Websites have come along way. In fact, sites that once seemed ‘cutting-edge’ can now look old-fashioned. Take Google as an example, nowadays it’s slick, up to date and fresh – as you’d expect.
But even it had humble beginnings:
It looks pretty basic compared to how it is now, right!
Of course you could say this of most websites. The digital world evolves, so must websites evolve. As new technology comes to the forefront and changes are made to algorithms that help businesses be ‘found’ online, websites must make changes to keep up.
All of which begs the question: How up-to-date is your holiday let website? When was the last time it had a makeover?
Is it time for a change?
On the World Wide Web, things change fast.
Take a look at what your competition is doing – if your site looks a little stale by comparison, it could be time to change things up a bit.
There’s really no set amount of time that has to pass before you make changes.
You may look at your site one day and feel that it’s past its best. You might look at changes made by your competition and see how things could look better for your holiday let website as well.
Whatever the case may be, you always have the option to vamp things up a bit on your website. Particularly if you manage your own site – the perfect cost-effective solution as there’s no need to get a designer involved.
Changes – what to pay attention to
Depending on the website solution you’re using, you may be restricted by the changes you can make.
But regardless of the software, there are plenty of ways to vamp up your site to give it a fresh new look.
- Template & Colour Scheme
Why not try a different template – this will change the layout and formatting of your site. PromoteMyPlace allows you to do this change with a simple click of a button – no need to do any work yourself. All the content will automatically be placed in to the new template. Other website builders may work differently.
What about the colour scheme? Even if you’ve chosen blue from a branding perspective, there are different shades of blue you could try.
You may decide you don’t want to have such a fundamental change, and that’s okay. There are still plenty of ways to freshen up your site.
- Text
Your website’s text is fundamental – clearly. Especially when it comes to creating an effective homepage, describing your holiday rental property and grabbing the attention of your website visitors.
Equally, think about anything you’ve done to update your accommodation. New features. What’s you’ve spruced up. Any new entertainment. Updates to your welcome pack.
All these deserve a mention on your site.
Review the text across your entire site. If it can be formatted better, sharpened and finessed for easier reading, do it. It’s amazing what a few minor tweaks can do to benefit your business.
- Photos
We say it all the time here, but a picture really can speak a thousand words – good or bad, depending on the photo.
Do all of your photos really do your holiday let justice?
Are you making some of these common mistakes? Need a little professional advice?
Many websites make use of a scrolling image display at the top of their homepage. This is a fantastic piece of functionality, perfect for holiday let websites. It allows you to showcase your best images that entice the viewer to make an enquiry.
So take a look at ways you could jazz up the photos on your site to give it a whole new look.
On the other hand you may still be happy with your website – if it aint broken, don’t fix it, right.
Perhaps all that’s needed is a simple reorganisation, a new section or just a little polish. Take a look at your site and decide how significant an update it needs.
If in doubt…
Determine why you’re making a change.
If it’s just ‘because everyone else is doing it’, then don’t. Have a plan of what changes you’re going to make, why you’re going to make them and what the outcome of making them will be, then do them.
If you don’t know the answer to any of those points, leave it. Instead, carry out a full review of your website to make a decision about the why and how. And then get to work.
And remember, the most important thing is the performance of your website. Does it achieve what you want it to achieve? Could the results be better? What works and what doesn’t?
Your Google Analytics will be able to tell you all this and more. Check it out before making any changes. That way you’ll also be able to analyse how well it’s working after any changes too.
It’s only by using this type of data that you can truly work out whether it is time to give your holiday let website a makeover or not. Take a look at where you’re standing before doing anything too drastic.
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