What would the NSCAA Convention be without the added excitement (and pressure) of speaking? For the second year in a row, my good friend and peer Ryan Knapp and I presented together. Ryan and I met in 2009 at Tweet – Blowing the Whistle on Social Media and have bantered back and forth on all things digital and social media since.

Follow @ryanknappFollow @vandey01

While last year’s session was focused on social media, Ryan and I broadened the scope in 2012 to include Five Secrets to Successful Soccer Websites.

The idea for this session came about thanks to our work together on the new NSCAA.com. The project began in August 2010 and was a labor of love for the two of us. We just launched the site in November 2011.

Throughout the build, Ryan and I researched sites far and wide to hypothesize what makes successful websites tick. We combined this research into five secrets (aka takeaways) to share. Ryan also posted about the presentation on his blog, be sure to check it out.

Slides from session, Five Secrets to Successful Soccer Websites w/ @vandey01 are up. bit.ly/AxiJlO #NSCAAConvention

— Ryan Knapp (@ryanknapp) January 23, 2012

Click here to download the PDF. (opens in a new window)

Successful websites are:

1. Part of a larger business plan
It’s important that your website is built with your company’s business goals in mind, aka how do you make money? For many companies – especially in the soccer industry – your website is the front door to your business… and you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Ensure you know what success looks like first, then build your site to support that.

2. Built with the user in mind
There are two categories of users that we recommend you consider. The first is people, both those that use the site for business purposes (team administrators, webmasters) and those that visit it as a user (looking to purchase goods/services, players, parents). The second type of user to consider is a search engine (like Google, Yahoo or Bing). Both find, interact with and use your site differently. Recognize this and build your site to accommodate both.

3. Embrace content
As cliche as it may seem, content has been, and remains, king. By identifying what you want to communicate about your company/brand, how you should distribute this information, and when it will be most effective, you’ll set yourself up for success.

4. Sharable and social
While this may not have always been so in the past, today’s Internet has all but been consumed by social integration. “Being online” continues to evolve as more personal and socially-driven, and websites that embrace feedback, social media sharing and two-way dialogue will find success in this new dimension.

5. Analyzed and adjusted
Would you field a soccer team every weekend without analyzing and adjusting your lineup? No? Well, you shouldn’t do this with a website either. There are a ton of free and easy to use tools that you can use to learn what’s happening on your website. Use this data and tie your website back to your business goals, which you of course identified in secret number 1.

Click here to download the PDF. (opens in a new window)

Where do I start?

Everybody has to start someplace, because websites don’t just happen. Here are some tips to get you moving on the path to success.

1. Find a website you like.
Do a bit of research to find sites that match your company’s vision. If you can’t find an exact match, find something similar. It’s also good to identify what you don’t like in a website as well.

2. Call/email the contact listed on the site.
Usually there’s a link for “About Us” or “Contact Us”. You’ll also often find a link at the very bottom of the site that will take you to the developer directly.

3. Ask around.
If doing the homework on your own is proving daunting, ask around. Chances are that somebody in your social circle has had a part in building, updating, maintaining or using a website they’d recommend.

Click here to download the PDF. (opens in a new window)

What do I ask?

Here are some questions to ask that will help you get a good feeling for the company or web developer you’re considering.

1. Have you had experience building the type of website we want?
2. What will you do if we suggest a dumb idea?
3. When your projects run behind schedule, what is a typical reason?
4. What will the finished product include and what will it contain?
5. What other vendors and/or tools are we expected to obtain?
6. How long will you guarantee your work?
7. What do you consider to be a successful project
8. What is the cost of the website build, and what is the ongoing maintenance?

Click here to download the PDF (opens in a new window).

We hope you find this information useful. For us, giving this presentation was the culmination of a lot of months of hard work, and we were honored to be able share this at the NSCAA Convention.

If you have questions, suggestions or follow-ups, please feel free to write in the comments below or tweet us @RyanKnapp and/or @vandey01.