How your website should look 2019

Okay, welcome back. This is an updated version of how your website should be looking in 2019, 2020. So this is an updated version. I wanted to clear up a couple of things that were on my last video. My last video I went really heavy on vertical one page design websites. The terminology of what I used has definitely been misinterpreted. So I wanted to clear it up and just explain it a little bit more because I know this is a really big topic. Direct bookings is your website. Why is it so important? Well, number one is the first place that a potential guest will go to. If they want to find out more about you, they will go to your website. And you've got to treat your website like it is somebody stepping in to your property for the first time. When someone steps into your property, you want them to know exactly what you're all about, where they need to go to. And they can't get lost or confused because if they get lost or confused, then it's a real bad first impression. And that is exactly the same thing with your website. The unfortunate thing about your website though is that they've got no commitment. So at this point, if they get lost or confused or they aren't so sure about you, they'll leave. And when they leave your website, they never come back. A really nice add on to this video would be a webinar that I did where I Discuss the top 10 ways that your current website could be killing your direct bookings. You can go and purchase that from the Boostly Shop. If you're a Boostly Academy member. That is in the vault. You get that for free as part of your package. If you're not a Boostly Academy member, go to boostly.co.uk shop. Okay, so let's go into this. Now this is a random website that I have picked out for from potentially a thousand that I could have used. I'm not saying that this in particular website is the worst out there, but there are definitely some things that we can spot. And I guarantee there'll be at least one person watching this who will have made exactly the same errors for their website. So let's just first of all go over some of the telltale signs and then I'll show you two websites that are doing this really well. So first things first, when your website loads up, there's either going to be one of three ways that somebody is visiting it via a desktop or a laptop, which is what the view I've got now via a tablet which is about that size, or a Mobile phone, which is that size. Now, the first thing you have to do with your website, you have to make sure that your page, your website is built mobile first. Now what does that mean? It means that it is built with mobile phone in mind. Ten years ago, five years ago, 15 years ago, build it for a desktop laptop. But now it is all about mobile. The reports and the results and the surveys are there. The majority of people now start their search for a potential staycation, a workplace payment or a vacation on their mobile phone. Funny enough, the majority of people that actually complete the booking is done on a computer. So if we think about this in realistic terms, they may be on the bus, on the train, on the couch, at work, in the bar, in a pub or whatever, at a restaurant, on a day out and they're looking for places they may like it, they may send it to a partner or a friend or a family member to say, shall we book it? When it comes to the actual booking, they'll then do it on a computer. If you've watched my five stages of a guest booking process video in the training, you will know that research is right at the very start and it is the most crucial part because if you get this wrong, then they'll leave. Now, why am I using this as an example? Well, number one, as you can see, I've reduced it to the size of a screen of a phone and the website hasn't adjusted with me. So to get to anything, I've got to scroll left and scroll right and people don't do this, people get annoyed, people will leave. Okay? If you give them any excuse to leave, they will do so. Please don't do that. So number one, make sure that is built for the website. If we were to just very quickly compare it to one that is doing it right, Let me just show you how this looks like in a desktop or a laptop, full screen. And as you can see as I'm minimizing, the website is being responsive and it's minimizing as well. So at the top, as you can see here, the menu option, but when we minimize it, it builds it in, so it's for a mobile phone. So these are tappable by your thumb or your finger at the bottom of the screen. And again, it's adjusted for this so there's no having to scroll right or left. Let me just quickly come back into this website. The number two most important thing is you've got to make it stupidly simple how to book with you as soon as, as someone lands on the Website. So this is what we call in the Internet world above the fold. So this is what the first thing a guest will see. So before they start scrolling down, this will be what they see. And again, there's some really crucial things that are missing here. Number one, the picture. I wouldn't say that this is this hotel's most unique selling photo usp. I can pretty much guarantee that the interior of here is what would sell it. It's an 18th century home in Yorkshire. I guarantee the decor and the interior is what would set it. The four poster beds, a picture of a brick building. Although it's nice with the gravel pathway, it's not what sells this property to me. And again, what's missing is a tagline. If we again we circle back to Cliff House Bed and breakfast. Done. Right, Newquay, Cornwall, the Laurels Bed and Breakfast, your B and B near Alton Towers. Straight away, as soon as you land on this website, there are some clear indicators that they know exactly who their target audience are. With Wrangham House we don't get that. Secondly, quick looking at these pictures, these websites, top right hand corner, big book direct button which stands out on the laurels. We've got bright button here saying book online here. Although it is in the