Of course, not all European websites are rubbish but I think I will give some examples of the bad and the good. American brewery websites just seem far more impressive, that said, perhaps it has something to do with the ability for breweries to make money in the US versus in Europe.
I have already mentioned Worthington's and Kristy from Molson Coors has assured me they are going to get on top of things but apart from a lack of info, broken code is just not something that should be tolerated by a brewery, especially one with the backing of Molson Coors where money is not much of an issue.
Another recent example is the Darkstar brewery. They actually have a brilliant website packed with info and tasting notes. It is let down, in my opinion anyway, with forcing a reader to open a PDF file to read about their beers instead of having the info as part of the website itself. There are a number of reasons that this is bad.
It's the annoyance factor more than anything though, if you are on a slow computer like the one you use in work (at lunchtime of course) then it could take up to a minute to open a PDF within a browser and can often crash your poor 10 year old PC. Maybe it's just me but personally I think all the relevant info should be on the website as simple HTML and then let people download a content rich PDF if they want more info or to print it out.
Fullers does it right. The website is not as shiny as the Darkstar one but it is perfectly functional and all the info is right there on the site complete with tasting notes.
I can move on then to some Irish brewery sites because they can't be excused either and the big problem with Irish breweries is actually keeping things up to date, even if their website itself is not too bad.
Hilden has an OK website but again, they hold a large beer festival every year and the last one would appear to be 2006. In fact I am planning on going to Hilden 2011 next weekend. Since they don't have a flash website there is no excuse not to keep it up.
I think it is time to give some positive examples, I touched on some positives already but these are pretty flawless in my opinion. They also share something in common, despite the fact they are from two different countries.
From Ireland we have Metalman with a similar type website. This is a new brewery, so new in fact that they have not opened their permanent brewery yet. Up until now, they have been brewing at the White Gypsy brewery (another one that has a useless website). In fact they have only been brewing (available) for the last 6 months. They have recently signed a lease on their waterford premises so hopefully we will have more from them soon. Their website is also kept up to date and they use social media very effectively. They also secured their brand in brilliant fashion. You can already buy apparel and even a Frisbee.
While Metalman is not as polished as the Adnams site, these two websites share one thing in common. They are not in fact websites. Well they are but they aren't. You see, both of them are run on wordpress and that is a blogging platform, just like this site is run on blogger. Wordpress is more capable than blogger and is easier to make a blog look like a website. Search engines love blogs so Metalman and Adnams are very easy for Google and the like to crawl. They are also so easy to update yourself that you can make sweeping changes in a matter of minutes and from any computer or even a phone or tablet pc.
I am not suggesting that all breweries go out and change their website to a blog hosted website but for new breweries, or for those that struggle to keep things up to date, I certainly do suggest that they consider it. At the very least, if a brewery has no website (yes there are some) then they should at least start a blog and host it using their own domain name. Something that takes almost no technical ability whatsoever.
US breweries often have very impressive websites.
I have already mentioned Worthington's and Kristy from Molson Coors has assured me they are going to get on top of things but apart from a lack of info, broken code is just not something that should be tolerated by a brewery, especially one with the backing of Molson Coors where money is not much of an issue.
Another recent example is the Darkstar brewery. They actually have a brilliant website packed with info and tasting notes. It is let down, in my opinion anyway, with forcing a reader to open a PDF file to read about their beers instead of having the info as part of the website itself. There are a number of reasons that this is bad.
It's the annoyance factor more than anything though, if you are on a slow computer like the one you use in work (at lunchtime of course) then it could take up to a minute to open a PDF within a browser and can often crash your poor 10 year old PC. Maybe it's just me but personally I think all the relevant info should be on the website as simple HTML and then let people download a content rich PDF if they want more info or to print it out.
Fullers does it right. The website is not as shiny as the Darkstar one but it is perfectly functional and all the info is right there on the site complete with tasting notes.
I can move on then to some Irish brewery sites because they can't be excused either and the big problem with Irish breweries is actually keeping things up to date, even if their website itself is not too bad.
The Franciscan Well has two issues as far as I am concerned. On the face of it the website looks quite nice. The problem is that it's entirely flash based. This gives you a few issues. One is search engine crawling. Google can actually crawl flash to some degree now but it is still not as reliable as a standard html type website. The other is that you can't link directly to a page, again that cause problems with SEO. And lastly, flash sites are much harder to update which might explain why The Franciscan Well, which holds the biggest (and most) beer festivals in Ireland by the way, list the last Easterfest as 2008!
You also exclude iPhones and iPads and any other device that does not have flash support, assuming there are any others....
