I just got an email from someone asking for assistance with their SEO. They operated a resort website at a popular ski destination in Canada. The website was designed well enough allowing visitors to find condos and townhomes at a variety of locations. The email to me stated that the only money they make from the website is from the Google ads they have on the site.
After a quick look through I could not find a way to actually place a reservation or get a price quote. Finally, I found a link that read, “Click here for your free vacation quote
” in the left-side navigation. This link brings you to a standard contact form. Above that, there was another link that read, “Check our Inventory”. I clicked there, not sure what to expect and was brought to a page with, what appears to be pricing information, though I cannot be sure.
As best as I can tell, the way to make a reservation from this site is to 1) navigate through the site to find the property you might be interested in. 2) check the inventory, then perform a search for that particular property to get the pricing info. If you don’t like the price, go back to step 1. 3) Once you find the resort you want you then click on the “free vacation quote” link, and fill out the information accordingly.
I can understand why they are not making any money from the site, while it looks good, it’s simply not user friendly. I would expect pricing information to be located on the page for each resort location as well as a “make your reservation today” link. This in itself would cut out many steps in the reservation process and allow visitors to find the information that is important for them in making their reservation decision.
This is great example that traffic alone does not produce sales. Usability is essential to converting that traffic into sales.