The first step of the online booking process is making sure the end customer is comfortable with the website, booking software, and tour operator. This includes them trusting the site enough to enter their personal information (SSL certification) and as well as trusting that they will enjoy themselves on their tour or activity (social proof).

• SSL Certification
  • SSL (which stands for Secure Sockets Layer) is a form of security technology that makes sure that the data passing between a web server and your internet browser remains private. It’s what gives a website the “https://” prefix and lock icon in a browser window.
    • More information here.
  • SSL certification can impact SEO, make sure their page is secure.
    • More information here.

• Social Proof

  • Customer reviews are another way to improve customer trust. Highlight some of the great experiences customers have had with the client. Positive customer reviews will reinforce the end customer to complete their booking and ensure confidence that they will have a good time! For conversion purposes we want reviews accessible on the site as opposed to a customer leaving the site to read reviews elsewhere. Reviews should also have attributions to them which includes a source (tripadvisor, yelp, etc) and the name of the reviewer.

    

• High quality photos

  • High quality photos help show what the activity is about. On the site the photos should encourage people to want to experience your activity. If a customer clicks into a book form and the photo is blurry or grainy, it might deter them from completing the booking.

  • Include photos of people actually on the tour or doing the activity.

    

Site segmentation is the layout of the booking options that assists a customer in making a decision about what to book on the site. We want to make sure that the website is set up so it’s easy for the customers to find what they are looking for. This is also a great opportunity to highlight some of the most popular or best selling activities, which is likely what the end customer is coming to the site to find.

• Ideally, the best selling items are highlighted on the homepage of a website, giving the end customer an immediate idea of the best tours offered by that company. The leftover items should be well segmented so it’s easy for the end customer to find what they are looking for.

  • Run a Bookings by Item report to determine which items should be highlighted.
    • More information here.

  • GREAT EXAMPLE on homepage

    • Most popular items:

      

    • Segmented item categories:

      • Try to reduce the number of decisions a customer must make to a reasonable amount. Choosing between four categories is much easier than 16 items. Think about the decision axis that a customer would be considering when deciding between items. Are the items at different locations? Break up categories by location. Are some items tours and others rentals? Make two categories. One for tours and one for rentals.
      • Having category pages can also help sites rank higher for different keywords in Google. For example, a page dedicated to “Dolphin Tours in Key West” will generally rank higher than if they just had a couple of comments about it on a more general page.

      

Calls To Actions or CTAs are a great way to communicate next steps to customer, as well as remind them that they can book at any time online! Examples of CTAs are ‘Book Now’ or ‘Choose your activity’. Simple wording like this can make a huge difference when it comes to conversions. These are especially important when it comes to book buttons and booking links, making it clear where to click in order to start the booking process.

• Make sure the website and booking process have clear CTAs and book buttons.
  • For example, “Book Now!” or even “Choose a Location” (if site is segmented via location).
  • ‘Book a Rental’ instead of ‘Rentals’. Make sure your “calls to action” include an actual action/verb.
  • All sites should have some type of CTA above the fold on the homepage (encouraging people to book online, not call).

• Ensure buttons are contrasting and not hidden at the bottom of a page (especially on mobile).

  • Does the website past the “squint test”? If you squinted at the website, could you still make out the calls to action items?

  • Bad Example: this example has a clear CTA but the book button is hidden within the menus at the top of the site

    

  • Good Example: clear book button with a calls to action

    

• Is the booking process streamlined for ‘Mr. Midnight’?
  • Check out this blog post by maxi from 2017!

Making it as easy as possible for the end customer to find the information they are looking for is crucial. Having all of the information laid out in an absorbable manner on the site helps immensely with this. Optimized Activity Pages should provide all of the information the customer needs to book before they reach the book form. Otherwise you run the risk of having a potential customer leave the book form to search for more information.

• Make sure it’s easy to find answers to questions the end user might have. This will keep customers booking online instead of calling and asking questions.
  • Where is the company located?
  • What type of tours or activities do they offer?
  • Is it easy to see what each tour is about before clicking into it?

