The Smallest Details Can Make the Biggest Difference on Your Website
One statement that can have a significant impact on the overall success of your Golf Course Website is “sometimes, simplest is best”.
Through your advertising and marketing, one of your main objectives is driving people to your Golf Course website where they can view more information on your rates, services and offerings. Are you making it easy for your website visitors to find the information they came there for?
Spending some time on your pages and page content is important, but equally important is naming your pages and listing your pages effectively in the top menu, or “Navigation Menu”. Making your website easy to navigate will encourage your website visitors to spend more time on your site, which ultimately leads to more sales and overall revenue.
From our experience designing and developing websites, here are a few points to consider when laying out your website navigation and pages;
Descriptive Labels in your navigation are good for search engines
Use your main navigation as a place to start telling golfers and search engines about what you offer. Using a page title such as “Golf Lessons” is better than “Services”, and the more specific you are, the better. Your navigation appears on every page of your website, and a more descriptive page title or label shows Google that you are truly about that topic. No one is searching for “products” or “services”, so these descriptive labels don’t help with search engine rankings.
Limit the number of Navigation Menu Items to seven
Fewer items in your navigation are good for search engines and fewer items in your navigation are good for visitors as our short-term memory holds only seven items, plus or minus two. It’s important to determine what your main revenue generators are at your golf facility, and ensure your navigation menu lists them. If weddings are one of your top sources of revenue, you need a dedicated “Weddings” page listed in your main navigation menu.
The Order of your Website Navigation is Important
Just like any list, items at the beginning and the end are the most effective, because this is where attention and retention are highest. So put the most popular, important items at the beginning of the navigation. Not sure what those are? Talk to your website provider about installing and adding Google Analytics to your website.
Optimizing your Website Navigation will accomplish many overall website objectives, including; how high your site will rank in search engines (SEO), how much traffic your site will receive from search, how easy your site is to use and what percentage of website visitors will convert into new leads and customers.
Visit our YasGolf Learning Centre each month and learn about the many ways to effectively utilize your Golf Course website and grow your bottom line at your Golf Facility.
