Winery Website Best Practices

One of the main reasons I've started building Terroir.me is to be a part of the the enjoyment people have when getting involved in wine. The site is focused with getting people out into the wine regions, to experience wine where it is grown and made and to talk to the people that are truly passionate about it. Actually being there, breathing the air, enjoying the surrounds and drinking wine is something, that if more people experienced — more people would appreciate great wine.

Obviously, building a website (up in the cloud) and being on the ground, in the regions are 2 very different things; but as more and more people are using the Internet to research flights, hotel rooms, food recommendations and wineries there is a huge opportunity to improve the experience people have browsing winery websites. Too often you browse to a winery website of which youve been recommended and all you seem to be able to find are stock photos of kids playing on the lawns, a few tasting notes and a hand drawn map.

Which is where Terroir.me can help. Our entire focus is on helping people actually find and go to cellar doors. For us, that doesn't just mean having them navigate through our site, but also helping to improve each and every winery website.

So I'm collating here a list of best practices for any winery website. Each of these things will generally be something very simple to implement in any CMS and will make the experience of the customer much more pleasant.

1. No Splash Page. A splash page is that first page you land on, often with a logo and a button that says "Enter Site". This does nothing for a customer save to make them jump through 1 more hoop to get to your site.
2. Simple navigation. There are a few top level items that should be on absolutely every winery page. Wines. Cellar Door. Contact Us. Where to Buy. These items should be named as close as possible to those and displayed prominently at the top of the page or down the left hand side.
3. Address and Contact Details. The address of the winery should be in the footer of every single page across the whole website. If visiting is by appointment only, make that clear with the address.
4. Map. The map of the winery should be displayed on the Contact Page and the Cellar Door page (No PDFs) and should be as easy as possible to read and follow. Terroir.me has a really easy to use map for any winery listed (and if you aren't listed you can just add yourself). All you need to do is head over to your winery page and click on the Embed tab, and follow the instructions. See Duncan Harris Organic as an example.