Whether you're a full-fledged travel agency or a one-person operation, travel web design helps potential customers find you. It's common for people to research information about their vacation online, and you want to put your business in front of these people.

If you don't know how to create a good web design for travel site, you don't have to throw in the towel just yet. With a good travel web site designer, you could be on your way to increased sales.

When interviewing potential travel web designers, you should always ask:

1. When can I expect my site to be finished? Travel website designers have different turnaround times based on how busy they are. If you need your site quickly, choose a designer that doesn't have much on their plate.

2. How can you make my site unique? There are many travel sites on the Internet, so it's important that your travel website design stands out among the crowd.

3. What will you do if I'm not satisfied? It's important to know your travel web designer's revision policy. In most cases, a designer will allow for at least one free revision in their site estimate.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Choose only designers that focus on travel web design

You want a designer that understands your industry, so it's best to find travel web designers that have experience creating travel sites. When you do this, there is less likely to be miscommunication and wasted time spent on explanations.

I recommend: Contact Donald Peterson at Newark1 for some creative travel web design work. Alternatively, check out Visualscope, which has been designing sites for the travel industry since 1999.

Save money by using templates for your travel website design

If you know a bit of HTML, but don't consider yourself a designer, you can cut costs by using a template for your website. Travel web templates are a mere fraction of the cost of traditional site design. By making a few changes to the template, you will have a site that is uniquely yours.

I recommend: Creating Online offers several templates that are perfect for those in the travel industry. Web Template X has a variety of templates at prices to suit every budget.

Hire an SEO specialist to help with web design for travel sites

When most people think about travel websites, they think of the big name sites such as Expedia, Cheap Tickets and Priceline. This makes it particularly difficult for a small company to make their name known. Fortunately, with search engine optimization, you will be able to get to the top of the search engine results when people search for your area of specialty.

I recommend: Zeus Design will take care of the design of your site, but also focuses on creating an Internet marketing strategy. Web Fodder also features a wide range of services including design and search engine optimization.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Decide ahead of time who will be responsible for updating your site. If you can handle this in-house, it will certainly be cheaper and more effective. However, if you don't have the skills or manpower necessary for that, you can easily hire travel web site designers to maintain your site on a regular basis.