Decanter picked up the story Monday on the top ten Winery Websites in California, as chosen by the Winery Website Report. I just have one thing to say, are you kidding me?
Here’s the list:
- Lynmar Winery (83) www.lynmarwinery.com Valid HTML? (no)
- Clos Du Val Wine Co. (82) www.closduval.com Valid HTML? (no)
- EOS Estate Winery (81) www.eosvintage.com Valid HTML (no)
- King Estate Winery (80) www.kingestate.com Valid HTML? (no)
- Huntington Wine Cellars (79) www.huntingtonwine.com Valid HTML? (no)
- Nickel & Nickel (78) www.nickelandnickel.com Valid HTML? (no)
- Goldeneye (77) www.goldeneyewinery.com Valid HTML? (no)
- Lambert Bridge Winery (77) www.lambertbridge.com Valid HTML? (no)
- Wildhurst Vineyards (77) www.wildhurst.com Valid HTML? (no)
- Quivira Vineyards (75) www.quivirawine.com Valid HTML? (no)
First of all half of the sites still use a ton of tables for layout. Come on now, it’s almost 2006, sites should be using CSS more heavily by now. How am I supposed to access this from my cell phone and keep my data usage low, when say I’m tasting in the area, remembered a review, and want to find your address or phone number. All these sites should be standards compliant. They aren’t, as none of them validate!
Second, the design on a lot of these sites is cluttered and busy. Getting the information wanted shouldn’t require me having to sift through pretty design to find it. Where’s the accessibility?
Third, if you’re going to sell wine on the internet, you need a store. No, linking to a third party site doesn’t really cut it when you’re playing in the big leagues (and hiding it in frames doesn’t really work either). Spend the money on a shopping cart, put it on a secure server, and accept credit card orders online from your own website. I understand if you’re a small operation and don’t want the hassle, but come on, the sites that employ these methods shouldn’t be top ten.
Fourth, javascript only navigation is a bad idea. A lot of people turn off javascript, and some PDA’s can’t interpret it. I’m not saying never use it, but if that’s the only way people navigate your site, you should probably reconsider.
The best examples of good websites in this list were Quivira and Golden Eye, but both of these still have their problems.
Want to see a website that others should look to as an example instead of these sites?
Here it is: http://www.columbia-crest.com/
That’s a clean website. CSS, accessible, well laid out, easy to navigate, looks and works great. No store you say? They don’t need one. You can find their wine pretty much anywhere, why mess with shipping small quantities from web orders.
Hopefully this little rant didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings. I would personally be weary taking advice on webdesign from a company that isn’t even number one on Google for their own search term. (Ouch, that has to hurt)
P.S. I do free lance web design consulting, send me an email if you need some help with your winery website. Here’s a recent website I built, and yes, it validates, and is number one on Google for their search term.
Side note: (watch, I’ll surpass The Winery Website Report in Google in the next couple days with this story.)
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As with other things, the wine industry seems to lag behind when it comes to technology.
I’d be very happy to get rid of the cheesy music that comes up with many of the sites, too — do they think that’s going to put us in the mood for their wines?
One of the issues we still face in Australia is that some wineries dont even have a website at all. At the very least a few pages with the story and contact details are nice
When I plan on visiting a new wine region, the first step I take is to check out the websites, ones that impress generally get me to the cellar door.
There is a lot of talk about getting the younger generation excited about wine, well a website has surely got to be the first step!
This turned into an essay, good points that you made however
Very nice works. Welcome to add your content and web site on our directory, marketplace or forum.
http://www.planetliquor.com/main/suggest_a_site.asp
http://www.planetliquor.com/emarket/emarket_offer.asp
http://www.planetliquor.com/forum/forum.asp
Sandy,
You’re right. There are only a few categories of websites that can get away with music (or even flash intros for that matter) and wineries don’t seem to be one of them.
Murray,
Yeah, I got a little carried away there.
)
You make some good points.
Websites are a must for companies that need brand recognition. The next generation of wine consumer expects information, and if it’s unavailable, they’ll move on.
Actually I was referring to my comment being an essay
Murray,
That’s funny because I was thinking the same thing about my post.
)