Tropical Traveler is Still Growing

“You never learn it all or get it absolutely right the first time,” says Chuck Lunsford, Tropical Traveler’s director of product development. Especially when you’re developing a Web site from scratch without a technology background, as he did. Still, Lunsford and his team got a whole lot of things nearly right, and they continue to polish and refine. Within two years, they climbed into the top Internet slots for their first two visitor destination resource sites, tropical traveler.com and orlandohotels.com, “by bringing lots of eyeballs” to resorts, hotels, and other tourist businesses in Southwest Florida and Orlando.

“I attend seminars, read online newsletters, pay attention to reader e-mail, and toss ideas around. Then we see what takes shape,” says Lunsford. He recommends a similar program of early and continuing education for anyone interested in savvy Web design, search engine structure, and Internet marketing.

A smart place to start is in evaluating competitor and industry-specific Web site samples; taking note of the most inviting and effective and who designs them; then interview Web masters for a candidate who can bring your vision to reality. “There are reasons why some sites work better than others,” says Lunsford.

Tropicaltraveler.com, the firm’s first regional site, was built by Lunsford and his boss, a Sanibel resort owner, through trial and error. Lunsford, a self-taught photographer, shot decent pictures. The owner, a published author, wrote readable copy. Functionally, though, it was “a bit clunky.”

E-mail soon alerted them that, though fairly easy to navigate, viewers demanded heightened visual appeal. More photos and more copy plus more sophisticated software and an in-house Web master subsequently produced a 2001 overhaul that features an easy-to-navigate, eye-catching magazine format.

This up-to-date design, introduced last September on the company’s second site, orlandohotels.com, reads easily from left to right, shows information to advantage, and carries display ads that link visitors with clients’ home pages. Hotels, resorts, and other accommodations, “which drive the tourism industry,” anchor both the Southwest Florida and Orlando ventures. A few restaurants, real estate brokers, and attractions also pay for affiliation. But scads of other information, from recreation to history to local weather pages, also appear on the site.

Lunsford points out that “We’re not the best or the fastest, but our sites are practical.” They work well in delivering results. One third of the site’s earlier visitors, in planning their annual winter getaway, returned to check out tropicaltraveler.com in its second season.

Half of the two sites’ daily visitors — 3,000 to 5,000 for Southwest Florida, 1,500 to 2,500 for Orlando (counting viewers, not clicks, as “hits”) — come via 1,500 pertinent domain names. These were culled from an original list of 2,000 domain names purchased at bulk rates, which cost less than a third of the $35 price tag for a single domain name. Examples include sanibel.com, captiva.com, fortmyersbeachfishing.com, naplesfloridagolfing.com and southwest floridamotels.com. The other half of site visitors locate the company’s Web sites using Internet search engines.

“Unless and until you completely overhaul your site, you get just one chance to index it with human database editors,” counsels Lunsford. “So do it right.”

Editors are the king and queen pins who determine your site’s ranking, that is, whether or not it appears in the top 10 to 30 of the thousands of listings turned up on-screen by search engines. Today’s trend is toward the use of human editors. Lunsford notes that sites can get bumped up or down a list whenever an editor arbitrarily elects to revisit it. They favor sites showing continual updates and improvements. Static sites that look and feel neglected can lose ground.

The same rule of “active versus static” site status applies to automated indexing by other search engines. Automated indexes do, however, afford periodic opportunities to resubmit and improve a site’s standing.

“We’ve gained a lot by knowing how to take advantage of search engines,” says Lunsford. “We’re attending more seminars, constantly refining strategies, and scratching our heads less.” At the moment he likes Lycos and HotBot. In his book, Yahoo and AltaVista are underperforming. He notes that poor internal Web site structure is the reason many of the best, most informative Web sites don’t make it into the top 10. Which is why he generally checks out the top 30.

Building a complete, totally functional Web site offline is a wise move. “Bringing a site online only after it is thoroughly tested and ready to go will save a business headaches and grief,” Lunsford advises. The same goes for revisions and rebuilds. Neither visitors nor search engine editors stay interested after encountering a “site under construction” notice. The same is true when broken links fail to take a viewer to associated Web pages. One click, and a valuable visitor has checked out. That makes a difference when the conversion rate from Looky Lou’s to paid reservations at a site like tropical traveler.com averages 3 to 5 percent.

More and more, people are using the Internet for destination information. TV ads routinely refer viewers to specific Internet search engines. The Tropical Traveler and Orlando Hotel staff field 25 to 40 e-mails a day. Lunsford says he feels like the Shell Answer Man, responding to visitor inquiries, and to many questions already answered on the Web pages. He’s not complaining, though. Such feedback zeros in on what consumers want. As he continues to listen, traffic continues to grow, at about 10 percent a year.

Traffic will jump to new heights as Lunsford’s staff introduces additional Web sites. Tampa is set to become the third corporate enterprise. Divers.com likely will follow. A mega project involving 20,000 campgrounds throughout North America tempts the imagination. Opportunities appear limitless.

“We’re surprised by the variety of activities people seek during their travels,” says Lunsford. The challenge is to expand smart, letting business drive direction and timing. Managers expect the new sites to repeat and exceed profitability of inaugural sites, which even with a significant learning curve produced modest profit within the first year. Overhead remains low, and both hardware and software packages are available at reasonable cost.

Concurrently, Lunsford’s online advertising rates have remained stable, making his companies’ tourist directories by far the most cost-effective buy for clients. He knows this, because he tracks his own advertising effectiveness using a battery of 800 numbers. For example, he’s seen that marketing his sites over the Internet outperforms his AAA display ad by 3 to 1. A highly cost-effective promotional brochure far outdistances national travel magazine ads.

Lunsford offers a final word of advice. “Take care not to move too far or too fast, or to topple off your target. Always pay close attention to your core business.”

S. Alison Chabonais is a freelance business writer based in