Hilden has an OK website but again, they hold a large beer festival every year and the last one would appear to be 2006. In fact I am planning on going to Hilden 2011 next weekend. Since they don't have a flash website there is no excuse not to keep it up.
I think it is time to give some positive examples, I touched on some positives already but these are pretty flawless in my opinion. They also share something in common, despite the fact they are from two different countries.
Firstly from the UK we have Adnams. A very clear and concise website that is always kept up to date. Everything is listed on the site, no PDF files to open etc. The beer descriptions have tasting notes and awards listed. It is very well laid out and comments are accepted on almost every part of the website.
From Ireland we have Metalman with a similar type website. This is a new brewery, so new in fact that they have not opened their permanent brewery yet. Up until now, they have been brewing at the White Gypsy brewery (another one that has a useless website). In fact they have only been brewing (available) for the last 6 months. They have recently signed a lease on their waterford premises so hopefully we will have more from them soon. Their website is also kept up to date and they use social media very effectively. They also secured their brand in brilliant fashion. You can already buy apparel and even a Frisbee.
While Metalman is not as polished as the Adnams site, these two websites share one thing in common. They are not in fact websites. Well they are but they aren't. You see, both of them are run on wordpress and that is a blogging platform, just like this site is run on blogger. Wordpress is more capable than blogger and is easier to make a blog look like a website. Search engines love blogs so Metalman and Adnams are very easy for Google and the like to crawl. They are also so easy to update yourself that you can make sweeping changes in a matter of minutes and from any computer or even a phone or tablet pc.
I am not suggesting that all breweries go out and change their website to a blog hosted website but for new breweries, or for those that struggle to keep things up to date, I certainly do suggest that they consider it. At the very least, if a brewery has no website (yes there are some) then they should at least start a blog and host it using their own domain name. Something that takes almost no technical ability whatsoever.
US breweries often have very impressive websites.
Speakeasy - Good website but it is all flash so it could be better.
In fact it is hard to find a US brewery with a truly awful or even just a bad website. I wonder if it is just down to money or is it because people in the US see the value of the internet automatically but Europeans are a little sceptical?
Oh and one more thing, and possibly a topic for another time but please, any breweries that are reading this and are not using social media like twitter and facebook, please get your act together and start engaging with people on these mediums. Apart from anything it is cheap (free even) advertising and you will build a loyal following of fans who will then spread word, both on social media platforms and just old fashioned word of mouth.
You will also learn of possible problems with your product that you should be aware of.
By the way, even though the theme of this article has been on brewery websites, it applies not only to other beer related companies such as pubs and restaurants, It pretty much applies to any company out there. If you are not on the internet, you are not going to be successful, it is that simple. Most people of course will not know how unsuccessful you are because we will never have heard of you in the first place. You will be missing out on a huge customer base who only use the internet as a means of finding products and services they want. It's 2011 and this should have been standardised in the 90's.
Sierra Nevada have an impressive website?? Personally I think it is pants - too much Flash (hate Flash with a passion).
ReplyDeleteA lot of American breweries have awful websites as well and no interest in actually improving their online presence.
What is the point of a website if you don't keep it up to date? The whole idea is to give your customers information about your products and upcoming events.
ReplyDeleteIf I go to the website of an unfamiliar company and it talks about past events as if they are upcoming, it makes me doubt whether they are still trading.
Al, I know what you mean about flash but to be fair, the flash on the Sierra Nevada site is mostly just for the menu. The content (for the most part) itself is standard html. That said, I don't think the flash menu is needed. You can achieve similar effects without the need for a plugin.
ReplyDeleteSéan you are right and I often wonder the same thing when I see sites that look like they have not had anything going on in years in the events or news section.
Hilden appear to have basically given up on that site and moved to this one which isn't a whole lot better but does at least have up-to-date festival information from year to year.
ReplyDeleteYeah I was going to mention that but decided I had waffled on enough. And as you said, it's not much better though at least it has 2011 written on it.
ReplyDeleteThis issue has been killing me softly for quite a while.
ReplyDeleteIt never occured to me to write a post about it, so I'm glad to see you forging ahead like this.
It's exactly like the 'doorstep' theory in the property market.
It doesn't matter how clean and lovely your house is, if your front porch is grubby, buyers will have made their decision long before they've entered.
Better remember to clean my front yard if I decide to sell then.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if breweries actually pay much attention to the branding and marketing side of the business - I wrote about crap websites in Feb 2010 and some of the breweries I refer to in the post still have the same shit:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fuggled.net/2010/02/visit-our-web-shite.html