Here are some great websites to turn to for inspiration:

24 Beautiful Hotel Website Designs to Get Inspired

Checking in Hotel Web Design: 50 Cosy Hotel Websites and Trends

90+ Remarkable Examples Of Bold Colors In Web Design

50 Excellent Corporate Website Designs

35 Beautiful Water-themed Web Designs for Inspiration

30 Beautifully Textured Web Designs

Web Design Trends: Testimonials Design

20 Super Creative Website Menus

Web Design – Pricing Tables

48 Excellent Examples Of Blog Post Footer Designs

30 Best Free Icon Sets for Bloggers is a good place to go to get cool looking Facebook and other blogger icons.

The Importance Of Wireframes In Web Design And 9 Tools To Create Wireframes is worth investigating if you want to create visual mockups of your website and/or its navigation

And it wouldn’t be right to not mention the two “meta sites” that have these and lots more:

DesignFollow: best of design and Web Development and more

Super List of Web Designs Round Up for Inspiration

Photo by onextrapixel

Worried that your new website is missing a few important details?

Before you roll out your new website design, talk to your website designer about each of these.  Make sure you have implemented the following 5 best practices:

404 Page Setup – A 404 error page is a “whoops” page that your website visitors see when they go to a malformed or non-existent web-page.  Make sure you have 404 page that fits the character of your website and shepherds all those lost visitors back into your website.  With a new website, you are bound to get a few “whoops” visitors.

• Tip: consider monitoring this page to see if there are any major sources of traffic that need accounted for.
• Benefit: it is easier to keep a visitor than get a new one!
• Learn More about 404 pages

301 Redirects - When you build your new website, your page names change (ie from www.yourdomain.com/oldpage.htm to www.yourdomain.com/newpage.php).

This confuses the heck out of search engines and can cause lower rankings and lost visitors.  Make sure you set up a 301 redirect for each old page of your website to a new page.

• Tip: Ask your new designer to work with your host on this.
• Tip: Ask for the list of 301s they are implementing.
• Benefit: More visitors to your website.
• Learn more about 301 redirects

Sitemaps – Always make a simple sitemap available to your users and search engines.  Make it easy to see, typically linking from the footer:

• Tip: Make it read nicely and be easily skimmable, many humans use these.
• Tip: If your website has hundreds (or more) pages, break sitemaps up into usable chunks and put on different pages.
• Benefit: helps your users and search engines navigate your website
• Learn more about sitemaps

Analytics - Make sure your Google Analytics is setup. The only reason NOT to use Google Analytics is you already have a different tool.

• Tip: Make sure it is installed on every page of your website.
• Tip: try setting up goal funnels and revenue tracking.
• Learn more about Analytics
  

Google Webmaster Tools – Benefit from the unique insights available via Google Webmaster Tools. Google shows you how it sees your website and alerts you to any problems.

• Tip: Once your site is registered with Webmaster Tools, leave a comment on Sidewiki
• Benefit: Excellent tool for troubleshooting problems with your rankings.
• Learn More about Google Webmaster Tools

Having these 5 invisible yet important elements installed in your website will protect your new website from losing visitors and give you best of breed analytics and reporting directly from Google.

10 Best Site Map Practices:

1. First and foremost, every web site needs a site map to tell the search engines where each of your site’s pages are located.
2. You must link to each page of the site with text links.
3. Each text link must use the keyword for the page you are linking to from the site map to create relevancy.
4. The keyword used needs to be a research and strategically determined keyword that is relevant to your customers and is searched. Check out our Toolbox for our favorite keyword research sites.
5. Wrap text around the link to engage the SE spiders to crawl the additional content before going to the page.
6. Update your site map regularly as you update your site’s pages. If you make updates daily then Google will most likely index your new changes daily and therefore you can get a jump on page rank.
7. Place a link to the site map ONLY on the homepage
8. Generate an XML site map to Google so that you can track traffic via Google Webmaster Central (it doesn’t hurt, it’s a smart tool, and it’s free!)
9. Keep site maps simple – just text links – no frills or images needed for the SE’s – function over form.
10. For larger sites (over 25 pages) generate an HTML as well as a XML site map. Use the HTML for usability by the user, and for SEO Purposes use the XML for accurate and regular Google indexing.

