Getting To Use Facebook - Lordy Me!

I now officially wish that I was 15 years younger than I am. Why? Its called Facebook!

Oh to still be living at home, with no responsibilities. How to turn 5 quick minutes into 5 short hours of social networking, exploring and simply getting lost..............amongst it all!!

I have copied the link that Facebook tells me to put in my Blog to link back to my Facebook. Facebook me!

Yes, those fancy free days were the ones that just never seemed to end. Exploration bliss! Can't wait to see if this link actually works.

Club Websites - Build It and They Will Come - Or Will They?

This is an article that I have written for the ClubLife Magazine due to be published in the July 2008 issues. Fancy that, technology allowing you to read it before it hits printed copy - pretty awesome. Remember the heading?????...........

Everyone wants one…and most clubs do in some capacity but are they there for show or do they sit within an overall marketing communication strategy? We are of course talking about websites! I find it a fascinating and valuable topic, and one which must constantly evolve to take advantage of changes in technology, how we see the world, our way of life and most importantly the challenges faced by the club industry today and into the future. So, let me share some points that may be of interest to you, at least if you are serious about marketing your club online effectively.

The Home Coming…

A visitor will land on your home page through various means – directly, through a specific search keyword, an advertising link, or by moving from link to link. It’s critical that visitors are able to quickly understand what your club can offer them. Your brand should be clearly featured in a prominent position in the top half of the home page along with a strong buy line. For example, does your club’s website make the most of differentiating what it has on offer verses other entertainment venues? Does the home page draw a visitor in to explore the site or does boredom set in and they leave immediately? And, is the content up-to-date and does it add value?

Remember, first impressions are critical, and just like where a person may only have 10 seconds to make a good impression, a website has the same pressures!

Building Traffic Through Search Engine Optimisation

It’s all good and well having a website with information about your club, but is it getting satisfactory traffic to enable you to benefit from it in an online sense? Is your website intended purely for your members or would it be equally meaningful for a visiting non-member? Would a person who is travelling find your club and be likely to visit? Either way, the purpose of any website is to provide information and elicit some type of customer interaction either online or in venue. So, building traffic to your website over time is important. This is where the first part of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) comes in.

“SEO attempts to get the best result for the keywords that will drive the most traffic to your website,” explains Jonathan Crossfield of Netregistry, one of Australia’s largest and most prominent online service providers. “Just because you’re the top result for a search for your business name doesn’t mean you will receive traffic. If you sell carpets, it’s better to rank highly for a keyword phrase used often by carpet buyers (such as ‘cheap carpets, Sydney’) and not the name Carpets-R-Us.”

By researching keywords that are important for your club, and ensuring that they’re used throughout your website in a meaningful manner, particularly on your home page, then you have commenced the SEO process to improve your club’s organic results (that is, your club appearing in free search result, as opposed to Google Adwords paid advertising or similar).

The second part of Search Engine Optimisation is all about acquiring links. As it was once said that all roads lead to Rome, links work in exactly the same way. When a website has a number of ‘roads’ or links leading to the site, search engines calculate these links in determining the reputation and ranking of the website in their search results.

“Any business understands the importance of strong word-of-mouth recommendations in building reputation and customers,” continues Crossfield. “Links are valued in much the same way. An inbound link to your site (also known as a backlink) suggests to the reader that the website is worthy of a visit. This is why search engines take so much notice of them.”

But why would you link to someone else’s website? There are other benefits such as once the link is ‘seen’ by search engines, the inbound links website is usually categorised in search results for the website’s business name. This provides an incentive to the inbound link and potential traffic that they may not otherwise get.

Let’s Get Real About It!

Search Engine Optimisation for a website is critical because search engines rank websites by their relevance, which they do by assessing the number and prominence of matching keywords in the copy of the webpage, along with other considerations. Websites get more traffic the higher they appear, in for example Google, for the keywords and phrases their target audience are using and consequently, the higher they rank, the more likely it is that a person will explore that particular website.

But what about clubs? How can an internet surfer be lead to a club to explore their facilities and services on offer both online and in the club? Look no further than Clubsational which has been developed to address this very need. Clubsational takes into consideration the keys for SEO to maximise the chances of a first page ranking in related phrases.

So, why is this website so important for the club Industry? “The chances of an internet surfer coming across your website by chance are infinitesimally small. The chances are even smaller of those visitors being among your target customers,” reveals Crossfield. “Relying on chance isn’t a great marketing strategy. Ever since the term ‘search engine’ was coined in 1988, they’ve become the central traffic hub of the internet and this dominance has only increased since the huge phenomenon of Google launched in 1998. With the vast majority of web users regularly visiting a search engine for everything from homework to shopping, it makes sense to give your website maximum exposure where people gather.”

Now, if a website was built that allowed all clubs to showcase what they had to offer; that was being established as the online destination to find out more about a particular club, and give you a reason to visit, by virtue it would enhance your club’s existing online and in-house marketing efforts? This is where www.clubsational.com.au can become an invaluable site for your club. Clubsational was founded with the purpose of bringing together clubs in a single online destination in a way that makes it simple and interesting for users to search and explore clubs and provide an incentive for people to visit club facilities.

When Clubsational was launched 11 months ago, it had no Google or Yahoo ranking – the fact is, all websites launch with zero traffic by definition. However, with a strong marketing and SEO program, it now has more traffic than ever (with the number of unique visitors from December 2007 to May 2008 doubling in size). The challenge now is to spread the Clubsational news within the club industry so that as many clubs as possible can share in its online traffic. The more clubs showcased on Clubsational, the more regular visitors it will attract and the more traffic momentum it will create.

SEO has worked successfully for Clubsational, with initiatives including keyword development, link acquisitions, testimonials, news centre development and blogging obtaining first page rankings for searches such as club discount vouchers, what’s on in clubs, NSW RSL clubs, discount vouchers and even jobs in clubs.

Clubsational’s online traffic will not only benefit your club by assisting to drive new traffic to your website, but will also attract more people into your club. In short, Clubsational’s purpose is to act like a filter on the internet to collect and channel people to club websites and their venues, while providing an extremely cost effective means of marketing your club online. In the current environment where clubs have to think carefully about their marketing expenditure, Clubsational really is an obvious, affordable and easy decision!