We’ve already discussed some of the reasons why OTAs could be taking a significant percentage of your overall bookings. But travel sites like Booking.com and Expedia often aren’t entirely to blame. If you’re seeing a low number of direct bookings, your hotel website could be to blame, too.
If your hotel website is poorly designed or out of date, you’re unlikely to see improvement in your direct bookings, even if you’re investing in other marketing tactics. Improving your hotel website should be one of the first steps toward improving your hotel or resort’s overall brand. It sets the stage for success in other areas, like SEO, organic marketing, video marketing, and more.
The team at Vibrant Management knows a thing or two about designing stunning websites. Keep reading as we dive into some of the biggest mistakes we’ve seen hotel websites make, how you can keep them from impacting your bookings, and how the best hotel marketing management Utah has to offer can help.
Your Website Doesn’t Load Quickly
One of the first things that can impact the rate of visitors to your website is a slow load speed. In fact, the demand for fast load times is so high that some studies have found that web surfers will leave a page if it doesn’t load within just three seconds.
There are several issues that can cause slow load times. One is images that are too large or too high of a resolution. While they may look stunning, they take entirely too long to load, slowing down your entire page and frustrating your visitors.
Other things that can slow down your website include your plugins of choice, your web host, or even your web visitor’s own internet connection. While there’s nothing you can do about that last problem, fixing the other two and optimizing your load time will go a long way toward boosting visitor numbers on your site.
You Aren’t Accounting for Guests Using Mobile Devices
Just a few decades ago, internet users were limited to using laptops and desktops to access the web. But as we all know, this has changed dramatically in recent years. In fact, 60 percent of global internet use today is from a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet.
Despite this trend, many businesses still haven’t created a mobile-friendly version of their website. They focus solely on the desktop version, and as a result, the site becomes disoriented or difficult to navigate on a smaller screen. Using your regular website usually means that your entire website won’t be visible on the screen, buttons and drop-down menus might not work, and your text and images may get jumbled.
In today’s world, it’s an absolute must that your site is optimized for mobile use. This means your website still looks great, even on a small screen.
You’re Not Investing in SEO
SEO strategies are designed to optimize your website for search engine algorithms. The better your use of these strategies, the higher your site will rank for specific searches and the more web traffic you’ll receive.If you aren’t investing in SEO, your hotel website is unlikely to ever start gaining traction.
While there are plenty of good SEO strategies you should be using, like keywords, links, and that mobile device optimization, there are also plenty of mistakes you may be making without even realizing it.
One mistake is utilizing infinite scrolling. This is where your site continues to load old content as your web visitor scrolls down the page. Not only can this slow your page load time, but it also means that your page isn’t getting properly indexed.
Another SEO mistake is not having enough quality content. Every page of your website should have at least 250 words, and be original copy.
You Aren’t Answering Guest Questions Quickly
It doesn’t matter what your business sells or has to offer its customers. When they land on your website, they are looking for answers or solutions to specific problems. If you aren’t making it quick and easy for them to find them, they’ll simply go elsewhere.
For your hotel website, this can include a few different answers. One is what they can expect when they book a stay. Are you a standard chain hotel with all of the basic amenities? Or do you offer a unique, elevated experience? Other information that should be easy to find is your rates, how to book a stay, and any rules or guidelines you have, such as whether you are pet-friendly.
You should be utilizing easy-to-navigate menus with clear labels to make it easy for guests to find what they are looking for.
Investing in the Best Hotel Marketing Management Utah Has to Offer
If your hotel is struggling to increase your direct bookings, any of these common website mistakes could be to blame. Investing time and money into improving your hotel’s website can help set the stage for a variety of other marketing strategies, and help you increase direct bookings and overall bookings.
As the best hotel marketing management Utah has to offer, the team at Vibrant Management knows exactly what your customers expect from your website. Whether we’re helping you create a stunning video to capture new web visitors’ attention or creating an easy to navigate layout that makes finding answers a breeze, we can help you design a website from the bottom up. Schedule your free consultation today to learn more about how we can help your hotel shine.
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