The number of visits to the Cricket Leinster website continues to rise. An examination of the usage figures for the first two months of the season compared with last year show a significant rise in both the number of visits and of visitors.
The direct comparisons with a year ago are as follows:
| May 2012 | May 2013 | June 2012 | June 2013 |
Visits to Website | 36,766 | 56,787 | 36,593 | 58,310 |
Unique visitors | 8,121 | 12,166 | 7,761 | 11,409 |
Ave Duration of Visit | 5.08 | 6.43 | 5.06 | 6.32 |
Use of Mobiles | 1,556 | 4,782 | 1,660 | 4,645 |
% New Visits | 16.23 | 15.66% | 14.64% | 13.42% |
Peak [day] Visits | 1,859 | 2,405 | 1,889 | 2,688 |
The key factor in the increase in numbers has been the success of the RSA ‘Live Scores’ Match Centre. Whereas a year ago [before the match centre was set up] the main interest was in news items and results, there is now a large following each weekend day for the match centre. Although Monday tends to be the day with most visits [to check on weekend results] we now get over 2000 visits per day at weekends, mainly to check on scores. Consistent with this finding is the rise in the number of people accessing the site through mobile phones and the increase [which is even higher at weekends] in the duration of visits.
As one might expect the vast majority of those accessing the site are local, but there is a growing band of followers from the UK, USA, Australia and India. Nearly 90% of the visitors are people who have visited the site before but there is still a steady stream of new visitors.
The breakdown of how people find the site is also interesting. About 30% come in directly [already know the website address], 28% are referrals [come from other websites] and nearly 42% search us out using key words like ‘leinster cricket’. Over half of the referrals now come through social media sites [facebook and twitter] but there is still a considerable volume from clubs – Clontarf, YMCA, Phoenix, Leinster and Merrion – in that order.
Cricket Leinster continues to include features on the site. Over the past two months we have added support for the RSA ‘Get Into Cricket’ Initiative, with the aim of getting more people to join their local cricket club. ‘Cricket Cover’ is another innovation that is just getting off the ground through which players and supporters can get car and house insurance.
Cricket Leinster is interested in feedback from users about what they would like to see included on the site in the future. We are also interested in hearing from potential advertisers, business patrons and service providers.