Travel England Tours - fantastic success in its first year!
Google likes your website to have the right domain
Those of you reading this article who have also heard one of my recent talks on “Your website and Google in 2020“ will understand the importance of making sure that your domain extension reflects where you run your business. By the way, if you haven't heard my Google presentation (updated for 2020), please follow this link and book yourself on to the next one! More dates to be added soon.
Anyway, if your business is based in the UK, your website should end in .co.uk, .org.uk or .uk. Google will prefer these domains above any others.
An exception to the rule
However, as with every rule, there is always an exception and there may be good reasons why you want to have a .com extension instead. This case study is a great example about when it is more appropriate!
Travel England Tours came on board with us around 15 months ago, you can read the original case study by following this link. They were one of our first clients that had an Option 5 Run Your Own Website and I had a catch up call with Ian Rutherford last week.
I stress to all my clients the importance of adding content on a regular basis. Those that do, really do see the benefits in their Google rankings. This is because the other things that Google looks for (build quality, accessibility, hosting, SSL certificate) were already taken care of. This is because Run Your Own Website is our own product and we have won awards for the quality of our work!
Check out these Page 1 rankings!
I am always delighted when I see my clients growing their website and with Ian and Sarah, they had added several new tours and some posts to their blog. They have also replaced the original slideshow stock images with images they have taken themselves and it looks brilliant!
When we first built the website for them, they stressed that their client market consisted of people visiting from the United States, this was one of the reasons why they wanted to stick with a .com domain. As I expected, their exposure to Google had been split between the US and the UK (and interestingly, Australia) but they still had page 1 rankings for the following keywords:
UK
d day tours from england
poldark tours from london
south west england tours
normandy tours from england
3 days in devon
poldark tours in cornwall
poldark tours
normandy tours from london
devon tours
american d day tours
USA
cornwall 2 day trip
cornwall itinerary 2 days
d day tours from portsmouth
3 day tours to cornwall from london
normandy tours from england
d day tours from england
cornwall tours from truro
south west england tours
3 days in devon
poldark tours from st ives
cornwall tours from truro
military history tours uk
poldark coach tours
d day beaches tours from london
poldark tours from london
devon tours
trips to devon
cornwall tours from plymouth
battle of britain tours
england travel tours
d day tours from england
poldark tours from london
south west england tours
normandy tours from england
3 days in devon
poldark tours in cornwall
poldark tours
normandy tours from london
devon tours
american d day tours
They have also picked up business awards (Highly Commended - South West England Tourism Awards and Silver in the Cornwall Tourism Awards), with special mentions being made on the quality of their website!
How has this helped their business?
So what effect has this had on their business? Well, they had a three-year business plan, by the end of which they hoped to be in profit. In reality, their bookings have simply taken off! After just over a year, they have already repaid their original investment in full as well as being able to upgrade their passenger vehicle to a seven seater Mercedes. They are also able to bring in other trusted drivers when it gets exceptionally busy and are simply delighted with how well it is going!
A year last September they had a brand-new business but no website. Now they have a website that is bringing in lots of bookings, many of which are returning customers and for Ian and Sarah Rutherford, their new venture is really paying dividends!
We are so pleased that they are doing so well and love celebrating the successes of our clients!
Can we help you with your position on Google?
If you are reading this and would like to find out more about how we may be able to assist you, why not give us a call on (01243) 776399 or send us an email?
Clive Loseby,
Access by Design and Run Your Own Website. Award-winning web design, Chichester.
