Step-by-step guide to improving your boat rental website
Whether you are just starting out as a boat rental company or looking to expand your business, a website is pivotal to your success. After reading our step-by-step guide on how to start a boat rental company, you might be wondering how to set up a website for the boating market. A clear website with the right information will immediately make you stand out from the competition. To help you with the right design, we’ve come up with a list of all the essentials in a step-by-step guide.
The beginning
Choose your starting point
Ready to get started on your boat rental website? First things first. You can either build the website yourself using WordPress or Squarespace, or outsource the setup process to a specialized company. Outsourcing can save you a lot of time and get you the website of your dreams, but the downside is that it can get really expensive really fast if you let your excitement run away with you.
If you have time, opt to build the website yourself. We recommend Squarespace because it is so easy to use, but if you’re a bit more technically inclined WordPress is a great platform to reduce your costs.
Define your audiences
Take a moment to truly think about
your audience and be sure to offer all the information they will need.
Your customers, potential customers, members and staff will all want
to quickly find the information that is relevant to them. Expecting both
local and international clients? Consider writing your webpages in
multiple languages. You’ll need to find a balance between general
information and selling your service, and a great way to do so is by
sharing customer experiences.
Optimize
Website Structure
Guiding your audience straight to the information they’re seeking requires a simple, logical website structure. Think about the key parts of your service. This will most likely be pricing, how to book, a contact page, catering or additional services, as well as user experiences. Optimizing website structure will boost customer confidence and save you having to answer the same questions over and over again.
On-Page SEO:
What are your customers searching for?
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Which keywords will they search for when they are looking to rent a boat? This is how you can draw them to your website. Mastering SEO (search engine optimization) will optimize traffic. You’ll need to use these keywords as often as possible by putting them in your headlines, image filenames and meta descriptions.
Aim to be the first search result on Google, but remember not to overdo it or your website will look as if it has been written by a robot, which may not inspire confidence! A great tip is to link internally to other pages on your website that might be interesting for visitors, which both helps potential customers find the information they need and boosts SEO.
Sales
Call to action
One of our biggest bumps in sales is actually simple to achieve. Give all website visitors an obvious way to start your booking process without having to scroll down. Make sure this is also the case on mobile devices.
The human eye is drawn to contrasting colors, so optimize this fully on your pages. Once the reservation process begins, be sure to keep it as easy as possible. Let’s book software is optimized specifically to do this! And only ask for information that is absolutely necessary to secure a booking.
“From website visitor to an actual sale; Let’s book made it easy for us.”
Maintain an online presence
Thought social media was just for influencers? Think again! Online
marketing is a great way to both reach new customers and connect
with existing customers and members. Offer your current clientele a
way to subscribe to your social media and newsletter and notify them
of every new deal or special discount.
Use social media to continuously inspire customers to use your
services. Need some guidance in this process? We’ve written a blog
on the use of social media for your boat rental company to help you
out!
Search Engine Advertising
Advertise, advertise, advertise
Now your company and website are up and running, it’s time to spread the word and enlarge your customer base. Ready to up your game? Start advertising with Google ads. Because your website has been optimized, the bump in traffic will result in a bump in sales. Monitoring the exact value of your ads to decide where to increase your budget for the highest return can be tricky. This is where Let’s book software is pure genius. Learn what Let’s book can do for you!
