Redesigning your travel brand’s website is a significant undertaking, one that can impact your brand’s digital presence, customer experience, and overall business performance. But to ensure a successful outcome, you must start with the right questions.
As a brand and marketing agency specialising in travel brands, we understand the unique challenges and opportunities in the travel industry. Our experience has shown that a successful website redesign begins with asking the right questions.
Here are the top 10 questions to ask when redesigning your travel brand’s website, each designed to guide you towards a site that not only looks great but also drives results.
1. What are our primary business goals for this redesign?
This is the foundational question. Are you aiming to increase bookings, generate more leads, build brand awareness, improve customer service, or something else entirely? Clearly defining your objectives will shape every decision, from the site's structure to its features. Be specific and measurable. Instead of "increase bookings”, aim for "increase online bookings by 15% in the next quarter”.
2. Who is our ideal customer, and what are their online needs and behaviours?
Understanding your target audience is paramount. Are you catering to budget backpackers, luxury travellers, families, or adventure seekers? What information do they seek? How do they typically research and book travel? Conduct user research, analyse your existing website analytics, and create user personas to gain deep insights into their needs and pain points. Your redesign should cater directly to these insights.
3. What are our key brand values and how can the website visually and functionally reflect them?
Your website is an extension of your brand. What makes your travel brand unique? Is it your adventurous spirit, your commitment to sustainability, your focus on cultural immersion, or your personalised service? The design, imagery, tone of voice, and overall user experience should consistently communicate these values. Ensure your brand identity shines through every pixel.
4. What is working well (and what isn't) with our current website?
Before you tear everything down, take a critical look at your existing site. What do users love? What are the common complaints? Analyse your website analytics to identify high-performing pages and areas where users drop off. Don't discard the good; build upon it. Conversely, be honest about what isn't working and make those areas a priority for improvement.
For more ideas on what to include in your website, read our article Essential web design elements for travel websites: How Webflow makes it easy
5. How can we improve user experience (UX)?
Analyse your current website’s user experience. Can users easily find the information they need? Is the booking process straightforward and secure? Is the site mobile-friendly? Focus on creating a clear information architecture, intuitive navigation, compelling calls-to-action, and a responsive design that looks and functions flawlessly across all devices.
6. What SEO best practices will we implement?
If your current website is not ranking in searches, you need to rethink your search engine optimisation (SEO). This is crucial for driving organic traffic and ensuring your travel brand is visible to potential customers.
Start by planning how you will optimise your site’s structure, including a clear and logical navigation system. Ensure all metadata (titles, descriptions, and alt text) is properly optimised with relevant keywords.
Prioritise on-page SEO by creating high-quality, engaging content that targets popular travel search terms. Don’t overlook technical SEO aspects like fast page load times, mobile responsiveness, and secure HTTPS protocols.
7. What content needs to be updated or added?
One of the primary reasons for a website redesign is often outdated or irrelevant content. Conduct a thorough content audit to identify what needs updating, removing, or creating from scratch. Consider adding new content types, like immersive travel guides, interactive maps, or user-generated content that showcases real customer experiences.
Bonus question: Is our content discoverable by AI?
As AI-driven tools like ChatGPT, voice assistants, and travel planning apps become more popular, your travel brand needs to be discoverable through these platforms.
Ensure your content is written in natural language that AI can easily interpret, focus on answering common travel questions, and use structured data markup (like FAQ schema) to help search engines and AI tools understand your content better. This can increase your chances of being recommended by smart assistants and other AI-powered services.
8. What design style suits our brand?
Decide on your website’s visual style. This includes colour schemes, fonts, imagery, and overall layout. Make sure the design aligns with your brand identity and appeals to your target audience.
9. How will we measure the success of the redesign?
How will you know if your redesign is successful? Define your key performance indicators (KPIs) upfront. These might include conversion rates, bounce rates, average session duration, lead generation, or customer satisfaction scores. Establish tracking mechanisms to monitor these metrics and make data-driven decisions for ongoing optimisation.
10. What is our budget and timeline?
Finally, set a realistic budget and timeline for the redesign. Make sure you allocate resources for design, development, content creation, and testing.
By answering these questions, you'll lay a strong foundation for a website redesign. This approach will help simplify the process of a website redesign, laying out your objectives, immediate needs and, ultimately, your long-term goals.
Ready to transform your travel brand’s website? If you’re considering a redesign and want expert guidance tailored to the travel industry, our specialised brand and marketing agency is here to help. Contact Boost Brands to start creating a website that truly reflects your brand and drives bookings.
