What do you really know about your club website? More importantly, what do you know about the people who visit your club website. Unless your organization is using website analytics to tap into the
behavior of online visitors, your club is stuck without a clue. Analytics are the key to unlock the potential of your club website and answer the questions you’ve always wanted to know about your website visitors. Questions like…
1. How many people visit my site per month? Gauge the popularity of your site on the World Wide Web, and also investigate seasonal trends that coincide with tournaments, registration, and upcoming events.
2. What pages on my site do people visit the most? 
Optimization is king for club websites. Are there useless pages on your website? Are club members frequenting pages you did not expect? Vinnie Herczeg, Webmaster for Parkland Area Soccer Club got the answers to these questions and more by using analytics with his club’s site.
“By utilizing web analytics, our club can see and analyze statistics about our website that had not been available in the past. To our club, the most important analysis report is the Content Overview report. This report gives statistical analysis of what web pages our visitors frequented; from the most visited to least visited.
As a web designer, analytics have allowed me to concentrate on our top pages being visited and be sure that content is being kept up to date on these pages. It also identifies where we should be spending most of our time on defining and presenting content on our website. We were surprised to see that our calendar page was in our top 5 web pages accessed since August 2007. This just goes to show the power of an enhanced site statistics tool and the vast information it can provide for your website. If you are not using this tool to assist with your website design and maintenance then you are missing out on opportunity to adjust your focus in disseminating information your users are truly looking for.”
Click Here for a sample report
3. How long do people spend on my site? Knowing how long people spend on your site helps you gauge their interest in the organization’s content. Tie this in with the most popular pages on your site and your board will learn what content your viewers will spend time reading, and what content is not of interest. For example if you have a long page of polices and people are spending a very short amount of time on that page it can be a clue that page is effectively useless and needs to be shortened with the most important points or a table of contents clearly visible near the top of that page.
4. What search words are they using to find my site? When searching for your tournament “Club 
XYZ Tournament” through a search engine, are web surfers being led to your tournament? By optimizing the use of keywords in your website, you can ensure that everyone who wants to find your information will!
5. What cities are people visiting my site from? This is valuable for...
Monitoring prospective tournament attendees.- Gauging national exposure and interest in your club.
- Finding local interest and untapped areas of prospective club members.
- Assessing the value of advertising on your website to your sponsors.
Website analytics gives your club a “behind the scenes look at the individuals who check out your site. By monitoring their habits, you can tailor your site based on their interest. The result will undoubtedly yield greater club interest, more useful information, and a better resource for your current and prospective members alike.
The Administrator wants to know your thoughts on website analytics. Would you like to get website analytics today? Post a comment below, send an email to Jon@bluesombrero.com, or call 404-835-0305.
This is an excellent tool for those organizations who are not only wanting to track their traffic but also want to work with sponsors. The amenities for pitching to sponsors is getting better and better!
Posted by: Thomas | December 14, 2007 at 11:39 AM