While Chelsea Football Club finished the season as 2014/15 English Premier League champions, new research reveals its website trails rivals when it comes to visibility in Google UK searches, according to new research.
The study, from 45 finishing just fourth in the table for searches conducted on both computers and mobile phones. Liverpool FC, which finished sixth in the League, is the most visible in searches conducted on computers, while Arsenal performs best in mobile phone searches. Chelsea leads the way when it comes to visibility on social media networks.
The findings come from a study by, Searchmetrics, the leader in search and content optimisation, which analysed the online visibility of the web sites of the Premier League teams that finished in the top 10 positions in the 2014/15 season.
Marcus Tober, founder and CTO of Searchmetrics explained: “Premier League football clubs face increasing competition to attract fans to their official sites, rather than seeing them visit broadcasters, newspapers or other online destinations. Having a higher search visibility means people are more likely to click on their sites, giving clubs the chance to engage with them, sell merchandise, tickets and hospitality.
“Our analysis shows that many clubs are successfully optimising their sites in order to be found in searches, but success on the football pitch doesn’t necessarily translate into high online or social visibility. Indeed, teams such as Liverpool top the league for visibility, despite underperforming on the pitch this season, while champions Chelsea can only finish fourth.”
The study, which uses a Desktop SEO Visibility score that Searchmetrics has developed to measure how prominently and frequently web sites rank in Google UK search results conducted on desktop and laptop computers, found that Liverpool’s www.liverpoolfc.com web site beats all its rivals with a score of 44,395. Arsenal are runners up with 44,075, followed by Manchester United, who finished third with a score of 41,465. Chelsea are only fourth (23,909) with Premier League runners-up, Manchester City, sixth with a Desktop SEO Visibility of just 13,690.
Desktop Search Visibility of the Top 10 English Premier League Football Club Web Sites
1. Liverpool (liverpoolfc.com),44,395, 6th place
2. Arsenal (arsenal.com) 44,075, 3rd place
3. Manchester United (manutd.com) 41,465, 4th place
4. Chelsea (chelseafc.com), 23,909, 1st place
5. Tottenham Hotspur (tottenhamhotspur.com), 15,627, 5th place
6. Manchester City (mcfc.co.uk), 13,690, 2nd place
7. Crystal Palace (cpfc.co.uk), 3,351, 10th place
8. Stoke City (stokecityfc.com), 2,732, 9th place
9. Southampton (saintsfc.co.uk), 2,213, 7th place
10. Swansea City (swanseacity.net), 1,295, 8th place
Google presents different search results on mobile devices and the study found that Arsenal topped the table for search performance on mobile phones which Searchmetrics tracks using a separate Mobile SEO Visibility score. High visibility in mobile phone searches is increasingly sought after and Google recently introduced an the algorithm change designed to downgrade the mobile search rankings of those web pages not deemed to be user-friendly on mobile phone displays.
Mobile Search Visibility of the Top 10 English Premier League Football Club Web Sites
1. Arsenal (arsenal.com), 47,776, 3rd place
2. Liverpool (liverpoolfc.com), 44,333, 6th place
3. Manchester United (manutd.com), 39,286, 4th place
4. Chelsea (chelseafc.com), 23,259, 1st place
5. Tottenham Hotspur (tottenhamhotspur.com), 15,799, 5th place
6. Manchester City (mcfc.co.uk), 12,872, 2nd place
7. Crystal Palace (cpfc.co.uk), 3,124, 10th place
8. Stoke City (stokecityfc.com), 2,690, 9th place
9. Southampton (saintsfc.co.uk), 2,032, 7th place
10. Swansea City (swanseacity.net), 1,171, 8th place
Visibility on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest) is measured by Searchmetrics using a Social Visibility score based on how often content from a web site is shared, liked, tweeted etc on social sites. The company’s findings show that Chelsea currently dominates in terms of Social Visibility, with a score of 3.431 billion, compared to Man Utd’s 1.340 billion. Arsenal finished third, mirroring their actual league position, with a Social Visibility score of 940.524 million.
Social Visibility of the top 10 English Premier League Football Club Web Sites
1. Chelsea (chelseafc.com), 3.431 billion, 1st place
2. Manchester United (manutd.com), 1.340 billion, 4th place
3. Arsenal (arsenal.com), 940.524 million, 3rd place
4. Manchester City (mcfc.co.uk), 612.746 million, 2nd place
5. Liverpool (liverpoolfc.com), 155.321million, 6th place
6. Tottenham Hotspur (tottenhamhotspur.com), 136.198 million, 5th place
7. Southampton (saintsfc.co.uk), 19.463 million, 7th place
8. Crystal Palace (cpfc.co.uk), 4.233 million, 10th place
9. Swansea City (swanseacity.net), 3.408 million, 8th place
10. Stoke City (stokecityfc.com), 2.772 million, 9th place
“Social media is a major battleground for clubs looking to engage with fans, and the gap between top and bottom seems to be widening. Global brands such as Chelsea and Manchester United seem to be racing ahead, while smaller teams such as Crystal Palace and Stoke City are propping up the bottom of the social media performance table.” concluded Tober.