• Spring 2009 Newsletter Home
• It is Time for Some Spring Cleaning!
• Prep Your Site for Tourism Season
• BigforkWEB Services

According to the US Travel Association, 67% of men and 65% of women online planners do half or more of their trip planning on the internet.

This means that if you are a business that hopes to do well in the tourist season, you should have a website that helps your tourists plan their trip. Post your rates, menus, activities, services and display your contact information so that it is easy to find. Think about investing in online booking and online reservations for user convenience.

If you sell a product, get a shopping cart on your website and let your summer customers know that you sell your products online in case they want to purchase more from you in the off-season months.

It is wise to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to help online planners find your website. Learn more about SEO.

Work on making your website a social place where clients who have experienced your product/service can talk about it. Allow them to upload video and photos and tell stories of the great time they had with their family at your lodge or the amazing experience they had at their wedding reception at your restaurant. If you have the time to invest in monitoring the comments and are prepared to play some public relations if a bad comment appears, the fastest and cheapest way to create a community of shared experiences is to create a Facebook account.

Get your website out in the community:

• Become a member of your local chamber of commerce and get a link to your website from their website member listing.
  
  
• Make sure to add your website url on your print ads to direct people to your website for more information.
  
  
• Your url should be on your business cards.
  
  
• Get your website linked on popular travel blogs and quality niche directory listings.
  
  
• Think about pay-per-click ads and online advertisements.
  
  
• If you have a brick and mortar establishment, make sure your address is in Google business listing to appear on Google Maps.
  
  
• Make video advertisements and post them on YouTube and Yellowbook.com.
  
  
• Get involved in social networking.