them to fill out a contact form and wait to be emailed by you, you are making a HUGE mistake. Booking online should be as easy a 1, 2, 3. One way to accomplish this is by integrating an optimized booking flow with partners such as FareHarbor, XOLA, or PeekPro. While we’re on the topic of easy booking, ensure that your website has prominent booking buttons with an engaging call to action (CTA)! Include “Book Now” buttons on your homepage, and wherever you have a tour or offer.

Vegas Jeep Tours – Prominent "Book Now" Buttons

3) Facebook Pixel & Google Analytics

A Facebook Pixel is a short snippet of code integrated into your website. It collects data that helps you track conversions from Facebook Ads, optimize ads, build targeted audiences, and remarket your tours to website visitors.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that provides information about your website and visitors. More than 56 percent of all websites using Google Analytics, it’s also one of the most popular tools out there for digital marketers — and for good reason. The tool gives you access to tons of information regarding your site’s visitors such as the amount of overall traffic your site gets, where your leads came from, demographic information, and so much more.

By having both, a Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics, integrated into your website, your tourism business will be able to run highly-effective advertisements that will lead to a higher conversion rate!

Photographer: Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk | Source: Unsplash

4) Mobile Responsive Design

Another feature that is an absolute must-have is a mobile responsive design! This is where your site has the capability to shrink or expand to the size of whatever screen it is being viewed on. Not only will this increase your conversions, but search engines appreciate this function and will give your tourism website a better ranking.

5) WOW Factor

You’re in the tourism business – everything about it is a WOW factor! What about your tour or tourism business sets you apart from your competition? What is the most captivating and interesting part of your business? Ensure that your website reflects that by adding photos, videos, and eye-catching designs to captivate your website viewers.

Vegas Rally | Rally Racing Experience in Las Vegas

6) Testimonials

Featuring testimonials on your website helps build brand authenticity with your audience. It helps website viewers get an understanding of what your business is about, how well you treat your customers, and what they will experience if they book with you!

Gone Sailing Charters | Sailing Charters in San Diego, CA

7) Live chat support

We live in an age of instant gratification and access to information at our fingertips! By including live chat support or a chatbot, any customer with a question can quickly get their answers, and they will be more likely to book with your business.

Hoover Dam Scooter Tours | Scooter Tours in Las Vegas, NV

8) Social media integration

Adding your Instagram feed is an easy way to keep your site fresh and to avoid becoming static. By adding an Instagram integration, visitors will be able to see new pictures every time they visit (unless you’re not actively posting). By doing so, you will develop better social proof, increase your brand awareness, and potentially gain more followers.

SinCity Moto | Slingshot Tours & Rentals in Las Vegas, NV

9) Email Capture

If you do not have a section to capture emails, you are missing out on another marketing avenue. Whether you have an email pop-up with an offer, or a simple form at the bottom of your site pages, growing and utilizing your email lists will help with customer engagement, brand awareness, and customer retention. When starting your e-mail marketing campaign, avoid these top 10 mistakes!

Our Shameless Plug

When either refreshing your current site or building a new site, there are many factors and “Must Haves” to consider. Using our top 9 must-haves will ensure that your business has a website that is eye-catching, functional, and gets your tourism business more bookings.

At AAMP Agency, tourism website development and design is our specialty! We understand the tourism business because we’re in it with you. We know just what it takes to make highly-effective websites and digital marketing campaigns for businesses in the tourism industry, and just so you know we’re not lying to you – all of the websites featured on this blog were made by yours truly! So whether you have questions about making a website, or simply want to hand the dirty work to someone else, the experts at AAMP Agency are here to help. Start growing your business, contact us today!

12 SEO Tips For Tourism Businesses, Attractions, and Destinations

by t@aamp.agency | Jan 24, 2020 | Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (aka SEO) is thrown around often in digital marketing for the tourism industry. It is the practice of setting up your website to gain more visibility on search engines such as Google. By utilizing SEO tactics, your website could earn one of the top spots on Google and other search engines. If your SEO is done correctly, you could see a significant increase in your web traffic however you need to fully understand the process. Keep reading for our SEO Tips for Tourism Businesses, Attractions, and Destinations.

1. Prove Your Site is Secure By Being An Https Site

Having a secure https site instead of an Http site will be better for SEO in the future as Google will start to emphasize more on security.

2. Use Google Analytics

SEO isn’t all about getting a high ranking site! To measure if your SEO is successful, take a peek at your Google Analytics account to see if organic website traffic is increasing and resulting in conversions.

3. Don’t Forget To Optimize Meta Descriptions & Titles

Meta descriptions and titles may not have an impact on the search ranking, but they do affect your site. Use meta descriptions and titles of your site pages to entice a searcher to click on your site.

