The Q1 2025benchmarking report for UK golf retailers has just been published. Learn how the top 11 UK golf retailers perform across the digital space.

The latest Q1 2025 benchmarking report for UK golf retailers has just been published. It covers the largest 11 golf retailers, including American Golf, Clubhouse Golf, Golfbidder, County Golf, Snainton Golf Centre, SCOTTSDALE GOLF, Affordable Golf, Druids Golf, Function18.com, HOTGOLF LTD, and GolfOnline.

The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for other golf retailers to win brand exposure, drive online views, and generate in-store footfall (where relevant). The report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from your online strategy and identifies the barriers that may be reducing your site’s ability to optimise digital performance.

To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

Q1 2025 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just six of the metrics we evaluated these top 11 golf retailers specialists on, check out our quick-look table below;

Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing UK golf retailers specialists or request a copy of the report for the full review.

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What The Industry Research Report Covers

The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each retailer based on 50+ metrics and indicators of successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.  

Driving Optimal ROAS from Paid Media Channels

Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing and Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from £30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.

Technical Website Compliance

Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. Golf retailers ensure that they’re not directing consumers to broken links, which can cause them to become frustrated and resort to competitor websites instead.

County Golf flagged the highest 4xx errors (123). This UK golf retailer should work to reduce these errors to prevent customers becoming frustrated with being led to broken links. Regularly assess their links to check they’re directing to the correct page is one step this retailer should take.

Site Speed & Conversion Rate Performance

When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load will see a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. Golf retailers should aim for the highest site speed possible, which may mean switching to a more mobile-friendly website theme so consumers can access their websites on the go with minimal delays.

The mobile site speed for this quarter ranged between 73 and 15, with Clubhouse Golf reporting the lowest mobile site speed. This golf retailer should ensure they’re using a mobile-friendly theme and reduce page weight to help improve their mobile site speed.

Building Competitive Advantage with Domain Authority

Domain authority (DA) is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. All golf retailers should prioritise creating content that other websites will want to link back to. This includes topics that are selfless and provide their target audience with new information.

A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. The DA score for this quarter ranged between 65 and 16, with County Golf reporting the lowest DA score. There are several actions this retailer can take to improve their DA score, such as reducing low-quality backlinks and increasing their high-quality backlinks. Additionally, all content should be thoughtful and relevant to their target audience.

Organic Performance – Mobile & Desktop

A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for core, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. Organic traffic will fluctuation between quarters, and brands should follow a keyword strategy to ensure they’re following protocols to increase organic traffic on both devices.

Nine of the retailers reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with GolfOnline seeing the biggest decrease (-50%). On the other hand, all retailers reported a decrease on mobile, with American Golf seeing the biggest loss (-40%).

Universal Search Opportunity

Google Universal Search Results are an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a retailer can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. Golf retailers should focus on appearances for ‘reviews' and ‘images’ to help increase their position in SERPs.

American Golf secured the most Universal Search appearances (28,238), with the majority of these coming from ‘reviews’ and ‘images.’ On the other hand, County Golf reported the fewest overall appearances (1,038). This golf retailer should check that all images include meta descriptions on images and consider reaching out to past customers to ask them to leave an online review.

The Longtail Keyword Opportunity

Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Golf retailers should focus on longtail keywords that its target audience types into search engines, such as ‘lightweight, wide putter’ or ‘pre-owned golf clubs’.

American Golf received the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (3,573) and positions 4–10 (5,716). On the other hand, Druids Golf received the fewest appearances for position 3 (99) and positions 4–10 (347). This golf retailer should assess the keywords they’re using across their website and make updates, if applicable.

Facebook Adverts

With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. 

We’ve included an example of Clubhouse Golf’s sponsored posts. This UK golf retailer included the same text and images across each post and, instead, should diversify their content to prevent repetition.    

Top Social Shares & Content

When  it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'Evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for longer. Having a consistent social media approach will benefit golf retailers, as it allows their audiences to get to know their brands and become familiar with their products.

American Golf has the most Facebook Likes (155,800), while SCOTTSDALE GOLF has the most Instagram followers (169,400). All golf retailers should regularly monitor which type of social media posts receive more engagement compared to other types so they’re posting content their social media followers like.

Website Readability & Accessibility

About 20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. Golf retailers should ensure they are not excluding visually impaired customers on the basis of having a non-accessible site and must ensure that all consumers are able to browse services with ease.

Clubhouse Golf received the highest number of accessibility alerts (368) again. This golf retailer should ensure they’re using meta descriptions on all images, ensure all links work and have relevant anchor text, and more, to help improve readability for those using a screen reader.

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q1 2025 REPORT

To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Mike Movassaghi.

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