17% of small businesses build websites to showcase credibility and boost authority. To support this, they noted that 50% of consumers judge a company's credibility based on its website design.
Hence, it is evident that your travel website design is more than just a web presence. This will be a growth engine for your travel company.
A website will work as an information hub for your business. So, whenever the prospects need more information to trust your organization, they can check out the 'About Us' section to learn more. The 'Contact Us' section will help them directly reach out to you to resolve their doubts.
Yes, a social media page can deliver those details. However, they can't showcase your brand's value, just as an owned media platform like a website does.
Building a website for a travel business can have numerous advantages, including boosting direct bookings, enhancing customer engagement, and offering convenience to your customers.
Whatever the goal, you have to do it right! That's why you need this guide to the best travel websites design!
Travel Website Design : The Right Way to Get it Done
Importance of a Professional Website for Travel Agencies
We have seen how companies grow faster with a customized website. Well, the reasons are not exactly the same in every case. Some companies need to expand their online presence, while others aim to establish a brand identity to secure a stronger market position.
Let’s check out what are the possible benefits you can achieve with a travel agency website design.
Enhance Online Presence
A website is basically a 24/7 storefront. The prospect of any of your packages visiting the website can be accessed at any time. It will be more like friends discussing travel plans and comparing tour plans over coffee. And the best part is it does not have to be time-bound.
Work as a Marketing Tool
A tourism website can be your tour company’s best marketing buddy! Have you ever thought out this? Well, all PPC, SEO and even social media marketing strategies revolve around a single thing: driving more customers. The website will serve as the core channel through which these relevant channels can feed, and it can further process the leads towards conversion.
Boost Relationships with Clients
A travel website design can incorporate various features tailored to specific needs. It may include blog sections, newsletters, and a photo gallery. Travel vlog/podcast, live chats. You can stay connected with your existing clients or prospects by leveraging each feature in conjunction with an appropriate online marketing strategy.
Build Trust
Earlier, we mentioned how people nowadays judge a company’s credibility based on its online presence. When people submit doubts, receive replies, or see honest reviews and detailed itineraries on the website. They perceive a positive sign. It helps them to trust!
Showcase Value
A website will be a unique platform for your company. There, you can showcase your stance on your competitors. Those pictures, goal-aligned copies, unique offers, and package comparisons will reflect the expertise and value!
Drive Direct Booking
Best travel websites design feature integrated tools. These unique tools often create the convenience of easy booking. When customers can reserve directly with your packages without paying a platform fee, it enhances satisfaction even before they actually start the tour.
How to Make a Travel Agency Website?
Are you ready to attract more travellers – who are excited to get lost in the unknown? Then get started with this step-by-step guide as follows:
Conduct the Necessary Research
Do the groundwork first through research? To find out whom you make, visit your website. Reveal their behavioral pattern when they search online. Gain deeper insights into your target niche through thorough market research. Your research should include understanding the target, decoding competitor strategy, and their business USP. This can serve as your guide for what you should do and what you shouldn’t. The research will also give back to every plan you will take up to grow your market reach,
Get a Domain Name
Pick a domain name for your tourism agency website. This should reflect your brand’s identity and niche. You can choose a URL inspired by your tourism agency. This will be a masterstroke to keep your travel agency memorable in the minds of your target customers.
Design a Brand Logo
Get a professional-looking brand logo. This will set the tone of your brand. Both the relevant domain name and a relevant brand logo have a powerful impact on people. Your targeted prospect begins to recognize the brand. A growing influx of people seeking adventure trails will compare your tourism packages.
Plan the UX, Layout, and Website Structure
The UX and the website structure will be the stage where you can outplay your competitors. The real game starts from this stage! Think like your visitor and visualize what pages they will land on first? How will they find booking options? How will they compare the plan and packages? Plan how users will navigate your travel agency website as per.
We suggest sketching a basic layout that includes a homepage, tour listings, an about section, a contact form, and a booking page. Keep the design clean and mobile-friendly.
Add Website Pages and Plan Content
Now, start with the essential pages. Remember, a high-quality home page or landing page is a must for a travel website design. This will keep your customers engaged for a longer period. Next, decide on the other vital pages one by one. This may include the 'About us,' 'Contact us,' 'Blog,' 360-degree view gallery, 'FAQ,' 'Terms and Policy' pages, etc.
