A Digital Due Diligence analysis of football club website performance and visibility: The evaluation of top football clubs' websites reveals key strengths and weaknesses in digital presence, highlighting Everton's superior user experience, Real Madrid and Manchester United's organic search dominance, and Liverpool and Arsenal's strong backlink profiles.
Lóránt Erős
Digital Strategist
This article is part of our Football Club DDD blog series, where we showcase key insights from our comprehensive Digital Due Diligence focusing on the top 15 European football clubs. Read on to discover the practical benefits that such an analysis can provide for top-tier football clubs.
KEY POINTS:
Everton's website has the highest speed score compared to other brands but is ranked at the bottom of the list by domain authority score.
Real Madrid CF and Manchester United FC are the leaders when it comes to organic penetration, showcasing a strong digital presence and search engine performance.
Liverpool and Arsenal stand out for their superior website domains, indicating robust backlinks, content quality, and domain strength.
Key Insights & Benchmarks: Who Will Be Left on the Bench?
Using our Digital Due Diligence methodology, we took a deep dive into the websites of leading football clubs such as Real Madrid CF, FC Barcelona, Club Atlético de Madrid, FC Bayern München, and more. We evaluated them based on key metrics including backlinks, organic keywords, organic search traffic, authority score, number of visits, and the number of pages indexed by Google. The strategic insights gained this way offer a comprehensive view of their digital presence and influence.
Mobile and desktop performance scores
Google's PageSpeed Insights is a crucial tool for measuring website performance both on desktop and mobile devices. High scores on this metric correlate with better search engine rankings. A score of 90 or above is generally considered excellent.
Our analysis revealed that the average mobile performance score for football club websites is a disheartening 20.2 out of 100. This suggests that most websites are slow to load, which can negatively impact user experience.
Everton's webpage is highlighted for offering the best user experience according to Google's standards, scoring best on both desktop (94) and mobile (34). Other clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, and Arsenal also meet technical standards for webpage loading speed.
Desktop and Mobile performance scores
Domain Authority Score is crucial in evaluating the overall quality of a domain or webpage, but it isn't a standalone indicator of quality. It's best used to compare similar websites within the same industry. The scale ranges from 1 to 100, so the closer the Authority Score is to 100, the better.
Liverpool and Arsenal stand out as having the strongest online presence, thanks to a combination of high-quality content, numerous backlinks, and strong website authority.
All of the analysed football club brands have domain authority scores above 60, but there is a clear gap between the top five and the 15th club.
Authority score
Everton's website is a bit of an interesting case. While it is the best performer in terms of technical aspects and user experience, as measured by Google's standards, it lags behind other clubs in terms of overall online influence. This is evident in its lower domain authority score, which is likely due to factors like fewer backlinks and lower website traffic.
Touchdown Tactics: Organic Performance Metrics
The analysis of organic performance among football club brands underscores key metrics such as organic keywords, organic search traffic, number of pages indexed in Google, and organic digital penetration. These factors all play a significant role in enhancing a club’s visibility within the organic channel.
Real Madrid and Manchester United have a clear advantage in organic penetration. Real Madrid, in particular, dominates this area, with 1.9 times as many organic keywords than the average of the other clubs. Generally, pages that are indexed for more keywords receive more website visits from the organic channel.
Organic digital penetration
While having a high number of keywords your website ranks for might seem impressive, it doesn't automatically translate to a large number of visitors. Several factors come into play. First, the search volume for those keywords matters. If no one is searching for a particular term, even if your website ranks for it, you won't get traffic. Second, where your website ranks for those keywords is crucial. Appearing on the first page, especially in the top 10 positions, is ideal. And lastly, not every search leads to a website visit. Google often provides direct answers within the search results, reducing the need to click through.
The Round-Up: Overall Website Performance & Organic Penetration
The Digital Due Diligence on the websites of top football clubs uncovered noteworthy trends and insights. Here are the highlights:
There's a clear need for improvement in mobile website speed and user experience, as all 15 club brands analysed in the study have slow-loading mobile sites.
Everton's webpage excels in user experience, meeting Google's speed and performance standards, especially on desktop. While it has the highest mobile speed score among its peers, it still falls short of being classified as "fast."
Real Madrid and Manchester United lead in organic penetration among the football club brands, demonstrating their strong visibility and performance in organic search results.
Liverpool, Arsenal, and Paris Saint-Germain have the most backlinks among the analysed brands, highlighting the importance of backlinks as a ranking factor and a vote of confidence from other websites.
A comprehensive Digital Due Diligence provides valuable insights into a football club's online performance. By examining key metrics and comparing results across top-tier clubs, organisations can identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. Understanding website speed, organic search visibility, and the competitive landscape is essential for crafting effective digital strategies that enhance brand reputation and expand reach.
The present analysis utilises data collected in July 2022. While there are other historically significant European clubs, such as AC Milan, AFC Ajax, and SL Benfica, the analysis focuses on the top 15 football clubs based on Brand Finance's Football 50 (2021) report.
This blog series showcases the core pillars of our DDD methodology, but it is important to note that it represents a snapshot based on data collected in July 2022. Our complete analysis, customised for your organisation, includes an in-depth examination of business-specific data and offers a detailed perspective of your industry landscape.
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