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Manage your website

7 minute read • Last updated: 25 February 2025

A website is like a shop window for your business - it should clearly showcase what you have to offer and allow customers to easily make a purchase. It is a marketing tool which delivers information, helps you make sales and connects you to customers by offering options for them to reach out and engage with you.

Consider how you can improve your existing website to clearly deliver the unique story of your product and make it really easy and enticing for customers to book. Check your key pages are working well, think about creating new content and getting advice on the sustainability and security of your digital channels.

In this article:

  • Website basics
  • Think about your customers
  • Top tips for improving your website
  • Website advice from Business Gateway
  • Data and website security

Website basics

Lochend Chalets

A customer might come to your website knowing very little about you – maybe they’ve searched for a type of experience such as a hotel stay, an animal experience or a guided walking tour. In this situation, you need to clearly and quickly tell them what you do, why your experience is special and persuade them to want to know more.

Or a customer might come to your website to perform a task – make a booking, amend a booking or check details such as times or special requirements. Your website needs to be simple to use, so that they can perform these tasks easily. You don’t want to lose a customer in the middle of a booking because your website wasn’t easy to use.

The key pages you need on your website

Homepage

This is the first impression the customer will have of your business so it needs to represent you well and should be visually appealing. This page directs the user to other pages, so it should have a clear, simple menu.

Booking page

All of your key pages should carry a booking button, with text most suitable to your business such as:

  • Book Now
  • Check Availability
  • Book Tickets

This button (or call to action) should link to a page which could feature an interactive calendar to show availability but should detail the different options and prices for your product.

Find out more about booking systems for experiences or booking engines for accommodation.

Product pages

This can be multiple pages to showcase your product whether that’s the accommodation you offer, your different tours or the details of your event. Some of the essential features of a successful product page are:

  • imagery of your physical space or the experience you offer
  • description of what they get when they visit you
  • clear pricing for all booking options

About us

This page is important to give users a better insight into who you are as a business. Tell your story about yourself, family or team, how you came to be running your business and why do you work in this area?

Contact page

You can include a contact form, asking the customers to share information about their query, which is delivered to your email inbox.

You should always include your address, phone number and email address. You can also link to your social media channels.

What else you'll need on your website

Content

Once you have the key information in place, you can begin to think about creating other content pages. You need to find interesting and authentic stories to tell about your product, your business, your location and your sector.

Think about the information you have to share – practical details, news, staff and customer stories – and how best to get that information across.

Find out more about creating engaging content.

Accessible features

Provide clear and accurate information about your accessibility features so that customers can make an informed decision about whether you are likely to meet their needs and you are the right inclusive business for them.

A lack of information on accessibility is one of the top barriers to visiting somewhere new.

Find out about creating a Detailed Access Guide for your business.

Secure certificates

Having a secure certificate for your website means the padlock icon will show to visitors who are browsing your website. If you use a website building software, you should automatically gain secure accreditation but check with your provider for more information.

Think about your customers

Much of website design and advice puts the user at the centre, looking to meet their needs and ensure they have a good experience.

Mobile phone in hand

The Helix

Make it easy to find

Search engine optimisation (SEO) ensures your business is visible when potential customers search on Google or other search engines. By learning SEO best practices, and applying them to your website, you can increase both the quantity and quality of traffic you get from search engines.

Learn more about how to improve the SEO on your website.

Make it easy to use

User experience (UX) is the experience your visitors have each time they interact with your website or service. Considering the UX can help:

  • Understand your customers better
  • Improve customer satisfaction
  • Encourage customer retention and engagement

Find top tips on improving UX and what your website needs to provide a good UX.

Make your website accessible

There are many reasons to create an accessible and easy-to-use website for all of your customers. Following best practices benefits all customers by creating a great user experience and could see your website rank better with search engine optimisation.

  • Provide alternative text for images which is used by screen readers to explain the content to visually impaired users.
  • Use descriptive headings and set heading styles – this helps both SEO and screen readers to understand the importance of text on the page and navigate around.
  • Make sure forms, buttons, and other interactive elements are keyboard accessible. Most website platforms should offer this automatically.
  • Choose the colours of your website to meet colour contrast guidelines for users with low vision.
  • Include transcripts for multimedia content like videos and audio where possible.
  • Make sure any additional documents such as PDFs are accessible and compatible with screen reader software.

