Getting things together for your new ADVAIA-Signature Independent Agent Web Site

5/30/2018 11:27:42 AM

The process of getting your content and images together for your new Responsive Web Site is really not as hard as you might think! Here are the step-by-step instructions that will assist you in completing this process in a very short time.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• Your Welcome email from ADVAIA with the link to the production area and your user name and password.
• A blank NOTEPAD document to add your answers to the production area.
• A source for Licensed images. These can be your own images or images that you purchase from a company like CanStockPhoto.com. When using CanStockPhoto most images you select will be the "Small JPEG" size. See specifics below. ADVAIA will format the images to size. DO NOT SELECT VERTICAL IMAGES as these will be cropped to be horizontal losing a lot of the image. You also have the option of using personal photo's that you have taken during your travels. If they are images taken by someone else you will need some type of permission, in writing, to use them. Keep the permission email or document with your company papers. To determine if personal images meet the size requirements right click on the image and select "PROPERTIES". This will tell you if the image is at least, or larger, than the required size needed.
• The login information from the company that you bought your domain name from. This is called your "REGISTRAR".
• Your Social Media Links.

So let's get started:

The production area is broken up into 2 main sections under GETTING STARTED: Submit Web Site Content and Upload Files for the Development Team. In the section called Submit Web Site Content we encourage you to review this first then put your answers in the NOTEPAD document, see above.

YOU MUST COMPLETE THIS PROCESS IN THE ORDER INDICATED BELOW. DO NOT UPLOAD IMAGES FIRST!

NOTE: Every field and every question needs to be complete. If you do not have input for any area, please place N/A in that field. The process will not submit and move to the Upload File section unless every field has a response.

The first section is COMPANY INFORMATION. This will already be pre-populated from your profile provided to us by your Host Agency. Make sure that this information is correct. It may not include your FAX, TOLL FREE NUMBER or HOURS OF OPERATION, add these if you have them. Please do not change the format of the phone numbers; (000) 000-0000 or anything else that is filled in! We have these set for a reason.

If you do not wish to have your address shown on your web site, please check that box.

Your site will be required to show the Host Agency Seller of Travel number. Please enter that number in this space. You can also provide your IATA and CLIA numbers or those of your Host Agency in these fields. These will not appear on your new site. If you do not know these numbers please place "N/A" in these fields.

The second section is YOUR DOMAIN NAME / REGISTRAR'S INFORMATION. This is who you bought your domain name from. For example: If you purchased from GoDaddy, then that is what you enter as http://www.godaddy.com. Please make sure to include the complete URL for your registrar so that we do not have to look for it! The User Name and Password are what you created when you purchased your domain name and set-up your account.

IMPORTANT: Please make sure that you have tested your login to your registrar before providing this information!

The third section is WEBSITE INFORMATION. Your URL should already be listed. Please make sure that this is correct. Then select the theme (color scheme) for your new site. The Template has working links that allow you to view the template and change the color scheme. Once you have the theme selected, choose that from the drop-down menu.

The fourth section is your META TAG INFORMATION. Meta Tags (tile and description): The Meta Description doesn't just have to be in sentence format; it's also a great place to include structured data about the page. For example, news or blog postings can list the author, date of publication, or byline information. This can give potential visitors very relevant information that might not be displayed in the snippet otherwise. Similarly, product pages might have the key bits of information—price, age, manufacturer—scattered throughout a page. A good meta description can bring all this data together. For example, the following meta description provides detailed information about a travel agency: ABC Travel is your one stop travel expert specializing in River Cruises, Caribbean vacations and cruises, Family and Multi-Generational travel and Hotels & Resorts to exotic and exciting destinations.
Meta Title Should always include the name of your company and may include some additional information about your site—for instance, "ABC Travel, your trusted Travel Agency". Make sure that you do not exceed the 155 character limit for your description or it will get cut-off in the search results.

The fifth area is pretty simple. This is where you list all your SOCIAL MEDIA & CO-BRAND AFFILIATIONS. Please make sure that you check your URL's prior to adding them in this section! All links should begin with http:// or https. You do not have to provide the name of the Social Media as that will be contained in the URL. If you have co-brand links with suppliers you will enter these next. a co-brand link is not like http://www.ncl.com. A link to a supplier web site will allow your visitors to book directly with them! A supplier co-brand link will generally include the name of your company; http://www.ncl.com/abctravel/.

Then let is know if you want Tour Sales and Shore Excursion Group links include your company logo. This is highly recommended. If you do not, then the logo will be for Shore Excursion Group. Select Yes or No here. If your Host Agency uses ShoreTrips ADVAIA does not have a relationship with their company and cannot request a white label. You would need to contact them directly and then provide ADVAIA with that link in the special instructions area.

The sixth area is your Welcome and About Us copy. Both of these should describe your company, what you do, your experience with destinations and suppliers. The Welcome copy should be a short version and the About Us more expanded. Always use "we" and "us" to give the appearance that you are more than one person! The two sections should NOT BE IDENTICAL!

The seventh section is your personal BIO which can also be written as "we" and "us". This expands on your experience, places where you have been and your specialties.

NOTE: The About Us copy and all the BIO information you submit will appear on the same page (About Us). You can only include one (1) photo. If there are more individuals in your agency, then you should submit a photo that contains all the individuals. When adding multiple BIOS, list them in consecutive order in the "Biography" field. Top Destinations, Specialties and Recent Trips generally are the same. If not, list in consecutive order as well. See image requirements below.

The final section is special instructions. Here you would add your Google Analytics tracking code so that you can track the visits to your new web site. You can also add any notes to our developers related to your new web site. Google Analytics is a FREE web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google launched the service in November 2005 after acquiring Urchin. Google Analytics is now the most widely used web analytics service on the Internet. To learn more Click Here. ADVAIA does not set up your Analytics account for you. Google Analytics is highly recommended.

Now review the Check List. This will help you get ready for uploading your images and logo to us in the final step to submit everything to us. When ready, click the "Proceed & Upload Files" button. Upon clicking this button, if the page does not move to the upload page, your submission is not complete. Please go back to each section and confirm that there is something in each field.

Here are the specifics for what you will be uploading in the next section:

• Your Logo should be in one of the following formats: JPG, GIF, EPS or PNG. The finished logo on the site will be approximately 320 pixels wide by 150 pixels tall (A horizontal logo is recommended. A square logo will be 150 x 150 and hardly readable.).
• So that we will know what image goes where, please make sure that you have named them accordingly. If they are submitted without a designation where they should go this will delay the start of your new web site.
  DO NOT UPLOAD MORE THAN THE FOLLOWING IMAGES!
  Your Logo, Cruises, Vacations, Hotels & Resorts, Hawaii, Mexico, Alaska, Welcome and About Us. All images should be between 650 - 750 pixels wide and horizontal! You will also need a large Enter Sweepstakes background image (this image needs to be at least 1600 x 600 pixels wide and horizontal). ADVAIA will format all the images to size based on the template.
  
  All images should be clearly named as to where they are to be placed on the site. For example; if you purchase the image from CanStockPhoto, the name when you download it will appear like this: CSP123456789. Right click on the saved image and then choose rename. The new name should not contain any spaces; cruise_image or cruise-image or just cruises.