right place, top right hand corner, it's merged in and it looks bland. And amongst everything else this needs to be a really distinct button that really stands out. Reason why is at the top right hand corner is is the buying zone of every website. It's why Amazon or every website like that has a checkout button in the top right hand corner. When a website loads up, it's where our eyes get naturally drawn to. If you want to find out a bit more of an intense session on this about this, go and check out on Google StoryBrand the 5 second rule from Starrybrand and and it goes into this a lot more detail. But what's really clear I can give you in a simplistic less than 10 second version. Get your book now button. Get your book direct button. Get in the top right hand corner and make sure it stands out with a nice button. We want to make it so clear on where a guest needs to go to. We want someone to land on here and click on to book straight away. Yes, they can scroll down and find out more but we want people to come on here, click check availability, Clickbook direct and go and book. The more that they have to think about it, the more they'll talk themselves out of it. It's just simplistic with this, it's not clear, it doesn't stand out. And again, we want it to be really, really stood out. Now, the main thing that I want to show you here is this page, okay? You scroll down, there's a little bit of wording, that's it. And there's a massive blank bit of space here. Now, the reason why these two websites are the ones that I'm showing you is that you've got to have it where 80% of your website's information is on the homepage. Now, I'm not saying have a one page vertical website. What I'm saying is because we've now got to build these websites for mobile phones. We've got got to make sure that 80% of our website's information is on the homepage. Now, if you look at the laurels B and B, I'm scrolling down, it's got lovely icons. Check availability, about the breakfast, about why you should book direct about Alton Towers, a video. It's got about the rooms, it's got the individual rooms, how you can go and book them. It's got the guest reviews, which I'll circle back to. It's got certificates, it goes on for a lot. Well, this is because when you're on a mobile phone, you're not always going to have the best Wi Fi. You may have 3G or 4G and the more you've got to make somebody move from page to page, then there may be a chance that it may take more than five seconds to load. Now the stats are at the moment is that if your website takes longer than three seconds to load and it's getting shorter, if yours haven't got a lightning fast website, then you are going to lose a very large majority of the people that try and find out your website. Because we live in an age now where our attention spans are an all time low with Amazon prime and Netflix and YouTube and just information just being thrown at us in an instant. If your website doesn't instantly load and doesn't instantly give the information that they want, they will leave. And when they leave, they go to booking.com, tripAdvisor, Expedia, Airbnb. Now you can hope that they go to airbnb booking.com and still book with you. But as soon as they leave your website, they don't come back. And as soon as they go to tripadvisor or booking.com they are peppered with alternatives to you. So if you can learn how to turn your website into a mousetrap, how you can turn Lookers into bookers. Then this is how you will increase your direct bookings. Let's just circle back to what Phil at the Laurels does so well. There's a lot of key things that you need to do here. Number one, instantly talk to your ideal guest. They know they're near Alton Towers. The majority of people will be looking to book near Alton Towers. They've got that in the tagline. I would put even your perfect B and B. Just really sell it. Very clear book online. Lovely, simple icons, family rooms, breakfast included, close to Alton Towers. Scroll down here a little bit about the hosts, which is great. Obviously you can click on here to go and find out more resources, etc. But the majority of the information is right here. Icons, all important icons. Now why are icons important? People relate and they can easily skim read icons. Now instead of having a big block of text where you're talking about your WI fi, just by seeing that icon, people will know what you're talking about. Icons are free. You can get them in your WordPress website. Your themes that you use. If you go to the hospitality community Facebook group, type in the search bar icons. Becky Cannon. There's actually a lady who offered up her services where you could buy a template pack of icons if you wanted something a little bit more bespoke to you. But for the main, you can get them free on the Internet. You can even get free emojis. Icons, Emojis, they're both the same, but the reason why they're beneficial is people can skim read them. So I can instantly see and I can focus on what I look out for. My eyes are naturally drawn to air conditioning, naturally drawn to free parking, free WI fi, free toiletries. I love that. Breakfast options. It's clear why is it best to book direct. Fantastic. The main thing that people look for now let me just scroll down here very quickly. Is this the social proof? Now a lot of you, I guarantee, are just copy and paste in reviews from, say, TripAdvisor or wherever and you're just putting it on your website. People don't trust them. People think that you have just written them. Sorry, so what they'll do. One of the main reasons why someone will leave your website, even if you've got to this stage, is that there is no social proof. There's no reviews. That's why people go to TripAdvisor. That is why 92% of all people booking will still go and look for a review. And the majority of them are still going to TripAdvisor. So what you need to do, this is called Repurso R E P U s o costs $9 a month. It brings in and filters in just your five star reviews from all of the websites that you're