For more information on website accessibility

  • website accessibility and usability advice from Royal National Institute of Blind People
  • website accessibility compliance from Level Access
  • how to make your website accessible podcast from Business Gateway

Top tips for improving your website

  • Deliver key information easily

    Make it really easy for your customers to find information. Think about the basic questions they might have, and whether that information is simple to find on your pages. This might be:

    • what the business is
    • where the business is based
    • opening times
    • accessibility facilities
    • prices
  • Get customer feedback

    Check regularly how your website is performing for your customers. Technology and design practices change regularly, so you need to evaluate and improve your website regularly as well. You could ask your staff for feedback, conduct a customer survey or look at your website analytics.

  • Conduct your own checks

    Website functionality allows customers to carry out certain tasks – this could be checking availability, searching for information or making a booking. Make sure all pages on your website work. Regularly check forms, contact pages and the full booking process.

    Check for broken links or images – these can cause frustration for customers, and give them a poor impression of the standards you hold as a business.

Website advice from Business Gateway

Shop assistant helping man

Loch Katrine Experience

Business Gateway has a number of guides detailing your options for website builder software and how to create a more sustainable website.

How to set up a new website

Find guidance on getting started, how to go about purchasing a domain, and what type of content you shouldn’t forget to include.

How to set up a new business website.

Using website builder software

Web builder software lets you easily create a professional website without the need for a developer or agency support. Look at some of the options available with this Business Gateway guide.

Check out five software options for building a website.

How to upgrade an older website

Website design and technology has changed significantly in the last 20 years. If your website has been around for a while, it’s time to look at a newer version which will showcase your product in a more engaging way and make it easier for customers to browse and buy your products.

Find out what you need to consider when switching your website to a different website building platform such as Squarespace, WordPress, and Wix.

Think about how to upgrade your website.

Sustainable web design

The internet has a huge impact on sustainability – storing, sending and receiving data requires energy as well as physical infrastructure for data centres.

Learn more about how your website impacts your carbon footprint, and think about how you can reduce it.

Read an introduction to sustainable web design.

Find some top tips on making your current website more sustainable.

Learn how to design and build a sustainable website.

How to carry out an SEO audit on your website

Carrying out an SEO audit to see how your site is ranking and highlight any issues that could prevent good rankings. 

See how to carry out an SEO audit.

Data and website security

Keeping your website secure doesn’t have to be daunting. You can reduce your risk of cybercrime by:

Use secure passwords to protect your data

Three or more random words work best. Don’t use passwords such as pet’s names or your date of birth that can be found on your personal social media accounts.

Update your apps and software

Updates include protection from viruses and other kinds of malware, and fixing bugs so it’s important to install the latest updates as soon as possible.

Look out for phishing or fraudulent emails

Don’t give any personal data (especially banking details) in response to an email and don’t click on any links you think are suspicious.

Impersonating VisitScotland

If you are ever unsure of an email you receive from us – or think is from us – please get in touch:

  • email business support
  • forward suspicious emails to the relevant government email address

Find more information

Check out the cyber resilience toolkit by Business Gateway.

Get certified as secure with Cyber Essentials, a government-backed certification scheme.

Increase the user experience of your website

UX is the experience your visitors have each time they interact with your website or service. Understanding what your customers need can help you to improve the UX of your website. UX design is the process of designing experiences that are positive and as user-friendly as possible.

Improve your website user experience

Related pages

Search engine optimisation guide

Find out what search engine optimisation is and how to improve it on your tourism or event website.
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Creating good content

Find information and advice on creating and sharing good content across all of your digital channels.
Article
7 minute read

Photography tips

Create high quality images to impress customers and showcase the unique selling points of your business.
How-to
6 minute read

Manage your social media accounts

Find out how to use social media to share information about your business and inspire people to come and visit you.
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7 minute read

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