Manage your website

A customer might come to your website knowing very little about you – maybe they’ve searched for a type of experience such as a hotel stay, an animal experience or a guided walking tour. In this situation, you need to clearly and quickly tell them what you do, why your experience is special and persuade them to want to know more.

Or a customer might come to your website to perform a task – make a booking, amend a booking or check details such as times or special requirements. Your website needs to be simple to use, so that they can perform these tasks easily. You don’t want to lose a customer in the middle of a booking because your website wasn’t easy to use.

The key pages you need on your website are:

Homepage

This is the first impression the customer will have of your business so it needs to represent you well and should be visually appealing. This page directs the user to other pages, so it should have a clear, simple menu.

Booking page

All of your key pages should carry a booking button, with text most suitable to your business such as:

• Book Now
• Check Availability
• Book Tickets

This button (or call to action) should link to a page which could feature an interactive calendar to show availability but should detail the different options and prices for your product.

Find out more about booking systems for experiences or booking engines for accommodation.

Product pages

This can be multiple pages to showcase your product whether that’s the accommodation you offer, your different tours or the details of your event. Some of the essential features of a successful product page are:

• imagery of your physical space or the experience you offer
• description of what they get when they visit you
• clear pricing for all booking options

About us

This page is important to give users a better insight into who you are as a business. Tell your story about yourself, family or team, how you came to be running your business and why do you work in this area?

Contact page

You can include a contact form, asking the customers to share information about their query, which is delivered to your email inbox.

You should always include your address, phone number and email address. You can also link to your social media channels.

What else you'll need on your website

Content

Once you have the key information in place, you can begin to think about creating other content pages. You need to find interesting and authentic stories to tell about your product, your business, your location and your sector.

Think about the information you have to share – practical details, news, staff and customer stories – and how best to get that information across.

Find out more about creating engaging content.

Accessible features

Provide clear and accurate information about your accessibility features so that customers can make an informed decision about whether you are likely to meet their needs and you are the right inclusive business for them.

A lack of information on accessibility is one of the top barriers to visiting somewhere new.

Find out about creating a Detailed Access Guide for your business.

Technical considerations

Secure certificates

Having a secure certificate for your website means the padlock icon will show to visitors who are browsing your website. If you use a website building software, you should automatically gain secure accreditation but check with your provider for more information.

Keeping your website secure doesn’t have to be daunting. You can reduce your risk of cybercrime by:

Use secure passwords to protect your data

Three or more random words work best. Don’t use passwords such as pet’s names or your date of birth that can be found on your personal social media accounts.

Update your apps and software

Updates include protection from viruses and other kinds of malware, and fixing bugs so it’s important to install the latest updates as soon as possible.

Look out for phishing or fraudulent emails

Don’t give any personal data (especially banking details) in response to an email and don’t click on any links you think are suspicious.

Impersonating VisitScotland

If you are ever unsure of an email you receive from us – or think is from us – please get in touch:

• email customer services
• forward suspicious emails to the relevant government email address

Find more information

Check out the cyber resilience toolkit by Business Gateway.

Get certified as secure with Cyber Essentials, a government-backed certification scheme.