listening on, including the social medias. But what it means is that you can lay it out in a nice grid style, it can be scrolling, it can pop up in the bottom left hand corner of your website if you like, but it brings in real time reviews of your 5 star reviews. So it just knocks any barriers down for why someone wouldn't go, yeah, I'm going to stay here. This is a place I want to go to. And they do really well by even adding to that their awards that they've won. So TripAdvisor awards, BNB average rating, LGBTQ awards, tourism awards, all of that. It's fantastic that it is in there. And again, we can scroll down, we can see the Instagram. It's a perfectly put together website. So this is what I mean by 80% of the information on the homepage of your website. And these are the clear things that I always look for. And when I do my marketing reviews, I'd say 70% of the time it falls down on here. One of the major things that you need to do as well is you need to put your story in here. The About Us page is the second most visited page on every website, not just hospitality. So what you need to do is you need to make sure that you have your story on there. So again, we're coming back to Rhea and Dom. Why did you move to Cornwall? What made you do it? What do you like about it? What is your favorite things to do? Get this across on the About Us page and get a picture of you. Now the reason why people come and stay in our hospitality business is compared to going and staying at faceless organizations like Travel Lodge or Marriott is because they like the hospitality aspect of it. For guest house owners, there is not a more sociable business out there than literally letting strangers come and live with you in your house. They are going to get to know you, you're going to see them at breakfast, you're going to see them all the time. So why not make your website as sociable as what you want? You have to be. So get that across in your website. And again, you keep people coming back and you'll keep people on your website to the point of booking. Now there's a lot of people probably watching this thinking, well, I don't know how long it takes for my website to load I don't know if my website is mobile friendly. I don't know where people go on my website. Well, there's a couple of free tools that you can use. Number one, tools.pingdom.com really fantastic website. You can test the speed of your website. You can see what is making your website load slower than usual and how you can fix it. The main thing you need to do when you're testing from, make sure you're testing it from the nearest country to where you are based. It just means that this test is a lot more realistic. So you just copy and paste your domain, put it in there. Another website you can go to to see if it is mobile friendly, grab your domain, put it in there. But the easiest, simplest way, come onto a desktop or computer, load it up and drag it. And if it doesn't optimize with it, then you know that it's not mobile friendly again. So what I recommend that you do is run those two free tools. The third one is called Google Analytics. Google Analytics. I've got a totally separate training video on this. It shows you how many people come to your website, where they go on your website and how many people leave your website and on what page they leave it. It's a fantastic free bit of kit. So many people don't utilize it. The Google Analytics training I've got will show you all of this, but most importantly it will show you which websites, listing sites, social media sites, send the most traffic to your website. One thing I will say, total disclaimer. This Cliff House, Newquay is a boostie website. This is one that we did create for him, for Ria. But one thing that I would say is that if you would like to find out more about boostly website boostly.co.uk websites there's two options that I do. It's done for you where we can literally take care of everything and we create a website for you that is made so it can double your bookings, direct bookings, always diy. So again we create the theme for you. We give you 90% of the structure and all you have to do is fill in a form. Fill in a form and on the other end comes a website like this which is totally bookable and looks great. Everything is on the Boostly website. For that I also recommend Fill. Fill actually helps other hospitality owners design websites as well. So if you want some, a little bit more than a boothie website website, then Phil will be the person to chat to. Again, you can come onto here. He's part of the hospitality community. He's part of the Boothly Academy. You can send him a message on the Facebook and he'll be more than happy to get back to you. So you've got options. My main thing that I would get for you to look out for. Number one, make sure that when someone lands on your website above the fold within five seconds, the guest, potential guest, knows who you are, where you are, what you do and how they can block. If you haven't got that, you can change that literally instantly. Number two, make sure that it is mobile friendly, make sure it's built for mobile and finally, make sure that 80% of your information is on the homepage of your website. Don't have big blanks of space like this because it will just turn people away. If you have any further questions, please reach out to me. Markoostie.co.uk Go to boostly.co.uk shop where you can find that full webinar 10 ways how your website could be killing your direct bookings if you want to find out more about The Booster website booster.co.uk website thank you so much for watching. I hope this has shed a bit more light into how your website should look. If you would like for me to have a look at your website to give you a full marketing review, go to booster.co.ukmarketingreview you can book one in. I will take a look at your website, I will take a look at all of your marketing and I will create for you a bespoke plan that will get you bookings in the short, medium term. Thank you so much for watching.