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Clubs can create their own external website and/or use one provided by a main sporting body if they offer that service. A website can support a number of online processes. Whatever it is used for it should look good and be kept up to date. Clubs should also determine a means to measure the success of the website and use this feedback to improve its functionality.
Clubs are generally faced with one or two options to create a website:
They can create their own website, and/or
They can use a club website created by their major sporting body (as occurs with cricket clubs in Australia and the UK), (usually for no cost) .
Currently, athletics clubs in Australia and the UK have to create their own website if they wish to have one. Although most cricket clubs in these countries have a website created by their major sporting body, some do not rely on it and prefer to also create their own website.
Some clubs prefer to rely on social media as their main web presence platform and do not rely on having a website.
Reasons for having a website
These are the main reasons listed by clubs (in order of importance) for having a website:
a means for advertising news and social events
a way of providing information about the club, often to attract new members
a way to provide value for sponsors by showing their logos and business details
somewhere to store and provide access to policies/ codes of conduct/ mission statement/ constitution and other important documents.
a place for accessing club history and historical records
a place to show that the club is accredited with an appropriate body.
Website gatekeeper
It is around two decades since websites started to become commonplace. One of the side effects of this for sporting clubs is that there are still some websites in existence that are still being run by the volunteers who created them. Some of these could do with a design 'refresh' or need to be updated. Some clubs face the challenge of needing to update their websites, but not knowing how to approach their administrators for fear of hurting their feelings or offending them. Some website administrators may be the sole custodians of key website passwords and may not be willing to share them over readily. These situations need to be handled with sensitivity, with the best interests of the club and its volunteers in mind all of the time.
Concerns or reasons for not having a website
Clubs face different challenges depending upon whether they have set up their own website and/ or are using one provided by a major sporting body. Those specific concerns are listed on those particular pages.
However, there are some generic concerns that clubs have about all types of websites:
they need to be kept up to date and it is difficult to find the time to do this.
when poorly designed, they can contain too much information in the one place. Either it is too difficult to find the required information or visitors just lose patience and leave the site.
as with any other part of the web presence, it is important that it is embraced by the committee.
Basic website terms
If your club is going to host its own website then there are a few terms that it may be useful to be familiar with. Here are some of them:
website host: the computer where your website is hosted. This will typically be your main sporting body or an Internet Service Provider (ISP - who are responsible for providing Internet services).
domain name: the internet address of your computer, for instance it will probably look like the following (which are simplified versions of what they actually are):
www.sportingclub.com.au
www.sportingclub.org.au
www.sportingclub.co.uk
www.sportingclub.statename.cricket.com.au (for sites provided by Cricket Australia)
www.sportingclub.play-cricket.com (for sites provided by Play-Cricket in the UK).
Measuring website effectiveness
It is important to decide how you are going to decide how you are going to determine whether your website is successful. The first thing to realise is that your website will probably be set up to carry out a few different functions - and that some may perform better than others. Here are some of the tools that sporting clubs use to determine the effectiveness of their website:
Google Analytics (you will need a Google account to access this): at its simplest level, Google Analytics analyses web traffic.
Here is a good overview of Google Analytics and a basic guide on how to set it up.
Here is a tutorial on how to interpret Google Analytics by NaturalVita (17 mins).
A cruder form of Google Analytics is to just measure the number of visitors to (or 'hits' on) your web page. Often your website host is able to provide these details (and other statistics of interest)
Many clubs use the number of outside queries that they receive as a measure of their website success
Another measure is the number (and type) of comments made by existing club members, supporters or sponsors. For instance, an interesting match report or news item might prompt a number of comments from this group. Comments can range from being complimentary (eg "what a great story") to otherwise ("the news is out of date" "the link does not work"). All of these are useful indicators of success and can be used to improve the website.
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