Close to 45% of all online shoppers begin their search using a search engine and lovers of the great outdoors are no different. They turn to camping websites and online tourism marketing materials when planning their vacations. Having a well designed and search optimised website can make all the difference in terms of standing out from your competition.
Travel website design means understanding what potential clients want from camping websites or tourism websites and delivering it for them in the simplest, cleanest way. For example, a good travel website design caters to both last-monte planners and forward thinkers, recognising that, for example, millennial tend to procrastinate even more than their peers. This is despite the fact that almost a third of those defined as millennials are concerned that procrastination will result in higher costs for travel. Peak travel times like Christmas and Thanksgiving tend to lead to earlier planning, meaning that less than 10% of all flight booking take place last minute at those times. A website design that considers seasonal needs is paramount to a flexible industry like tourism.
More Americans are also looking closer to home for their family summer vacation, with over 80% opting for a domestic trip rather than international travel. The majority of travel searches, close to 60% of them, are made by 35 to 64 year olds. Again a good website designer can tailor your site to the needs of your customers.
Having a good site alone is not enough, however, since potential clients need to be able to find it. These days this is driven primarily by search, with search engines, notably Google, setting the guideline for if and how people can find your site. The algorithms that drive Google’s search function change regularly, as much as 500 to 600 times a year, making it difficult to navigate the constantly changing world of search engine optimisation (SEO). With a 14.6% case rate, SEO leads are an attractive and effective advantage over similar tactics such as print advertising and direct mail with close rates of just 1.7%.
The higher up in the search results your camping website is, the more likely you are to see traffic to your site. In fact, almost 33% of all clicks go to the first organic search result, according to a 2013 study. Search even outperforms social media by as much as 300%, ranking it number one driver of Internet traffic. The largest and most popular of the search engines is Google, processing more than 1.2 trillion searches annually, and the figure is growing. Most B2B marketers (57%) agree that in terms of lead generation search has the biggest positive impact. Having a website that is optimised for search means you can grab part of the 75% stake in search traffic that SEO offers. From camping websites to website design for bed and breakfast establishments, no tourism site can ignore the importance of a good digital presence optimised for search.