Music or sounds on your website

There are three questions that should be considered before making something a part of your hospitality website:

• Will this do anything to increase traffic from search engines?


• Does this provide a service or added value to potential guests visiting the website?


• Will this help persuade potential guests to decide that your establishment is the place to stay?

If you have answered yes to at least one of the questions above it may be worth putting something on your hospitality website. What about music or sound effects that start playing automatically when the page is viewed or when a visitor clicks on something?

• Will music do anything to increase traffic from search engines? - Not at all


• Does music provide a service to potential guests visiting the website? - Not at all


• Will music persuade potential guests to visit our establishment? - Not likely

The number one rule of website design for hospitality websites; don't annoy potential guests. From watching website tracking statistics ICT Total Solution know that the majority of searches done for hospitality websites are done weekdays during the hours of 9am and 5pm. Potential guests are searching for a “place to stay” when they are in the office. Music and sound effects will likely result in a click on the back button or close of browser away from your website. This means many potential guests leave your website before they even see it.

Sounds and songs also take time to download, which means they slow your website down. Having your images or text delayed because of music is going to cause people to wait. The culture of the internet is "no waiting.”

The risks of annoying potential guests are just not worth the benefit there might be from the 1% of visitors that actually like to hear your choice of music.

Advice

• If you are having a new hospitality website built, don't put sound or music on it that plays automatically. If you want to put a link or control on that allows people to choose to start playing the music, that's fine, but don't force it on them.



• If you have an existing website that has music or sound on it that plays automatically, have it removed as soon as possible.



• If you are looking for a new designer or website promotion specialist, examine the sites in their portfolio. If you spot any pages that have music or sounds start up automatically, you should probably keep looking.

 

Should my hospitality website link to other attractions in my area?

• In general, avoid putting links to other websites on your home page. There are exceptions to this such as (partnerships, Chamber of Commerce, trade associations or accredited links). You want to encourage people to venture into your website before you give them other links or attractions to look at. It also helps distribute your home page's value (often called page rank) to your other pages before you go giving it away to other websites.



• Whenever possible, don't just give a list of links. Add some meaning and description to the link by giving a bit of information. The kind of information that only a knowledgeable innkeeper can give. Show them you really know the area.



• Don't annoy local businesses by writing bad things about them or cautioning people not to visit a certain restaurant or attraction. If there is an attraction you wouldn't recommend, simply leave it off your list.



• Have any out-going links open in a new window when they are clicked on. That way the person visiting your web pages doesn't leave your website by clicking on a link. They visit the page you suggested and when they close the window, they are back at your website.