What to check before a trekking website rebuild

Save it first

Before we changed anything on Nature Excursion’s website, we saved a copy of the whole site. A rebuild changes many pages at once. A copy lets you check what was there, and put back anything that should not have gone.

Read every trip and guide

Then we read every trip and every guide, and checked their facts against sources. The fact-check flagged nearly 3% of the checked items as wrong, alongside items that still needed confirmation. On a site that sells treks, a wrong fact on a trip page is a promise the company cannot keep.

List what works against the company

We also listed the obstacles we found on the old site:

• Its Book This Trip button sent guests to an outside checkout
• Its trip planner asked a long list of required questions
• Its spam check expired while guests were still typing, so messages failed
• Each page picked its own colours and type sizes
• The company’s name was spelt several ways, beside more than one phone number

These were specific issues for the rebuild to address.

Then decide what to rebuild

A rebuild brief is stronger when it names the problems the new site must resolve.