10 Bad Site Map No-No’s:

1. Not having a site map is like telling the search engine spiders to NOT crawl or look at your site.
2. Do not use dynamic links or links generated by JavaScript as most SE’s cannot crawl that type of a link.
3. Not using a “relevant keyword” for the link text will allow the SE spider to get disinterested and leave. (Example: “myrtle beach vacation rental” is link text that goes to a page about “myrtle beach history” – not good…)
4. Without proper keyword research prior to optimization, the chance that you use just any old keyword will hurt your chances of ever being found by SE’s, and therefore your customers.
5. Not wrapping text around your site map link doesn’t give the SE spider any “food to eat” – give them more to chew on rather than less.
6. Not updating both your site map and your pages gives a confusing message to the spider and you risk the chance of them leaving your site and only indexing a portion of your whole site.
7. Placing a link to the site map on every page creates duplicity for the SE’s.
8. Not uploading an XML site map won’t hurt you, but why not use a free and fabulous tool to get indexing services from Google?
9. Aesthetically pleasing (graphical images) site maps do not score well with the SE’s – text is what they want to see!
10. Since Google is the #1 SE in the world, it doesn’t make sense to not use their free services to help your site gain more relevance, increase your rankings, and connect with customers.

Spider Photo by Lachlan and No Creepy Guys in Hats Photo by Mykl Roventine

Blizzardinternet.com is mostly male and in the 25-50  range.  No surprises:

I tried it on a long-time client in  Winter Park that specializes in vacation rentals and found a not-surprisingly female demographic and a surprisingly older demographic.

I also gave it a try on an international client – an all-inclusive resort in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

Based on looking at lodging industry websites with this MSN demographics tool, female and older is generally the largest audience segment and some websites might benefit catering to that audience’s needs.

These results are probably worth taking for a grain of Salt.  MSN’s descriptions of the source and meaning of data is a bit sketchy.  I think they look at your keywords (rankings? on your page? in your title?)  then extrapolate into your market.  Whatever, it is still fun to put your site into.

Choosing a new CMS is a big decision – a CMS that is a good fit can put you in hotel heaven or a bad fit into hotel hell.  Here are Blizzard Internet’s top 9 tips to consider when choosing a new Content Management system for a hotel or resort.

1. Easy management of special features ~ prioritized by use. A CMS system needs to accommodate the most frequently made changes with grace.   Beyond general content updates, tourism websites may need:
   1. An event calendar that is easy to manage
   2. Image management and photo upload tool
   3. A packages or special management tool
   4. A banner ad or graphic rotator to feature specials or partners
   5. A full-featured blog is always a nice addition to any website
2. Search engine performance is clearly non-negotiable! Don’t even consider a CMS that doesn’t allow you to manage the following SEO elements:
   1. Title
   2. Meta description
   3. Meta keyword
   4. H1 tag
   5. Anchor text
      
3. Your URL’s are important. Don’t settle for a content management system that doesn’t create flexible URLs.  URLs should be friendly and manageable.
4. Getting locked into a CMS provider is risky. A CMS system should be open and non-proprietary.   Look for a CMS with a large group of developers and providers.  Open source CMS like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal are extensively used worldwide.  Blizzard Internet uses and recommends WordPress. Hotels move their websites to new vendors every couple of years. Before you buy a new CMS, find out if you can move your website to another provider if you are not pleased (and keep the CMS intact of course!).
5. Hosting platforms may matter. The LAMP (Linux/Apache/MySQL/Php) platform is probably the most popular.  Developers like it for being fast, inexpensive inexpensive and secure.  The alternative Microsoft platform is still also widely used and tends to cost a bit more overall.   Blizzard Internet has used the Microsoft platform for years, and still does, but we greatly prefer working on the open source LAMP platform.
6. It takes a village. Make sure your CMS allows multiple users to login and make changes.  Providing different levels of access and tracking changes are two features many tourism websites value.
7. Script flexibility. Nearly all websites use special scripts on their website; popular scripts are Google Analytics, Widgets, Videos and Web 2.0 applications. Make sure your CMS lets you add html/ iframe/javascript scripts anywhere … above the body, in the body and below the body
8. Simple, simple, simple. For Goodness sake, make sure your CMS is simple to use as possible… generally the more powerful the CMS, the harder it is to use. Having an overpowered CMS may be as bad as an underpowered CMS!
9. Honestly assess your internal resources. Is your staff really up to the job of updating websites? Do they have time? A CMS is rewarding to a company that has talented and dedicated internal resources updating and adding content.  A CMS is only as good as its users!

