Key Points for Quality Website Review
As fall arrives, the color of trees begin to change, and the thought of winter coming floats through the mind of many of us in Canada.
At the golf course, staff begin to prepare to shut down their course and start preparing for their winter getaway to a warmer climate. Before you make that run for the border, there are some key website items you will want to take care of to ensure you’re ready for next season.
Website Analytics
From our experience installing and analyzing Google Analytics for Golf Courses, here are the top website metrics you should be tracking;
- Audience: Who is visiting your golf course website? Being able to understand your audience is key to growing your golf operations. Key metrics to accurately track and learn about your audience / customers are; number of users, pages viewed per session, location of users, and devices used to view your site (mobile, desktop, tablet). Currently in the Canadian Golf Industry, the top device used by golfers to view golf course websites is a mobile device, reinforcing the importance that golf courses need to have an attractive, functional mobile-friendly website.
- Acquisition: How are golfers arriving at your golf course website? Is it through Organic Search (website visitors who search a keyword and click on a search engine result), Direct to URL, Social (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and Referrals. Understanding how your website visitors arrive on your site will help you with your marketing efforts, allowing you to effectively plan your future marketing initiatives.
- Behavior: How can you help improve your visitors’ experiences, meet their needs and guide them toward booking a tee time or purchasing a membership? Google Analytics will show you what specific pages have been viewed, by whom and for how long. Behavior Flow, or how visitors navigate through your web pages, is a great metric that helps to identify your main revenue generating pages and if they are effectively positioned throughout your site.
Installing Google Analytics, and periodically monitoring the metrics, will help you accomplish many overall website objectives. One main benefit is tracking how to best convert new leads and customers.
Google recently updated their version of Analytics to v4. If you are having problems analyzing data in GA4, please reach out, and we can help you understand this data.
Website Content
Reviewing your website content is very important. Having incorrect or missing information can lead to confusion and upset golfers.
At the end of the season, simply open up your website in your desktop browser or mobile device and review the content on each page. Here’s a few things to look out for as you sift through your site:
- Incorrect dates – look at your tournament or league dates and make sure they are updated to reflect next season’s dates
- Wrong prices – review your pricing and make sure it is up to date
- Broken links – test any links you have on pages, including social links
- Contact info – review any emails of phone numbers listed on your site, and test your contact form to ensure it is working correctly
- Missing info – have you added any new services or any new people to your team you need to add to your site
- Mobile view – make sure to test your website on both a desktop and mobile device to ensure everything looks good on any device
Now What?
Want a second opinion?
Our team would be happy to review your site and provide you with a list of suggestions to improve your site.
Also, if you have set specific goals for your site, in regards to number or leads or sales you get, we can help with that as well. Our experienced team knows what it takes to convert visitors into leads and we can give you advice on how to best market your golf facility moving forward into next season.
