Tim Berners-Lee invented Enquire in 1989 while working at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory. He later transformed this into today's World Wide Web. His contributions to HTTP and HTML led to the founding of the World Wide Web Consortium in 1994. Its mission is to "lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing standards and guidelines that ensure long-term growth". By creating Web Standards and guidelines, the W3C primarily fulfils its mission. W3C has developed more than 100 standards, known as W3C Recommendations, since 1994. (What are Web Standards | elcom, 2015).
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The right web design is essential when planning an integrated marketing strategy for your brand. Web design is no longer just about function or visibility; it's all about how a user engages with your brand. The layout, colour, and other technical aspects all combine to create a powerful digital tool that, when strategically used, can significantly improve online marketing campaigns. The importance of design quality is evident in the fact that digital marketing strategies are increasingly centred around brand websites. Regardless of the industry, having a website that is up to date, informative, and aesthetically pleasing is important for building trust with potential clients, which influences customer acquisition and conversion rates (Paunovic, 2019).
Web Standards to be taken care of while building a website for travel industry:
In order for your target travellers to find you and have a positive experience on your website, there are a number of key elements you should consider, including:
Clear and consistent page layout, with a user-friendly navigation structure
Visually stunning, including images and videos
Content that is well written and compelling
Brand identity reinforced by a clean, contemporary web design
Web design optimised for search engines
Integrating social media
Compatibility with mobile devices
Features that make managing content easy
Reservation system or booking engine integration
Incorporating these key elements into your business website will ensure that visitors have a positive experience, increasing the chances of travellers making reservations through your website.
People's travel decisions are influenced by the Internet, plain and simple. Nearly 151 million different results are returned when you search 'resorts' on Google.
Tourism web design facilitates the exchange of information and ideas like no other medium - from the words you write to the images you show. Instilling a sense of confidence in consumers in the process of exploring their travel options will be easier when your brand is presented as desirable and different (Web Design for Tourism & Resorts, 2022).
Advantages of using web standards:
Now more than ever, digital marketing is essential
A well-crafted website can benefit a business in many tangible ways, including increased sales and leads. Effectively, a great website is its own campaign, constantly working to support the brand. What’s more is that in comparison to other marketing initiatives, a website is easily trackable, allowing brands to better understand consumer behaviour and providing insight into what is and isn’t working. But how can a company get there?
Differentiation: Differentiating yourself from competitors is crucial. Moreover, an outdated and clunky website is more likely to experience high bounce rates. You might be tempted to build a website within a template and fill in your business information and call it a day, but it doesn't work like that. In our experience, websites with a storytelling perspective and aligned visuals have an impact on both the market and the consumer that won't soon be forgotten.
User Experience: Engaging, exploring, and interacting with the brand is the goal of a well-designed website. The bottom line and overall objectives for a brand are impacted by the way first impressions are built from the brand to the consumer.
A brand's user experience has become a crucial investment, with users expecting a website that is both authentic and intuitive and reflects a brand's vision and service level. Ensure the best possible user experience by implementing strategic initiatives such as user testing and A/B testing, which are important to a website's success.
SEO: In a search engine, SEO is used to make a website appear in chronological order, from most engaged to least engaged. Linking your website with keywords that relate to what your target market is looking for is one of the best SEO tactics. In order for people to connect successfully with a website, SEO must be incorporated into the design.
Researching which links and keywords should be included into a website, constantly updating these links to be relevant, and purposefully, actively positioning content to maximize exposure in search results are all examples of best SEO techniques.
Conversion: In order to provide the best possible client experience (CX), keeping track of conversion rates is critical. As a conversion rate is closely related to how a user interacts with a website, it is an important metric for businesses to take into account when making marketing decisions.
An effective conversion strategy will directly affect the conversion rate of a website. Website templates may initially appear to be an easy and low-cost solution, but they will adversely affect a site's user experience and conversion rate.
The problem of a poorly placed call-to-action button or ambiguous navigation that prevents a user from getting the information they need when browsing a website.
Brand Influence: In order to build a loyal following, brands must cultivate a consistent relationship with their customers and users. A consumer is loyal to your brand when they love your products, not just your brand.
This influence is affected by a variety of factors, and increasingly, digital marketing facilitates these connections via a digital ecosystem. Millennials and Gen Z are looking for brands they can relate to and feel proud to associate themselves with, which involves a strong brand influence.
Customer advocacy, particularly through online community engagement, will help tremendously with launching new products, keeping retention high, and impacting the overall bottom line.
An integrated website marketing strategy is essential to reach and convert leads both online and offline since an increasing number of consumers engage with brands online before purchasing.
A well-designed website sits at the core of a solid digital foundation that can enable companies to leverage a positive brand image to improve sales, build PR, generate a solid social media presence and run an integrated marketing campaign across all channels (Paunovic, 2019).
Bibliography
Elcom.com.au. 2015. What are Web Standards | elcom. [online] Available at: <https://www.elcom.com.au/resources/blog/web-standards#:~:text=Web%20Standards%20is%20defined%20as,web%20sites%20and%20web%20applications>
Paunovic, G., 2019. Digital Influence: Web Design's Impact On Marketing Strategy. [online] Forbes. Available at: <https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/04/04/digital-influence-web-designs-impact-on-marketing-strategy/?sh=47860e0a5eb8> [Accessed 25 March 2022].
Hswsolutions.com. 2022. Web Design for Tourism & Resorts. [online] Available at: <https://www.hswsolutions.com/services/web-development/web-design-for-tourism-resorts/>
Yes, I agree that the right web design is vital when planning integrated marketing strategies for your business or brand as abiding by these standards will allow them to increase their site's search engine ranking, and businesses can even easily convert their web pages into other formats or “mash up” the content into other web and desktop applications. Also, it will be easy for these sites to be maintained, updated, and redesigned.
ReplyDeleteWeb design is one of the most important things today, not only for the visualization of the brand or company, this is very important as a communication channel, if a web page is ambiguous and not fully updated, this makes the client cannot trust her and in turn the communication becomes ineffective.
ReplyDeleteanother benefit is the conversions that this can bring, being attractive to the consumer can raise the levels of commitment
In addition to that, as mentioned, not only the benefits in relation to the client and the company, this helps to generate a positive image of the company both in social networks and as a final benefit, the unification of a marketing campaign executed in all channels.