However, ensure that every page serves the purpose of guiding the customer every step of the way toward making a booking.
Include High-Quality Visuals
Every website serves a different purpose as its industry demands. The same thing happens with your travel websites. Think of them just like travellers; take note of what attracts them more. Of course, it is a break from a monotonous life!
They love to make visual decisions. What stimulates their curiosity and fear of missing out sells more.
Hence, it is profound that your website for your travel business should boast best-in-class visuals. This can include travel videos, enhanced pictures, or anything that creates social proof or reflects visual appeal.
Integrate Third Party Tools
The era of basic travel website designs has just gone! To be honest, this will only work as a brochure-not as a platform to drive attention, engagement, and new leads.
To make a site more interesting, third-party integration is inevitable. They will make your website more functional, appealing, and a favourite of prospects.
For example, an advanced booking plugin, live chat for quick customer support, and Google Maps integration. Integrating them with an advanced API will give your website a significant boost!
Quality Assurance and Testing
It’s time for a thorough review of what you've built so far. In our terms, we refer to it as QA Testing. What does this mean? QA testing is more like inspecting the final product. This includes functionality testing, checking for glitches, and testing security and performance. The aim is to re-check whether the final product is ready to achieve its goal.
Go Live
The website development process has now come to a close. After the website gets the signal from the QA testing team, it’s all set for the launch. Although we never explicitly state it, website maintenance is a continuous process.
Start Marketing Efforts
Now, make your website visible to prospects with marketing efforts. There are numerous ways to approach SEO, PPC, social media marketing, and other digital marketing strategies. If you have a limited budget, we recommend hiring an SEO expert. In the long run, your business will be beneficial.
Dos and Don'ts for Building a Successful Travel Website
To build the best travel website design, you must have to well acquire some do' and don't. They include:
Do's of Travel Website Design
Begin with the SEO Research
Before you even start designing, know what your audience is searching for. Begin the journey with the SEO research. First, identify your target keyword and note which websites are ranked for that phrase. Now, after narrowing down the options to 3-4 competitor websites, analyze their design, user experience, keyword mapping, website architecture, and other relevant factors.
Implement a Site Map
Getting a site map on your travel website is vital. With this, the search engine can easily navigate your site from the landing page to each and every indexable page. This will enhance your SEO ranking and increase your website's visibility to potential prospects.
Keep a Content Plan as Handy
Great travel websites are rich in destination guides, blogs, photos, and tips. So, plan your content calendar ahead. Once you have a website structure, you can easily determine what pages you will need, how many blogs you should write, and what visuals you should create. Write helpful content on every page that customers can ask for or search for. And include your keywords strategically throughout the pages. This will make your content consistent, relevant, and highly engaging.
Don't Travel Website Design
Never Invest in a Poor Booking System
The booking system is the heart of every travel web design. It impacts website SEO while also being crucial to enhance the website's usability. If you want to try cutting costs by getting a bad booking system, you will lose the trust. Probably, the customer will never come back.
Don't Ignore a well Planned Internal Link Building
Internal links make your website more engaging to your audience and help search engine bots crawl the relevant site, which brings quality leads. So, never ignore this step. It will be more like content planning. Planning content and anchor text involves passing link juice from high-ranked pages to hard-to-find pages and blogs.
Avoid overuse of Plugins and JavaScripts
While plugins and JavaScript elements can add cool features, too many can slow your site down , especially on mobile. Slower sites result in a poor user experience, which in turn increases the bounce rate. Outdated plugins can also make your travel website vulnerable to various security risks.
Need a High Performing Travel Website Design? We can Help!
TTC has years of experience in web development. We help enterprises, small businesses, and local businesses as well. Our team specializes in building fast, mobile-friendly, and SEO-optimized travel websites. We ensure it attracts visitors, guides them seamlessly, and converts them into happy customers.
We aim to help travel and tourism companies:
- Reach more customers online
- Provide an effortless user experience
- Turn visitors into booking
Do you need more information on how we can assist you? Feel free to reach out today! You can also book a free consultation call!