Feb
22
2017
Great outfit, poor Alaskan web design, fewer customers
I’ve hiked, camped, trekked, photographed, and climbed all over the world.
I get how important word of mouth is for local businesses, and online reviews are for travelers. The reviews, communication, and pricing for adventures have always accounted for about half of my decision making.
But if great reviews and pricing don’t correspond to an equal online presence, that’s always a red flag.
Not that a Alaskan business’s internet presence needs to be cutting edge and eye popping – that would certainly help for internet marketing – but it needs to be:
- Visually appealing
- Informative (writing and visuals)
- Modern
Having an awesome Alaskan adventure outfit with a poor internet presence is like being a great fisherman with no fishing bate.
In more detail, here is why potential customers glance you over and move on.
1 – Poor SEO (customers don’t see you)
Lack of proper search engine optimization technique (SEO) The very first reason customers don’t choose your adventure outfit is that they never see you.
Search engines are extremely important:
If customers are searching for you – and I’m willing to bet that most of them are – and you don’t at least appear on the first page of a google search, then you are at a significant disadvantage.
2 – Poor Alaskan web design
We’ve all been here. We all do it.
You are searching for something. You click on a link and within 10 seconds you leave for one of the following reasons:
Why do we do this?
Credibility.
The first 10 seconds of landing on a webpage is the same thing as window shopping. You take a quick look, and if it doesn’t look tasteful, you move on.
3 – Not presentation of business style
We are talking about Alaskan adventure outfits. In other words:
- Nature
- Fun
- Equipment
- People doing things
All of this is shown through pictures and videos. Not text.
Great websites tell their business story visually.
4 – Poor visual content
And while there’s having pictures on your site, there’s having pictures on your site. Simply scattering small pictures across a website doesn’t really cut it.
Images should be:
- Big
- Purposeful
- Represent the best of your adventure outfit
Moreover, so few sites actually employ videos. This is huge. Videos account for 65% of all internet traffic.
Plus, creating promotional videos is easy and will set your visual content above the rest.
5 – Lack of quality web writing
I don’t just mean poo writing. I mean things like:
- Do you answer common questions?
- Are your services, packages, combos listed clearly?
- Are what you provide and what you expect clients to provide clearly listed?
I have observed time in time again that the most effective use of writing on a website is to answer practical questions. And it should always cater to lazy readers.
Which translates to purposeful, direct, and succinct writing.
6 – Dated Alaska web design
This is similar to poor websites – and for sure, dated websites tend to look like poor websites. But in this case, old websites tend to be:
- Cluttered
- Text heavy
- Not mobile friendly
In addition to ongoing maintenance, websites should be regularly updated – enough to stay modern, without undergoing total facelift.
7 – Not active on social media
This one’s easy. Social media is good to keep in touch with clients. It’s good for SEO.
It’s good for personalization.
But when businesses aren’t active or don’t have a social media site, I wonder if they are still in business.
Different outfits will have different demographics. Different demographics use social media differently.
Thus, businesses should also have different social media strategies for different platforms
8 – Look the same as any other Alaskan business
This is the silent killer. A business can have a modern, well presented website, with quality content, and everything else listed above.
That’s a cut above most, but that doesn’t always cut it.
There are other adventure outfits in Alaska who have followed similar internet marketing strategies, and who also have an integrated online presence.