Many other considerations also go into a new content management system for any hotel, resort or tourist business.

What do you think should be added?

Computer Photo by Jami3.org
Cute Kids on Computer Photo by Extra Ketchup

Use ClickTale to make post-click marketing decisions … which is when you study your user behavior and change your website to increase conversions. The “eye tracking” (or clicking and scrolling) research it provides in the form of heatmaps is very insightful.

ClickTale has a free version that will let you try it out.  We recommend the $99 per month version that should do everything you want, and more!

Blizzard is an affiliate of ClickTale, we signed up after seeing just how exciting a piece of software it is.  Try CrazyEgg too for nice click heatmapping.

The website features a Wordpress content management system and:

• Banner Ad Management system for rotating special banners.
• Event Calendar
• Full ROI tracking through Google Analytics
• Resort Data Processing (RDP) IRM.net booking engine integration

Chula Vista Resort, in the Wisconsin Dells, has a 200,000 square foot waterpark, 18-hole golf course and world-class dining and shopping right onsite.  They offer an array of room styles and themes with affordable rates.

Chula Vista Resort
4031 River Rd.
Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965
http://www.chulavistaresort.com

Kuler by Adobe is a handy tool that lets you choose different colors to base your palettes on:

to create color palettes like these:

Another similar program that I like even better is Color Scheme Designer. It has a slick color selector and shows off the colors intuitively:

You can take your palette and see what it would look like on a website too:

Find our other favorite tools in our Toolbox.

What gaps does your site have that a redesign will fill? The following is a list of points to consider when redesigning your website.

Budget
Is a complete redesign within your budget? Your budget may determine the extent of your redesign. Do you need a new look, more traffic, higher ranking by search engines, a blog, a tracker, more pages, better photos, a reservation engine, hosting and maintenance? All of these, and more, should be considered when redesigning your website to help fill the gaps.

Simplify your navigation.
A simple navigation is like giving really good directions that will take a visitor from point A to point B. If your visitor can get around your site quickly and easily you have given them great directions and they will repay you by staying at your site for a longer amount of time which is what you want. Simplify and clearly define the meaning of each title in your navigation.

Site Map
A site map is a representation of the architecture of your website. The site map helps visitors and search engines find pages on your site.

Contact Information
Tell the visitor who you are, where you are and how you can be reached. It’s only polite.

Call to Action
Your phone number or email may be a call to action. Reserve or book now button. Join our newsletter. Seasonal specials available. All of these require the viewer to take action. Get the viewer involved.

Email Marketing
Email Newsletters can create a bond between your Hotel, Inn or Resort and your reader. Promote news and specials that are useful and convenient to the reader. Most newsletters are quickly scanned. Keep it brief and give them an option to unsubcribe if they choose.

Blog
If you have a blog. Keep it going. Post weekly. Create a community of readers. Write about what is relevant and time sensitive. In the hospitality industry you can post specials or write about the daily happenings in and around your resort. Wordpress is an open-source (free) blogging software that makes your blog easy to use and maintain.

Cosmetic
Does your website need a facelift? That first impression is a lasting one. Know your target market. Create an image that appeals to your target market and promotes credibility for your business. Choose fonts and colors for your website that are clean and friendly to the viewer. Professional photos always improve a website. Choose photos that showcase your Inn, Hotel or Resort. Keep the file size small for quick loading times. The text content of your site should be kept to a minimum but enough to convey a clear message. Viewers scan text for information rather than actually reading it. Check spelling and grammar. If you have any pages that are not working correctly, fix them a.s.a.p. Unify pages by consistently using the same format. Fonts can be easily formatted with CSS.

Online Presence
SEO experts can help your website get a better ranking by search engines. High ranking by search engines means more viewers can find your website faster. Meta tags and H1’s that are managed by experts will help your website get more hits or viewers, leading to more reservations.

