Are you maximizing your club’s website to its potential?

Your website is most likely the first impression a member or prospective member will have of your club. Are you giving people a reason to come back?

The first few seconds they spend on your site will determine whether or not they’ll give you their time and money. View it like a date. You want to get to the second date so you can tell them more about why you should be in their life.

When people look at information on websites, 80% spend their time looking at information on the main page without scrolling (above the fold). When they do scroll, most people read websites in an ‘F’ pattern with 69% spent on the left-hand side of the screen.

Your website should cater to all of its users - potential, new and existing - and should not overload them with too much information. New guests may not care about interclub results and existing members may not be interested in learning about the facilities. The person should therefore be able to easily find what they are looking for and avoid the information that is not of interest to them. Put yourself in a customers’ shoes and think about where they would go to find what it is they are after.

Below are some easy ideas on how you optimise your club website:

• Make sure your website is easy to navigate through – ask your existing members for their thoughts.
• Go through your site and make sure all the links are working.
• Ensure all the programmes and events your club offers are incorporated in to the site. Have you provided a brief description of each programme? Is your activity timetable available? Is it easy to find and up to date?
• If you need to book a court, can this be done online? Is there a link and instructions available?
• Do you list your club’s physical location, opening hours and facilities (e.g. changing rooms, kitchen) on offer?
• Can potential members sign up to join online? Are all membership benefits and prices listed?
• Have you supplied up to date contact information so your audience can touch base if they need to?
• Include video content to bump up your search rankings and provide another way to receive the information.
• Ensure images are inserted at web resolution so your site loads quickly.
• Try and update content on a regular basis – again to promote your search rankings.
• Use Google Analytics to track how many people use your site (and how they use it).