Sports Organisations - Google, GDPR & Content
Jon Salinger
★Helping businesses win more customers and gain more enquiries via their website by increasing visibility within search engines★
I wrote an article (Game Changer from Google) the other week about how Google have ruined one of the main source of traffic to sporting organisations website in the form of Fixtures, Results and Live.
Well now the dust has settled, this could actually be more of a positive to a sporting organisation than you may have realised
I believe that what Google have done is exactly what GDPR will do to companies databases. What do I mean?
As you are aware - or may not be aware - the new GDPR law comes into effect in May 2018 and everyone is working v hard to get those on their lists to agree to remain on them. It could potentially wipe 50-60% of people’s databases!
What this actually will do is provide data of people that want to engage more
How is the GDPR and lack in traffic the same?
Doing some analysis we have seen a drop in traffic specifically to a single source but this also had a high bounce rate, which meant that people were going to that single page and leaving straight away
Traffic may have reduced but Pages per Session, Average Session Duration, Bounce Rate and Returning Visitors have increased on the site because you are attracting the users that want to engage with you
Since the change by Google to display Fixtures, Results, Live, League Table, etc on 8th March, you can see what affect it has had on other areas. Below is an example from one of our Clients on the positives and shows a week after the 9th March compared to the week before the change
In terms of value of your website this is great news because you have removed the ‘non engaging’ users to your website. This again also comes back to looking at your content on your site and creating more engaging content because now you have the correct audience
What type of Content as we talking about?
Engaging Competitions - is it a multiple choice competition or a straight one answer competition? This will cause a high bounce rate and a low session duration. Why not get them to watch a video as part of the competition?
Premiership Rugby 'Citizen Try of the Week' competition - https://www.premiershiprugby.com/citizen-try-of-the-week/
EPCR Player of the Year Competition - https://www.epcrugby.com/epoty/index.php
Engaging Stats - Everyone loves stats don't they? We pride ourselves on stats delivery and how they are displayed to the end User
NatWest 6 Nations - we launched a new MatchCentre containing all of the information for a match therefore keeping the User engaged and also increasing the session duration https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/matchcentre/live/england-v-ireland/#match-report
British & Irish Lions NZ Tour 2017 - the MatchCentre was a vital source of information for people especially after the match had been played because of the time difference https://www.lionsrugby.com/fixtures/new-zealand-v-british-and-irish-lions-2nd-test
Tagging on News Stories - most of our Clients are using Wordpress as their CMS and the use of tagging in stories is so important as it increases the Users journey (bit like watching a video on YouTube and next thing your watching a video of some Cats!!)
Leinster Rugby have used a number of tags in this News Story - https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/leinster-rugby-announce-energia-partnership/ - clicking on them takes you to specific indexes for that tag
Making things better
6 年So Google is taking your quick browsers who just want facts? I think you are brave to put a positive angle on this. Someone nibbling my edges is never welcome. Your points about engagement are all very valid though. It's just a shame there will be fewer browsers to engage, especially as remarketing could have engaged them for the sport or sponsors.