Tracker
Tracking and analyzing your website traffic enables you to maximize the effectiveness of your online marketing. The tracker works by including a small amount of html code to each page of your website. The tracker records first time visitors, returning visitors, visitors that made a purchase among other statistics.

Reservation Engine
If you choose to have a reservation engine that takes the viewer to a new page, design that page to have the same look and feel as your site. Headers, fonts and colors should match your site. Here at Blizzard the team has developed BRE; Blizzard Reservation Engine. BRE is a product that allows your booking engine to be customized and SEO friendly.

Maintenance
The last gap you want to fill is maintenance. You have a beautifully designed site now and you want to keep it up to date and well maintained. Keep your photos and specials up to date with the seasons. Have a SEO expert examine your site every couple months to improve your online presence. Correct any spelling or grammar mistakes immediately, and anything else that is not working correctly. Take the time to care for your site and it will reward you with frequent visitors who will return often.

“mind the gap” image courtesy markhillary

Content management is the process of separating website content with its design elements.  To better grasp this concept, let’s dissect a typical webpage:

1.    Header – This is typically where your logo and your navigation will appear.
2.    Content – This is where your text and images will appear.
3.    Footer – This is where your contact and copyright information typically appears.

To keep the website consistent, we are going to separate these three elements by making them separate files or putting them separately into a database.  For this example, we are going to put them into separate files (header.inc, mycontent.inc, footer.inc).  Now let’s put it all together with the help of server-side programming:

Within this page’s code, it calls to “include” header.inc, mycontent.inc and footer.inc.  So now going back to our first example regarding the phone number change, let’s say that we have setup our 40 page website with content management in mind.  Instead of your webmaster having to manually open up 40 files, they will only have to open up one file to make this change (footer.inc). Once saved and uploaded back onto the server, the change will appear throughout the entire site, which will save lots of time and money on website maintenance.

Planning Ahead For The Future.

A majority of the time pages may look inconsistent on sites not setup for content management.  This in turn looks unprofessional to your site’s visitors and may not give them the confidence to make a purchase.  If you get a different designer to add a new page, this can also add to the inconsistency and lead to a website maintenance nightmare.

With a content managed website, expanding your website gets easier down the road if you want to add new pages.  A site setup with content management in mind allows all new pages to be consistent with the rest of the website.  Not to mention that it saves a lot of time for your web designer as well.

Now let’s say that your site is looking a bit outdated.  No problem if your site is setup for content management.  Since you have separated your content from your design, all you will have to modify are your design elements (header and footer).  This also relieves the headache from your web designer since they won’t have to spend too much time retrieving the content from your old website.

Database-Driven Content Management Systems

In the above example, we separated the content and the design elements into files.  Unfortunately, this can get kind of hard to manage, when you have numerous files on your server.  Therefore, it is a good practice to put your content into a database so that it can be easily managed without the clutter.  There are a lot of content management systems or CMSs out there that provide certain functionality.  Among the vast selection, there are three that are widely supported, constantly improving and the best part is, they’re free!

Drupal
Drupal is a feature-rich open source content management system. Among its features, it provides search engine friendly urls, blogging functionality, discussion forum support and tracking and statistics reports.  This CMS is not platform dependent, so you can install it on just about any server operating system.  It is also database independent, meaning that you can install it on MySQL, PostgreSQL or any other SQL database.

Joomla
Joomla is another great open source content management system that is setup best for community-based functionality.  It features search engine friendly urls, a simple installer, document management and a wide range of community support.  Out of the box, Joomla is not setup for blogging, but that feature can be added with their extensive extension directory full of great add-ons.

Wordpress
Wordpress is another open source CMS built originally as a blogging platform, but evolved to be a great content management system.  Out of the box, blogging functionality is setup by default and its interface makes it relatively easy to get started.  It provides the ability to setup search engine friendly urls and provides a file structure that is easy on the developer.  With a wide-range of supported plugins, this CMS can provide just about any type of functionality.

Content management should be an essential step when you design your website.  When it comes to growth and page consistency, you will be ready.  Not only is it a good practice, it will save you a lot of time and money down the road.

Source Links:

http://www.wordpress.org
http://www.joomla.org
http://www.drupal.org