Hunter Valley Wine Country Tourism Website Update
In the month of July we recorded the following results for the website:
- New visits are up by 19% on same period last year
- Website visits are up 10% on same period last year with 45,424 visits
- Direct traffic to the site is up 65% compared to last year.
This means people that directly type our url into the browser. This is an indication that our marketing campaign efforts to build awareness for our website are working. These results are slightly skewed due to the launch of the new website and members directly typing in the address.
- Traffic from search engines is up 7.5%
Referrals to the site via the search term ‘Hunter Valley Accommodation’ is up 34%. Again, this could be attributed to the marketing campaign converting people to visit the Hunter Valley and is also an direct effect of our improved search rankings on Google. We are now consistently listing as a top 3 site under these search terms, up by 4 spaces.
- Bookings through the website compared to last year are up 48% in the number of bookings and 52% in dollar value. 139 bookings worth $55,516 were made online. This business was not cannibalized business from our normal VIC bookings but represent additional business gained. This means more $$$ are flowing back into our marketing budget.
The new website is a constant work in progress & you will notice changes occurring on a daily basis, and we appreciate your patience with the changes that are occurring.
Here are some important points to note regarding the new website:
- All Accommodation & Tour operators can now make change in BookEasy which will then be reflected on the website (as was with the previous website, with the exception of the order of images for the moment). The update takes approximately 1 hour from BookEasy to the new site. If you require your BookEasy login, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Naomi.
- For Restaurant, Winery, Service, Weddings & Attractions members, the login on the website is disabled for the moment as we are working to rebuild this part of the site, so you are unable to login as you previously did on the website. If you wish to make any changes to your listing, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Naomi.
- You may notice that your images may have changed in look; this is due to the size. The size of your image for the new website needs to be 392w x 252h pixels for optimum results. Any other size will possibly create distortion. If you wish to change your images, please change them to this size & forward them on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to Naomi.
An email will be sent to all members regarding the website in the coming weeks which will update you on the progress & provide you a username &password for the new site. If you have any questions regarding the website in the meantime, please feel free to email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..