Must-have Elements for a Visitor Attraction Website

At Agility, we build effective, impactful, and future proofed visitor attraction websites. In this blog, we will be sharing our top 10 ‘must-haves’ for all leisure websites; relevant to all attraction types, whether you are a zoo, theme park, farm park or scream park.

1. Pay attention to website load speed

Load speed remains a paramount marketing challenge for all visitor attractions. In the realm of leisure, we understand that a single picture or video can convey a thousand words, leading to a delicate balance between load times and design aesthetics.

With mobile data, people are less patient having to wait for web pages to load.

You will notice websites like McDonalds have simplified their web design; a lot of this is to do with mobile load speed.

It’s worth using the free Google PageSpeed Tool to find out how your load time compared with other local leisure attractions. Called PageSpeed Insights the results you will get back include two measures; one that is based on actual data of users on your website and the other based on a computer learning tool, called Lighthouse.

From our analysis, we’ve found V&A Museum of Design and Caernarfon Castle boasts one of the sector’s top load speeds, it’s surprising to discover that certain other sizable visitor attractions, despite their substantial budgets, suffer from poor load times.

The Google PageSpeed tool offers insights into optimising your website. There are straightforward techniques to enhance load times, including image compression, browser caching, lazy loading content and streamlining code.

2. Balance information with value messaging

You want to ensure information can be found easily but it is also important that visitors comprehend the value they receive in exchange for the price. Having a potential visitor merely visiting the pricing page without exploring further may hinder their understanding of the full value proposition.

As a visitor attraction specialist, we know the KPI’s across the sector. From monitoring over 20 different attraction’s analytics, we know people are willing to visit an average of 3.87 website pages. That is 2.3 pages more than your pricing page. If you are getting less than this, you are missing an opportunity.

The customer journey should facilitate easy access to factual information on your site and you can enhance this with subtle sub-messages and internal links to other web pages. These may include details about upcoming events, social proof via testimonials, the diverse range of attractions available, or any discounts offered for online bookings. Such additions serve to reinforce visitors’ decision to explore and ultimately visit your attraction.

3. Maintain website build independence.

To build your website, you have many different options.

For every website developed by Agility, our consistent recommendation is WordPress, a platform utilised by 43.3% of all websites worldwide.

With an experienced web developer, WordPress can do virtually anything. The biggest benefit is that it gives you access to a huge collection of integrations with third party software such as Mailchimp and has over 58,000 free plug-ins that can give you powerful functionality for minimal outlay. Other similar platforms (which collectively are known as open source) include Joomla or Drupal but after the website has been built, their content management systems are a bit trickier to use. It’s also harder to find web developers well versed in Joomla or Drupal. Web-building sites like Shopify and Wix are often limited in functionality but fine for a very small business.

While some developers offer their custom-built systems that can perform as effectively as WordPress, opting for such systems comes with a caveat. You may find yourself locked into their ecosystem, meaning that if you decide to switch developers, you’ll be required to start from scratch with a new website. Due to these limitations, we strongly advocate for WordPress, which provides you with the freedom to choose and the flexibility to switch developers without the need for a complete website overhaul.

4. Include clear call to actions.

Prior to building the website you should be clear about your primary and secondary call to actions. Primary calls to action, such as links to ‘buy ticket’ pages, should be strategically placed throughout the site to accommodate different information absorption styles. These calls to action should be seamlessly integrated within paragraph text, on promotional buttons, and on sticky elements—messages that persist in the same location regardless of the user’s scrolling activity.

Secondary call to actions will vary for each attraction and at various times of the year. You should build into your website different ways of including these important sub messages through promo boxes and widgets.

5. Consider content and functionality first.

I t is easy to get carried away with impactful designs. Before you let your designer’s creatively loose, you should develop wireframes. Wireframes provide a line drawing of what content and functionality you want on your key pages. At Agility, we create wireframes for desktop and mobile, so you can see how the varying content reformats. It helps identify what and where the most important content should appear. Developing wireframes adds about 1-2 weeks at the front end but helps saves time at the design stage.

6. A responsive website

Building a responsive website is a ‘must have’ which ensures the screen adapts for a mobile, tablet or desktop. Understanding the device people use, however is vital for your web team.

If you are a family attraction, we’d expect 86.34% of your customers are viewing your website from a mobile. This can drop if you are a historic house appealing to the older generation and can increase to 95% if you are a scream park.

