In this age of the Internet, businesses are flocking to the web in order to attract as many customers as they can. As a casual consumer looking at a hotel or restaurant’s website, one business might seem as good as any other. Read this article to see how to set your business apart and encourage potential guests to choose you.
The Basics
1. Social media presence — It sounds obvious, but maintaining a social media presence is essential to increasing web traffic to your business. Also important is to include a link to an appropriate page on your website at the end of each post to make it easier for guests to see your website.
2. Visual components — If people like what they see online, they’ll want to see it in person. Posting professional images and videos of the goods and services your business offers will entice people to use your business.
3. Brand consistency across social platforms — Using the same handle across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will make your name easily recognizable to someone just learning about your business. When possible, avoid mixing handles like ‘XYZ Hotel’ and ‘Hotel XYZ City’, and opt for using one handle across all platforms.
4. Search Advertising — If you’re not familiar with the term, you’ve doubtless seen search advertising if you’ve ever Googled something. Search adverts are the links you see on a search engine results page (SERP) when you input a query for a good or service into a search engine. While a link to your business may appear on an SERP organically, search adverts guarantee your website will seen if someone searches the relevant terms. A benefit of search advertising is that you will not be charged for advertising unless someone clicks on the link, which is an attractive trait for any business.
5. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) — Search engines feature web pages that contain key words and phrases most closely matching the user’s query. In order to capitalise on this, think of what potential guests would search for, and create content that includes these words and phrases on your website. Besides through publishing posts with these words and phrases, a clever way to insert keywords on your site is by titling images with these phrases. Called metadata, these web page components, optimised with keywords, will improve the chances of potential guests viewing your website. For example, entitling an image with the words ‘brittany-france-seafront-hotel’, as opposed to using a generic series of letters and numbers, will increase the chances of a guest searching for those those terms coming across your website.
6. Visually-appealing, user-friendly website — As was mentioned before, attractive visuals captivate potential customers and draw them into your website. But not only does a well-made website look appealing — it reflects the value of your business. In this vein, a visually-appealing, user-friendly website instills a customer’s trust in your brand. Needless to say, a well-made website is a necessity in increasing public awareness of your business.
7. Mobile functionality — Also an important component of a successful online presence is ensuring your website has mobile functionality. With the rise of mobile phones and tablets, you’ll need to capitalise on the different ways people come across information. By building a website that has mobile functionality, you are casting a wider net and making it easier for potential customers to patronise your business.
8. Banner advertising on relevant websites — Investing in banner adverts for your business on relevant web pages will increase traffic to your website. It is important to only advertise on pages that relate to your brand, lest your business’s resources be wasted on marketing that has no return. For example, a hotel near Snowdonia would do well to advertise on a page offering hiking tours of the area, while the same hotel would see less benefit in advertising on a website promoting London museums.