Getting your website right
Getting your website right is perhaps one of the key marketing things you have to do in the 21st Century.
For self-caterers, the old adage about a picture being worth a thousand words is true and if you get nothing else right, make sure you include the best possible pictures of your property and plenty of them. Your website does not have to be complicated or sophisticated – customers are looking for a holiday home not a web designer. It should of course be:
- Easy to navigate
- Informative
- Accurate
- Informative – yes we meant to repeat that!
It goes without saying that a website should tell the truth and that means the up-to-date truth so don’t show pictures of what it used to look like if things have changed. Being informative means thinking of everything that a potential visitor might want to know and including it. Never say “call us/email us for more information”. If you have some more information, then publish it. Some things you should include in almost every case:
- Location information
- Description of the property
- Description of the surrounding area
- Details of the amenities
- Information about telephone, Wi-Fi, mobile reception
- Your access statement (for disabled people)
You may also want to include some general tourist information about the area. This may be more important in a rural area than if you are in the middle of Manchester. In an urban area visitors are likely to know a bit more already and there are loads of other websites to look at but they may be less familiar with the joys of an isolated village.
Make sure that you do not let yourself down by errors of spelling, grammar, or punctuation. If you use an apostrophe to denote a plural it sends a message that you are either not very bright, or that you don’t care enough about attention to detail to get it right. The Apostrophe Protection Society website is a good guide if you are unsure. Similarly, be careful to avoid common misspellings and grammar errors. The differences between your, you’re, and yore matter.
Photographs are really important. Anyone can take average pictures with a mobile ‘phone these days but you need outstanding pictures and if you are not really good with a camera yourself, it may pay you to get a professional in.