The Best Website Wins – Part 2

American Adventure Expeditions

Our fourth site (and runner-up) could easily make an argument to be the winner. And, I would be willing to bet their website wins them plenty of customers. It is immediately visually stunning. The logo is classic and the red is used very effectively throughout the site.

Navigation is just great on this site - intuitive and practical. Right at the top you can request a brochure, click the "Book Now" button and get their phone number. Top menu options cover primary service offerings and packages as well as photo/video and useful general information.

The slider utilizes stunning images of happy customers, especially kids which serves to calm the fears of parents and kids alike. The messaging is fantastic as well pulling on everyone's sense of adventure and putting customer testimonials right out front. It's also very intelligent to have the Trip Advisor badge in the bottom left corner of the slider that has rotating testimonials from the site. Provides immediate assurance that this company is great at what they do and their customers are happy. It also promotes convenience and proximity to areas where their customers will be coming from.

The "Find Your Adventure" widget is well placed and works exactly how you'd expect it to. The rest of the home page gives more detailed information on their services as well as social media activity and a newsletter sign up.

Not really much to critique with this site. It's really, really strong. I would have liked to see social media icons at the top of the site. Their home page could also use some space to promote the other activities they offer in addition to rafting like ATV's, horseback riding, train rides etc. This information is available under Mountain Adventures, but you don't get the sense that they offer all the activities they do from the home page.

It's also important to note that this site excels from an SEO perspective. Their company name and domain don't contain "rafting" or "Colorado" and yet they come up one page 1 for those keywords.

Check back next week for part 3 of "The Best Website Wins" in which we analyze the winning website.