The Importance of Websites

As a company, your website is your message. In a day with marketing budgets shrinking, newspapers dying, and way too many sports to follow, having a strong website for any sport is an absolute must.

I've complained about the USATF website for a long time now, and feel it needs to be revamped. Every day the USATF website remains the same is another day our sport loses ground to other sports.

The other day I was reading Sports Business Daily and read the following:

"The CFL in July re-launched its Web site as part of a new digital network that features team Web sites. In the first month of operation, the site increased its page views 13.4% to 5.04 million, unique visitors 12% to 482,990 and video views 110% to 223,375. Page views for “Live Play,” the league’s Game Tracker, increased 33% to 1.78 million"

If the CFL is an indicator, USATF upgrading their site could be incredibly beneficial to the organization. Currently, USATF cannot attract that much traffic to their website. There is little there for someone to come check out every day, and often times it is hard to find. However, a revamped website could not only increase traffic to the site, but could help redefine the company in a big way.

I am not sure if USATF understands this, I hope they do, but websites define brands. So much of the way people view brands now is how they are able to interact with them online. USATF's brand name is barely recognizable. Go to a local road race and ask 100 people what USATF and maybe 10 people could tell you. Already facing those odds, plus having an awful website, signifies that USATF just doesn't get the online world.

It's time for this organization to make a change. Use your money wisely USATF and improve your website. Hire someone who knows what they are doing, hire a reporter or two that can keep a steady stream of news on the site, and maximize interns for entire semesters, not just the summer. Without a strong digital strategy, our sport will be left behind.