6 Tips for a Killer Season Next Year

If you’re a fishing charter, excursion company, or marine based business you know simply having a website isn’t enough. Your site must be optimized correctly to ensure you’re discoverable online. Plus if you want to generate more bookings we have 6 killer tips to make sure you maximize the reach of your website and drag in all those customers you are potentially missing!

1. Ensure your website is responsive.
   For those of you unaware, ‘responsive’ is internet terminology for ‘responds to what device you’re browsing on – desktop, smartphone or tablet’. If your website isn’t responsive, you are quite possibly losing money as Google has begun penalizing those sites that aren’t mobile friendly. If your site looks good on a smartphone – great. If not, give us a ring (or email) to see what your options are ASAP.
2. Keep your customers updated with a blog or fishing reports.
   There was a time when you could load your website with keywords and your website would be found by search engines. And while this is still a good tactic, it is more successful when you have a blog or fishing reports that you update regularly. Google’s algorithm has changed and if you don’t have a content strategy you’re going to find it hard to have/keep a web presence. With a blog or fishing reports you tailor content for certain search terms, keep your customers updated with the latest news, position yourself as the authoritative voice in your area, the list goes on.
3. Include a call to action.
   This might seem an obvious one, but the amount of websites that don’t include a ‘Book now’ button is alarming. There is eve software that enables easy online bookings – something that we can provide. Once you have this in place you can manage your availability in real-time, accept online payments and more.
4. Is your website optimized for search engines?
   Just because you have a website doesn’t necessarily mean it is going to be brought up on the first page of Google, Yahoo or Bing. To be found, your website needs to be optimized for search engines. To do this you need to ensure you’ve thought about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) when building it. Think about what search terms you want to rank for. Then make sure your website has these keywords in all the right places. At Charternet, we have a powerful set of SEO tools to help you reach more potential customers.
5. Make it shareable.
   Today people multi-task! While they’re reeling in the big catch or stumbling upon a beautiful waterfall in their kayak, they’re Instagramming, Tweeting, or Facebooking. Therefore who is to say when they are reading about your business, that they won’t share it. Make sure you make you site, offers and images easily shareable by integrating social media.
6. Respond to analytics.
   High bounce rates, abandoned shopping carts? Learn what is working and what isn’t on your site. A huge part of any online marketing strategy is analysis so you can judge if your efforts are working or not. At Charternet, we study the findings from Google Analytics and AdWords campaigns and help you make adjustments just where you need to.

Follow these tips and your website will rank better, generate more traffic and ultimately more bookings to make next season your most successful one yet!