Coollattin Golf Club is based in Shillelagh Co. Wicklow, is an 18 hole layout set in beautiful and historic Coollattin Park. The club has had different websites over the last 25 years and the committee felt that their previous offering wasn’t reflective of what the club was trying to be in 2023. It didn’t sell the club of the course well, it didn’t have a clear navigational system, it lacked a ‘wow factor’. It didn’t have a clear message – the clubs priorities weren’t made clear on the old site. In short – the previous site was underselling the club considerably.
One of the things that we concentrated on with the project was to make the new site as image / video rich as we could. Coollattin is a beautiful place and we needed to make that front and centre. With this in mind we incorporated a video background on the homepage showing off the natural beauty of the setting. Drone footage sweeps in and out of the tall trees, unique features, beautiful parkland and draws the eye of the visitor in immediately. The homepage is light on words – but heavy on imagery. It acts as a portal to the rest of the site where the visitor can easily see and browse the sections that are of interest to them.
One of the club’s top priorities was attracting new members – ladies & men, old & young. With this in mind we designed a navigation system what would have a ‘Become A Member’ button prominent on each page of the site. We also sprinkled attractive call to action sections linking to the membership page throughout the site to funnel interested visitors to that section. The membership process was paper based – we introduced new online application forms which are more efficient for the applicant, more efficient for the club and environmentally friendlier.
Another thing that the club felt was lacking was a course guide section. This is one of the most sought after resources on any golf club website for people that have never been there but are thinking of joining or visiting. Again we chose to use drone footage here to highlight the beauty and quality of the golf course. Each of the 18 hoes are covered in an attractive way that is easy to follow and navigate.
The club is very active on social media – indeed club news and results are shared through Facebook. We were able to pull in the club’s Facebook feed directly onto their site giving a dynamic feel to their homepage. As posts are created on Facebook – they appear on the website with absolutely no effort from anybody in the club. Likewise their Instagram feed is pulled automatically on the bottom of each page and this is a great way to keep content fresh and grow the social media audience.
Coollattin Golf Club is seen as a very friendly and welcoming place – and the course is seen as a real hidden gem in Ireland. The club is lucky to have over 200 (and growing) Google Reviews – the vast majority of which are very positive. We were able to pull these reviews into the new website homepage and display them in an attractive way – making it clear to visitors that Coollattin comes very highly recommended.
Overall the new website is easier to use, easier on the eye and in our view, stands out from the crowd.
See the result here.
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