4. Intent Over Exact Matches

Don’t try to fill your website pages with exact match keywords, search engines are no longer looking for this. Google now matches the searcher’s intent with the general intent of your page. They do this by looking for synonyms related to your target keywords that match what the viewer is searching for.

5. Write Clear Headlines

Headlines on your website are extremely important and should be somewhere between 4 to 9 words. These headlines inform viewers (not search engines), what your page is about. In order to have stellar SEO, you need to remember that you are optimizing your website for users first & foremost.

6. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the practice of filling a webpage with as many keywords and meta tags as possible. While this tactic had worked in the early days of SEO, it will now negatively affect your SEO ranking.

7. Stick To Basics

When it comes to the homepage of your website, keep it simple! Less is more in this case. Your homepage content should be long enough to clarify what your business does, your location, and how to book! If your homepage is filled with too much content and feels overwhelming to users, you could not only be affecting your ranking, but you will also miss out on bookings.

8. Quality Not Quantity

When building your web pages, keep in mind that you do not need a lot of them. Focus on the quality of each page, making it user-friendly, and easy to understand.

9. Utilize Alt Text For Your Images

Optimize all of the images on your website using alt text and descriptive file names to boost your page relevance.

10. Mobile Responsive

Ensure that your site is mobile responsive, meaning it can adjust itself to a variety of screen sizes. In 2015, websites that weren’t mobile-optimized saw an average of a 5% decline in organic traffic, and that has only increased since then.

11. Create A Google My Business Account

Verify and optimize a Google My Business account with your brand and location page. Google will be continuing to take steps to show the best local content to searchers.

12. Watch Your Backlinks

Google and other search engines know when you have sketchy sites linking back to your website. If you don’t get rid of them, this will negatively affect your SEO ranking. You can monitor your backlinks in Google Search Console, and then disavow any suspicious-looking links that point to your sire.

SEO affects many aspects of your marketing strategy, from content on your website to the user experience. However, as important as SEO is, the main point is to optimize your website to provide a good overall experience to viewers. The better of an experience that viewers have with your website, the better your organic traffic will be!

At AAMP Agency | Adventure & Activity Marketing Pros, we’ve combined our extensive knowledge of digital marketing, website development and more with our passion for all things tourism-related. If you’ve got any questions or need help in growing your business, contact us today.

How To Make Your Tour, Attraction, or Destination Website More Credible

by t@aamp.agency | Jan 9, 2020 | Web Development

Tea at a laptop — Photographer: Dai KE | Source: Unsplash

When you're a tour operator or run an attraction or destination, your website is everything. It features your product, builds your brand awareness, can increase your conversions, and shows that your business has credibility. However, what may seem like small or simple mistakes can affect your business greatly. Keep reading to learn how to make your tour, attraction, or destination website more credible.

1. Show Your Reviews

If you're claiming to be the best tour operator in town, you better have the customer feedback to prove it! On your website, your business can include testimonials from TripAdvisor that link back to the original review. Also, don't share reviews where it says that it's written by "John Doe" if possible include the photo of the person leaving the testimonial.

2. Show That You're the Real Deal

Showing that you're a legitimate business will boost your credibility. Ensure that you have a physical address and accurate contact information on your website. Visitors need to feel like they are interacting with a legitimate business and not someone that is shady. To take this step even further, implement a Google Map on your contact page or the bottom of your page in the footer

3. Show That You're An Expert

If you've got experts on your team, include their credentials. If your business is affiliated with an organization, include that too! You can also include team member bios where you discuss their experience. When you're focusing on this step, of you link to another site always ensure it's a credible site!

4. Make It Simple to Contact Your Business

Site visitors do not want to have to dig to find your contact information. The harder it is to find, the less credible you seem, which makes them less likely to book with you. Include contact information in the header and footer of your website, and you can even include a contact page where they can send a message directly to your business.

5. Have A Professional Design

Visitors quickly evaluate your site's design to determine if it is credible. When designing your website, pay attention to layout, fonts, images, and more. Need help with your website? Start here.

6. Show Off Your Team

On your site, show the people behind your business and find ways to convey their trustworthiness through images and text! Include quality headshots and engaging bios.

7. Make It Easy To Use

A simple site that is user-friendly is the best thing that you can do for your business. To do this, ensure your site is responsive, that all media works, that booking software is simple, and that your business and its products are clear & concise.

8. Keep It Updated

If your site is out-of-date or not updated/reviewed regularly, be prepared to lose a lot of credibilities. Keep your website updated with its upcoming tour dates, keep up with technology, and keep your plugins updated to avoid any technical issues.

