You have a holiday let, maybe more than one.
You try to promote it as best you can. Perhaps you have listing site adverts and social media accounts, the latter being used to direct people to your ads, both with the aim of getting your business ‘out there’. To gain enquiries. To get that calendar filled.
But you don’t have your own dedicated website!
Maybe you think it’s too difficult – you’re not tech savvy enough.
Or maybe you’ve started the process of creating your own, but then stopped – never getting round to actually finishing it.
And you wouldn’t be alone.
Creating your own website can be daunting – where to start, how to start, what’s the best platform, and what information to include …
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
But what it often boils down to is procrastination.
Because does it really need to be so complex?
Actually, no.
There’s really only two steps.
Step 1. Getting started.
To get started, all you need is to decide on your website platform and your own unique domain name.
Then once you know which platform you’re using – a specialised website builder like PromoteMyPlace, WordPress or something else – that determines whether you need a separate host package.
But if you’ve been procrastinating about creating your own website, you probably want to keep things as simple as possible.
So with that in mind, you should probably stick with a specialised website builder. The major benefits of which are; the hosting’s already included, and you have access to a support team if you get stuck. Making it nice and easy for you to concentrate on the website itself, and not have to worry about any of the technical details.
Step 2. Building your website
With that done, you can start building your website.
Of course you don’t have to do this yourself. Depending on your budget, you could hire someone to create the site for you.
Or it’s possible that the website builder service you choose (if you go down this route) offers their own website creation service.
But it’s important to realise that neither of these options are necessary.
Because your website needn’t be complex. And you can do it yourself.
The essentials are:
- A homepage
- An accommodation details page
- A local area information page
- An availability and rates page(s)
- An enquiries page
After these, if you want to add more pages you can, or you can add pages later. This is the major benefit of having your own dedicated holiday rental website.
You’re in control.
Of course, there’s a little more to actually writing the content that will appear on your website.
The homepage, for example, requires some thought.
This is the page most people will arrive on when they first find your website. So you want to create impact. Get people interested enough to stick around, find out more, and ultimately make an enquiry.
You also need to have a bit of a wow factor.
And when it comes to holiday let websites, the easiest way to achieve that is through its photos.
Just remember – what’s the one main objective of your website?
To bring in enquiries.
So when building your website, that’s the only thing you need to consider.
If you focus on that, you’ll see that your website really doesn’t need to be all that complex.
It just needs to be:
- Clear
- Easy to navigate
- Informative
- Attractive
Stay simple – but get it done
97% of renters search for holiday rentals like yours online.
If you don’t have a website, likelihood is that your competitors do and they’re the ones that will get the bookings.
You can’t afford to continue procrastinating or thinking it’s outside of your capabilities.
It’s not.
For a winning website, simplicity is the key.
- Decide on the best platform to create your website on
- Purchase a memorable domain name
- Create the ‘essential’ content
- Include good quality photos
Then publish your website to the world.
Website – done.
You can add more content later.
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