The Best Website Wins – Part 1

The best website wins - period.

So, here's a real world example of this in action. Before heading to Colorado back in July, I started looking for rafting options for the family. I looked at a handful of websites and looked at packages, rates, locations trying to figure out what to do. Ultimately, I chose a company called AVA (Arkansas Valley Adventures) and one of the primary reasons was their website.

First, let's look at some of the other rafting companies and their websites for comparison purposes.

Liquid Descent

To be frank, this site just simply lacks impact and is the most limited I found in terms of lead capture and booking online. It's not a bad site, but when you have to go 3 levels deep to find trip info and a "Book Now" button - that's more difficult than it should be. Also, there is a general lack of quality images and the testimonials on the site are dated.

Rafting Colorado

This site is quite a bit different than the other sites on our list in a couple of major ways. First off, it's a portal site to rafting providers in the area. In other words, once you get into the site it links to other websites who have paid to be on this site. This is why the site is not set up to navigate by services and packages like the other sites we are reviewing. Instead, you select from a list of rivers or cities to raft which then gives you a list of providers. This is not an uncommon strategy for a company or person who owns a valuable domain name. Instead of operating a business, they sell spots on their site in order to make money. This concept has declined over the years because people have to navigate through more pages to get to the information they want, which often results in going to another site.

Colorado Adventure Center

Ok, our third site is Colorado Adventure Center. There are quite a few positives here worth noting --

1. The imagery used is a step up from the first two sites
2. The slider promotes their three primary offerings
3. There is a promotional rotating image immediately visible with current specials
4. They have a video on the home page
5. About copy gives you plenty of information on the company
6. They have an option for packages in the top nav

The negatives are few, but important. First, the site overall is very muted and lacks visual punch. Second, the "Book Now" button is at the bottom of the page and, third, there are no customer testimonials on the home page.

Check back tomorrow for part 2 of this blog series in which we look at the runner-up website.