9. Go Easy On The Ads

Avoid having ads on your site as much as possible. If you must have ads, make it clear what is sponsored content and what is your content. Avoid using any sort of pop-up ads, although one simple email sign-up or promo is something that you can get away with, viewers don't want to see it more than once.

10. Check For Errors

From issues with plugins to small typos and grammar errors, run through your site with a fine-tooth comb and fix any kind of error you can find.

There you have it, How To Make Your Tour, Attraction, or Destination Website More Credible. If you have any questions or need help developing your website, AAMP Agency | Adventure & Activity Marketing Pros specializes in web development & digital marketing for the tourism industry. Contact us today.

14 Common Website Mistakes That Affect Your Bookings

by t@aamp.agency | Dec 23, 2019 | Web Development

Searching — Photographer: Kobu Agency | Source: Unsplash

According to data from Euromonitor International, 44% of travel sales and bookings are expected to occur online during the next five years! Meaning, your businesses' website can be a high-converting machine if it's done right that is. To build a website that will attract customers and get your business more bookings, check out our 14 Common Website Mistakes That Affect Your Bookings.

1. Unresponsive design

Today, mobile rules the market! If your website isn't responsive and can shrink down to fit the size of the screen it is being viewed on, you could be instantly missing out on bookings.

2. It's flat-out boring

We are in the tourism and destination industry! Meaning you should be selling a fun experience, and your website needs to reflect that.

3. Lack of Personality

Always make sure to include an "About Us" page and have some fun with it. Having this kind of information on your site will help you create a connection between the customer and your business.

4. Information Isn't Clearly Stated

Consumers don't want to have to dig through the pages of your site to find tour times, locations, etc.

5. Slow Loading Site

You should be checking out how fast your website loads, and on different devices! If it's taking too long to load, if buttons or images appear out of alignment, etc., it's going to be even harder for your customers to book!

6. The Tours Lack Character

What makes your tour or destination different from all of the others? On your website, give insight into what makes you different! Aim to create excitement about your business, and don't rely on the name of your tour to entice customers. Include descriptions with intriguing text and information!

7. Abusing Fonts

Yes, adding a bolded header can draw attention to a section – but bolding everything? How dare you. Don't bold every other word, use various font colors, put italic and bold text next to each other, etc. Pick 2 (at most 3) different fonts, and keep it simple! You want site visitors to read about your business, not be angered by your wonky fonts. Also, never use Papyrus or Comic Sans, these are the joke of the font world and will instantly cheapen the look of your site.

8. Inconsistent Theme

Consistency is key in all of your marketing efforts, from branding to social media, and yes – to your website. Make sure that your website is consistent with everything else, such as graphics and images.

9. Blocked For International Viewers

Don't disable your website for oversea visitors! If potential customers can't find your business or even know about it, how can you expect to get more customers?

10. Lack of Security

Keep your website up-to-date! If your website is hacked your business could be at risk. It is a pain to deal with, it can affect your website traffic, your google ranking will be affected, and your company's information & data could be at risk.

11. Is It Functional?

While your website may look beautiful, does it function well? Do all buttons, links, and pages work properly? Are there clear calls to action? If your website doesn't function properly because you prioritized design over function, your visitors will notice and take their business elsewhere.

12. Background Music

Absolutely not! This is not MySpace. Your website visitors do not want background music when browsing your site, it'll leave them scrambling to find the source to silence it. It also eats bandwidth and can create an awkward situation for your site visitors.

13. Cluttered & Busy

Keep the site simple, and let the text and images speak for itself! If your site is cluttered with bold colors, patterns, too many images, etc., it can turn a site visitor off. Not only that, but it can affect your Google ranking!

14. Lengthy Booking Process

Site visitors have come to expect an easy selection process and simple booking. This can be easily achieved with a booking software such as Peek Pro. *Shameless plug incoming* When utilizing Peek Pro software, you're optimizing your booking sequence and turning it into a high-converting machine. At AAMP Agency | Adventure & Activity Marketing Pros, we are familiar with a range of booking software and always ensure to implement them in all of the sites we build.

We could go on and on about common mistakes that could be costing your tourism or destination business bookings, but we'll stop at 14 (for now). If you're needing some examples or inspiration as to what a beautifully designed, functioning, and converting website looks like, just take a peep at our extensive portfolio at iwerxconnect.com!

We happen to know a thing or 50 about how to develop a website for a tourism or destination business. We are destination marketing experts for a reason, so if you're feeling a little overwhelmed, just give us a call and we'll help you get your business to where it needs to be.