The Internet is a vast place. Currently we’re closing in on 1 Billion active websites globally. That’s a lot of websites. And in all the noise that’s out there, how are you getting found? Who is driving your website traffic to your door?
I’m happy to say, RLC Design has some insight into who exactly is driving customers to your online door. And for RV Parks, people checking out your website are people looking to stay in your area. So, with all of your investments in getting your park found, which ones are paying off? Let’s take a look at 3 of our own clients’ numbers and see.
La Mesa RV Park
Our first RV Park website client was La Mesa. We did a total overhaul of their website in November of 2013. And the owners of the park were very pleased with the results. But what’s even better than that, their guests like the website as well, and find it easy to use.
Since our re-design, La Mesa has stopped listing in Goodsam. They had a suspicion that the directory services they were using were not delivering over the Internet, and the thousands of dollars per year spent on the Goodsam directory was a waste of their money and time.
So, who is sending traffic to La Mesa in 2015? Well, 69% of all their visitors come via a search engine. You know, like Google or Bing or Yahoo. Search engines are a free service, so no expenditure there. Coming in at 12%, RV Park Reviews! Between organic searches and RV Park Reviews 81% of all website traffic for this park is accounted for. La Mesa is also a Passport America Park, and PA accounts for 9% of the traffic to the site. So, Google and the rest, RV Park Reviews, and PA account for 90% of all the visitors to La Mesa’s website. The remainder of their traffic is made up of many smaller sites with a few refers here and there.
Point of Rocks RV Park
Point of Rocks is our most recent RV Park client. And their website is an amazing success story. Since we deployed their site in January of this year their numbers are jumping. With over 100 visitors a day, and 86% of visitors remaining on the site for over 5 minutes, the new site has driven a whole new stream of guests to the park’s door. You don’t have to believe my word, you can call them any time and the staff will tell you the story!
Point of Rocks website refers
Unlike La Mesa, Point of Rocks is a Goodsam park. So they list with the directory service and Goodsam does show up in their stats. Similar to La Mesa, organic searches through search engines account for 74% of all website traffic here. Another 8% goes to RV Park Reviews, and finally Goodsam accounts for 6%. You might be noticing a trend here, but we’ll continue forward with one more park.
Blake Ranch RV Park
To mix things up a bit, this next chart is for the whole year of 2014. We’ve showed you two parks and their breakdowns for 2015, why not take a look at history and see what went on last year for Blake Ranch. Like Point of Rocks, Blake Ranch is a member of Goodsam as well.
Blake Ranch Website Refers
I think you see the pattern emerging. Once again, the lion’s share of site referrals come from search engines. Behind them, RV Park Reviews. Boy, that website sure does help RV Parks across the country, and they charge them nothing for the service. 70% of the traffic comes from free services. 12% of the website refers for Blake Ranch comes from Goodsam. Of the three client sites, Goodsam seems to be helping this park.
So, who does drive RV Park Website Traffic?
I don’t think I need to say much here. The numbers are telling all on their own. Organic searches account for the bulk of visits to RV Park websites. RV Park Reviews comes in a distant second. And the clubs come in a distant third. So why are RV Parks paying thousands of dollars a year to be part of this club or that club? I’m not sure.
With the numbers we’re seeing, a smart investment for parks might be their websites. If free search services are driving thousands of visitors a year to parks, their web presence becomes extremely important. And a poor website, one that isn’t mobile-friendly, could be closing the door on all of those potential guests.
RLC Design Services has a one time fee for a website re-design. We train park owners and staff on how to run their site when we’ve completed our job. We provide licensed images for the park’s use in all of its advertising endeavors. We even do video tours of your park while we’re on site. And we leave you with a DVD covering all aspects of your website management. And the investment in the site? It’s normally lower than the price of being listed with a club.
We’re so confident about our work, we invite you to contact all of our clients. Ask them if their sites are working for them. And then ask yourself, is it time to update your internet presence for less than the yearly cost of being part of a club that isn’t driving traffic to your site?