• Optimized Activity Pages

  • The activity page should contain all of the information necessary to qualify the customer before booking.
    • This includes Prominent Purchasing Info:
      • Start times
      • Price
      • Duration
      • Activity type
      • Age ranges
      • Etc

  

These days, everyone has a smartphone. A large portion of bookings occur through the mobile version of websites. Making sure the mobile version is optimized for online booking is key to converting those bookings. Google crawls the mobile site first, so if your website isn’t optimized for mobile, it will actually rank poorly for SEO. It’s critical for both online booking and SEO. There is NO reason not to have a mobile site in 2019.

• Make sure that the website is functioning properly and optimized for mobile devices.
  • Here is some more information on what that means:
    • Blog post about Mobile Optimization
    • Mobile-friendly tester

• Bad example:

  • It is very common for websites to not have a mobile friendly site. In the case below, the mobile website is the exact same as the desktop site which is not ideal for scrolling, reading, or clicking.

    

• Good example:

  • In the case below, the site has a designated format for mobile devices with clear book buttons and the text does not require zooming to read.

    

Desktop and Mobile device comparison

• How is the mobile conversion rate? Does mobile performance need to be optimized?
• How is the engagement rate on mobile compared to desktop?
• Any particular page that needs attention on mobile?

Acquisition > Traffic Acquisition & User Acquisition

• What channel brings the most traffic?
• Do you see any peak or valley in traffic on a channel?
• Which channel to focus our marketing efforts?
• Has organic traffic decreased compared to last year (YoY comparison)? If you see a decrease in traffic, focus on SEO.

Engagement > Pages & screen > Engagement rate & Average engagement time

• What is the overall website engagement rate and Average engagement time?
  • Does the website use segmentation for their items?
• What pages need to be optimized (Metrics: Low Engagement rate or short Engagement time or session conversion rate)?
• What are your top landing pages? Do you see your home page and activities pages as a landing page? (If not, it is a cause of concern)

Monetization > Ecommerce purchases

• What is your website conversion rate? Benchmark 2.4%
• What is your top performance product? Why is this product performing well?
• What products have poor performance? Why? What can you do to improve? (compare with top performing product)

User > Demographics details

• Who are your users?

• AM Portfolio

  • What is the online booking ratio?
  • What is the Lightframe conversion rate?
  • What is the potential of this client (Remaining BF)?
  • Are we above the BF revenue YoY?

• Metrics by Shortname

  • RB YoY Delta metric.
    • Is this client positively or negatively growing?
  • Online % and YoY difference.
    • Has the affiliate share increased?
    • Is there a shift to online? Has it improved?

• View Book Form Report (T2+)

  • Where are the drop offs in the bookform? Are the drop offs high?
  • What is the Completed CVR%? (Benchmark is based on the overall average the region)

• Item Funnel (Tier 4+ only)

  • Where are the drop offs in the booking funnel?
  • What items have the best VBF by Completed CVR%? Investigate why?
  • What items have the worst VBF by Completed CVR%? How can you optimize the book form?

Use the Chrome extension SEO Meta in one click:

• Do they have a good Meta Title and Meta Description for each important page?

Google your client’s company name.

• When they show up, ensure they’re taking advantage of SEO Best Practices.
• Do they have a Google Business page set up with the correct industry category?
• Do they have Google Things to do?

Run a report on Semrush.

• Run a competitor analysis.
• Do they have strong keywords on their website?
• How is their SEO?

FareHarbor Website– For clients who make >$5k in Booking Fees per year – stickiness factor for FH and proven to help grow online revenue, traffic and Booking Fees.

SEO Audit Available for clients on a FH site or non-FHS. Our goal is to drive more traffic, regardless of who owns the template.

FareHarbor Distribution Network – Allows FareHarbor businesses to resell each other’s tours and activities, as well as to have their tours and activities resold online through trusted reselling partners (HawaiianAirlines.com)

Custom Reporting For extended, automatic and customized reporting outside of the dashboard capabilities. Available for tier 4 and above (tier 3 if qualified and approved by manager and BI). This service should not be offered proactively.

Webinars Live webinars clients can attend to grow their business + learn about technical topics within the dashboard.

Compass This is a portal where clients can take courses to grow their business. Courses include topics such as conversion optimization, SEO, and digital marketing.

Software Partners – sell clients on one of the many partners who can assist with marketing and other conversion opportunities.

Social Media Creation – all clients should be represented on Facebook, Google My Business, Instagram and Trip Advisor. We can’t set these softwares up for them, but should encourage a presence on each software.