Through Analytics, you can view how people are viewing your website and will provide a steer on the importance of mobile, tablet or desktop views.

7. Choose a design that reflects your brand.

Your website serves as a visual extension of your brand identity, seamlessly aligning with the overall look and feel of your marketing efforts.

There are however some general rules with website design:

• Don’t be too clever. You should follow web design conventions, so you don’t frustrate your customer. E.g. having the logo clickable so it always returns you to the home page and including a hamburger menu on mobile navigations.

• Don’t overdo the colours (best practice is 2-3 colours) and ensure typefaces are legible (again, not more than 3 different typefaces).

• Consistency across the pages is key. As people navigate from page to page, they shouldn’t feel they are visiting a brand-new site.

• Use visual hierarchy to organise website elements so that visitors naturally gravitate towards the most important first.
• You should meet the Governments accessibility requirements for websites.

8. Take advantage of NAP

Search engines will only prioritise sites they believe are legitimate. The easiest way of achieving this is adding your Name, Address and Phone Number (NAP) to the bottom of your website. Search engines use your NAP information to decide which listings to display in a geo-targeted search. A consistent NAP across multiple websites helps give you better local SEO. For example for Agility, we could be Agility Marketing Ltd, Agility Marketing or simply Agility; to be consistent we use Agility Marketing.

The additional benefit of adding it on your website footer is that many people are used to finding it here and know where to look for it.

9. Incorporate SEO basics

Google is continually updating its search algorithm and it is very difficult to rank for high volume search words like ‘days out’ for example. Attractions can, however, rank for specific category day out key phrases in geographical areas. For example, ‘Zoo in Peterborough’ or ‘Farm Park in Oxfordshire’ simply by undertaking best practice on-page SEO.

Today SEO is about ensuring relevant content on your website for the key phrases you are aiming to attract traffic for and obtaining links from third party sites to show you have authority.

Our top tips for on-page SEO:

• Each webpage across your website should be optimised with a specific key phrase, ensuring that every page targets a different key-phrase to maximise search engine visibility and relevance. For best practice, the focus keyword should appear in the headline, page title, first paragraph of copy, meta description, alt text for images, page URL and in some of the page’s subheads.
• Link to other relevant pages within your website to help search engines discover and index your content more efficiently. Internal linking also helps distribute link equity throughout your site.
• Implement schema markup to provide search engines with additional context about your content. This can enhance your search engine listings with rich snippets, such as star ratings, reviews, and product information.
• Use keywords naturally within your content and avoid keyword stuffing, which can harm your rankings.
• Optimise images by using descriptive filenames and alt text that include relevant keywords. Compress images to reduce file size without sacrificing quality, which can improve page load speed.
• Regularly monitor your website’s performance using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Analyse key metrics such as traffic, engagement rate, and rankings to identify areas for improvement and track the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.

10. Include social proof

First time visitors will want social proof to validate their decisions.  Reviews can help influence visits.

Ensure you include testimonials across your website from customers but also extracts from Trip Advisor, Google or Facebook Reviews. If your scores are high, you can also include Trip Advisor or Google Review scores. Check out our blog on review scores to see if your review score is above industry benchmark.

BONUS: the power of engaging multimedia

While textual information is crucial for conveying details, integrating multimedia elements such as videos, virtual tours, and interactive maps can significantly enhance the user experience.

Consider creating professionally produced videos showcasing the highlights of your attraction, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or testimonials from satisfied visitors. These videos can be strategically placed throughout your website to pique interest and provide a dynamic overview of what guests can expect.

Moreover, interactive features like virtual tours allow potential visitors to explore your venue from the comfort of their own homes, offering a tantalising preview of the experiences awaiting them. Incorporating interactive maps can also help visitors navigate your attraction effortlessly, ensuring they make the most of their visit.

Remember, in the digital age, attention spans are fleeting, and visuals often speak louder than words. By incorporating compelling multimedia elements into your website, you can capture the imagination of your audience and entice them to experience your attraction firsthand.

Want to know how Agility can help build your website. Visit our website services page, complete our contact form, email hello@agility-marketing.co.uk or call on 01442 890088.

If you speak to Agility, make sure you ask us how you can increase your propensity to obtain more positive reviews via your website (without breaking any Trip Advisor or Google rules).

 

Written by Liz Dimes – Digital Marketing Director | Updated 23^rd May 2024 by Esther Felix-Awosope – Marketing Manager of Agility Marketing