Abby's Ramp Ramble: Is your website on the radar?

While word of mouth will always have a strong hold on a niche industry like aviation, those who neglect their digital presence in this online cacophony risk getting consumed by noise entirely. Sure, over time you can build a base clientele the old-fashioned way, but if you truly want to reach the widest audience possible and catch the freshest fish, you need to invest in your online outreach.This month we are going to discuss website hosting and development. It's a topic that many FBO managers dread, so I want this ramble to help with the process.GlobalAir.com has supported aviation as an online resource for over 30 years. In addition to our own practices, I've interviewed our COO, Clay Martin, whose knowledge of search engine optimization and web development significantly dwarfs my own. Let's just say I'm glad he's on our side.Check Your Website PerformanceSome of you reading already have an established website, while others may be spooling their engines. Before we proceed with best practices, Martin gave me a few easy checks that you can do right now, regardless of technical proficiency, to gauge the current health and quality of your website:The 5-second test. Open your website on your phone, since that's how several of your customers will. Within five seconds, can a pilot or planner answer the most common questions about your facility (even if they are visiting for the first time)? If not, you might have areas for optimization.Get a free performance score. Paste your URL into Google's PageSpeed Insights tool. It will grade the speed and mobile experience of your site and give a technical description of what is slowing you down.Search like a customer. In an incognito tab, Google your airport code plus "FBO", or other relevant search terms, the way a pilot or planner might. How well does Google recognize your business as an authority in the field?Ask an AI about yourself. The number of individuals using AI chatbots to research a purchase is increasing rapidly. Ask ChatGPT, Claude or Perplexity about what services your FBO offers. Is the answer accurate? Did it cite your actual website?If you don't have a website yet, those last two bullets are also helpful benchmarks for brand awareness.Choosing a Web Hosting RouteIf you have a live website, do you host your own, go through a webmaster or work with a marketing consultant? There is no shortage of web builders who can assist if you don't speak code, but how can you be sure which route is best?If you have some existing developer know-how under your belt, Martin states that WordPress provides all the tools you need to build a great website with a compelling UI/UX. However, because it is a popular platform, it is also the most attacked and requires regular updates and backups. WordPress offers a managed premium version that takes most of that off your plate.Alternatively, those looking for more of a plug-and-play style might opt for hosted builders like Squarespace. These builders trade some customization for near-zero maintenance and included security features. If you do not have IT staff on call or a techy background, this might be the best approach for you.Hosting in-house shouldn't be a massive expense. A typical web domain runs around $20/year, and a website builder plan or decent shared host can land around $150-600 per year. The real cost is your time in building and maintaining the site, which does take considerable effort.Because of that, FBOs may opt for the more expensive - yet heavily simplified - outsourced or contract route. Here are a few bits of advice, courtesy of Martin.When selecting a web vendor, be it an individual webmaster or marketing consultant, search for someone who genuinely listens and strives to understand your specific challenges, goals for growth, and target audience messaging. While industry experience is a plus, a subject matter expert who puts forth a good-faith effort to truly understand your brand is priceless. Ask prospective vendors how generative AI has changed the way they work with clients. Every serious web shop has had to adapt to modern search trends over the past several years. Expect a thoughtful or substantial answer to this.Finally, watch for these red flags: anyone who guarantees #1 rankings, requires a lock-in to a proprietary platform you don't own, or registers your domain, hosting or analytics under their own accounts.You will definitely pay for that time cost when outsourcing. You might expect to spend anywhere from a couple thousand to well over $10K up-front depending on how custom your design is, with maintenance plans averaging between $50-$200 per month. Costs can climb even quicker with UI/UX consulting, custom design work and ongoing SEO. The Convergence of SEO and AEOSEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is how web developers keep your information discoverable and listed high in general search results. AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, reframes content in a way that is easily read by AI crawlers researching a user question. Every time you Google something and receive an AI overview, the gap between SEO and AEO thins.So, what can an FBO do to stay competitive? Per Martin, structure web content so that a customer's answer sits in plain text near the top of a given page (or further down for an answer requiring more detail). This text must be simple and direct, so a search engine or Large Language Model (LLM) can easily quote or synthesize the information in response.At GlobalAir.com, we spend a lot of real effort deciding which AI crawlers get in and which stay out. We want our content to be findable by legitimate search engines and LLMs, but we do not want models to train on our proprietary data. This effort makes sense when a business is built around proprietary data at scale. A single-location FBO usually isn't in that position and is better off letting bots in and structuring the site with them in mind.Hold on to your socks because here comes a technical tip: Martin recommends ensuring your 'robots.txt' isn't blocking legitimate AI crawlers, noting that plenty of websites block them by accident or by default. Your customers are already asking AI questions, but you might not be part of the answer if you don't give crawlers easy access.Avoid Stale InformationI'm always yapping about keeping information current regarding your FBO listings on GlobalAir.com, and that's because these small details truly do make a difference in search.In the past, keeping online information up-to-date provided pilots and planners with basic information before flying to a new location. Now, with how easily incorrect information can be propagated - especially when a chatbot will confidently spit out anything online as truth - your digital info currency conveys quality and reliability more than ever.To avoid misinformation spread, Martin recommends assigning an internal 'owner' to your website and digital presence - even if that owner is you, and preferably someone directly involved with the FBO. This person should have an intimate understanding of the company, oversee routine reviews of critical data (hours, fuel, services, etc.), and initiate updates through the appropriate channels when necessary.While your services page might not change often, it's in your best interest to keep things like fuel prices, events calendars or special promotions current on your website and beyond. This person should oversee your presence on Airport Resource Centers like GlobalAir.com, pointing back to the main website as necessary to maintain a single source of truth.What's Coming NextWith all this talk about AI and shifting search trends, I want to take a moment to look toward the future. As stated, people are increasingly utilizing AI to research their next purchase. Some are bypassing search engines entirely in favor of chatbots. When time is money, there is no reason to read through a whole page of links when AI can give you the answer directly.Websites that do nothing to adapt are seeing a drop in impressions and clicks. However, Martin notes the value of AI citations. Often, AI will link to the website it pulled the answer from. How you address AI on your website determines whether your information is shown and if your website will be linked in a chat response.It is simply a different funnel, but one you can still use to garner credibility and engagement if you play your cards right.If all this makes your head spin, why not let us host your site? Our Platinum package - GlobalAir.com's top marketing tier for FBOs - runs a flat $800 per year and covers a robust set of marketing tools on its own. Platinum FBOs are eligible for simple website hosting through our platform at no additional cost. You send us design requirements, and we handle the hard part. After all, we're here to help.___If you ever want to chat about your website, I don't mind offering my time for a quick consultation. Feel free to reach out to me directly at [email protected] or 502-456-3935 any time.And as always, safe fueling!Abby's Ramp Ramble is a monthly news and opinion column that serves the FBO industry. Abigail Sheets maintains the GlobalAir.com Airport Resource Center and serves as its Director. Her background is in aviation maintenance and management. She graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering Technology, an MS in Aviation and Aerospace Management and a certificate in Data Sciences.