The Q2 2025 benchmarking report for UK golf retailers has just been published. Learn how the top 12 UK golf retailers perform across the digital space.

The latest Q2 2025 benchmarking report for UK golf retailers has just been published. It covers the largest 12 golf retailers, including American Golf, Clubhouse Golf, Golfbidder, County Golf, Snainton Golf Centre, SCOTTSDALE GOLF, Golf Support, 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 Q2 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.

Q2 2025 WINNERS LEADERBOARD

For a glance into just six of the metrics we evaluated these top 12 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.

Pay-Per-Click Marketing

Pay-Per-Click marketing is constantly evolving, with more and more advertisers being forced to hand over a lot of control to Google's algorithms as the push for automation grows ever stronger. There are still key elements of control that we have though, the main one of these being budget which is ultimately something the algorithms can't take from you. That's why being smart with your budget and ad coverage is essential to achieving strong results and bettering what your competitors have to offer.

For Q2 2025, the average monthly budget wastage across these UK golf retailers was £5,563, with some of the top players in the market spending a considerable amount on areas and audiences unlikely to deliver a return. We can see this in more detail when looking at the average monthly cost per cost-per-click (CPC) amongst advertisers, with the average of this metric being £17 . This highlights how competitive the market is and how important it is to control your budgets effectively.

There are varying monthly ad budgets across the competitors in the report. While this gap highlights the competitive advantage that larger budgets can provide, it's not just about spending more; it’s about spending smarter. By focusing on driving efficiency in campaign management, targeting, and budget allocation, businesses with smaller budgets can still effectively compete with larger players. Investing in data-driven strategies and refining ad performance can help close the gap and maximise the return on every pound spent, enabling growth even in a competitive landscape. Relative to their spend, both Clubhouse Golf and American Golf reported the lowest monthly cost-per-click (CPC) at £2, and Golfbidder has the highest at £103.

The report highlights the importance of budget efficiency by comparing monthly ad spend with estimated CPC in relation to your competitors, see who has the highest and lowest CPC. To maximise the effectiveness of your budget, it’s essential to focus on driving CPC down while maintaining or improving campaign performance. In this report, Snainton Golf Centre has the lowest estimate monthly ad spend at £3,620, and Clubhouse Golf has the highest at £174,000.

By optimising targeting, refining ad copy, and leveraging data to identify high-converting opportunities, you can ensure every click delivers maximum value. This approach not only stretches your budget further but also boosts your return on ad spend (ROAS), enabling you to achieve stronger results without simply increasing expenditure.

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.

In our previous report, County Golf reported 123 4xx errors. This quarter, Country Golf has decreased their 4xx errors to 4 and is no longer the retailer to watch. Instead, GolfOnline flagged the highest 4xx errors (25). These errors can frustrate visitors, so it’s important that all brands take steps to reduce them (such as implementing redirect links for broken pages).

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.

In our previous audit, Clubhouse Golf reported the slowest mobile site speed (15). This quarter, Clubhouse Golf has increased their mobile site speed to 18 and no longer has the slowest loading website. The mobile site speed for this quarter ranged from 54 to 5, with HOTGOLF LTD reporting the lowest score.

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 66 and 16, with both American Golf and Golfsupport.com sitting in the ‘excellent’ zone. However, the retailer with the lowest DA score is County Golf. This golf retailer should ensure they’re posting content to their website that’s unique, up to date and relevant to their audience, as this will encourage other websites with a similar target audience to backlink to them.

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.

Seven retailers reported a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with GolfOnline seeing the biggest loss (-26%). Meanwhile, 8 brands reported a decrease on mobile, with GolfOnline also seeing the biggest loss (-45%).

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.

GolfOnline has taken the top spot for the most Universal Search appearances (5,533), and Affordable Golf is at a close second place (5,368 appearances). On the other hand, County Golf received the fewest overall Universal Search appearances (1,133) and should look for more opportunities to increase this figure.

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’.

Golfbidder secured the most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (2,550), while Clubhouse Golf received the most appearances for positions 4–10 (2,918). Securing appearances for positions 4–10 is an effective way for a brand to increase their position in search engines.

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 screenshots of Druids Golf’s sponsored Facebook posts. This UK golf retailer included vertical videos to cater to mobile users and used line breaks to help make their content quicker and easier to read for those scrolling their social media feed.   

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 (172,700). Social media is a great platform for golf retailers to connect with their audience and expand their online reach.

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.

In our previous audit, Clubhouse Golf received the highest accessibility alerts (368). This quarter, Clubhouse Golf has increase their accessibility alerts to 370. This brand has been the watch to watch for the past two quarters and should ensure they’re considering their website’s layout and format and how that can affect visitors’ web experience.

GET THE FULL 70-PAGE Q2 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 Rory Tarplee.