Website Strategy

[Paul Cooksey]

The ECF Strategy document says:

• Early prioritisation of action to improve the ECF website significantly so that it becomes a generator of value and an attraction to non-members;

I would like to challenge this goal.

It seems to me that the ECF website will always be at a disadvantage compared to the bigger sites like Chessvibes and Chessbase in attracting the casual reader. I think we would get more value from keeping the ECF site as an internal resource for ECF members, and switching resources to generating content which could be picked up by, or offered to, other sites.

Trying to take a positive from t-shirt-gate, it was interesting how many places the Guardian report was rehashed and commented on. Hopefully it is possible to use such methods to get positive coverage too.

I also recall Ben Edgell's comment on the British that newspapers depend on premade newswire reports. I think chess is competing with other interests which are good at generating such content, and it would be a sensible way to use the ECF resources.

[John Wright]

If you do a google (uk) search for chess, the ECF site doesn't appear until the bottom of the 3rd page. Can action be taken to boost it up the rankings?

It also comes with a warning about viruses.

The English Chess Federation
www.englishchess.org.uk/ - CachedThis site may be compromised.
9 hours ago – The home of the ECF and all things chess in England.

[Andrew Farthing]

The ECF Strategy document says:

• Early prioritisation of action to improve the ECF website significantly so that it becomes a generator of value and an attraction to non-members;

I would like to challenge this goal.

It seems to me that the ECF website will always be at a disadvantage compared to the bigger sites like Chessvibes and Chessbase in attracting the casual reader. I think we would get more value from keeping the ECF site as an internal resource for ECF members, and switching resources to generating content which could be picked up by, or offered to, other sites.

What I meant by "an attraction to non-members" was really that it should be a site which welcomes and supports those who are new to chess or who are looking to find out more and are not yet (for example) involved in competitive OTB chess. It's partly about making the website an attractive and useful resource that draws people into the game and disposes them to joining the Federation.

The key is to be clear about what we're trying to achieve. We can usefully exist alongside sites like Chessvibes and Chessbase without feeling that we have to surpass them in those areas in which they excel. It's not as if people are limited to just one or two sites - I'm sure many of us regularly visit several chess-related sites.

I don't rule out the possibility that one day we might go down the USCF route and restrict a lot of the content to members only, but there is nothing immediately on the horizon.

[Adam Raoof]

The website is a huge advance on the previous incarnations, but it does suffer from being too crowded!

Compare http://www.uschess.org/ OR http://www.echecs.asso.fr/

In March 2011 we used Google Analytics to generate statistics on page view of all ECF links, then I looked at how they could be grouped into common areas and put on sub-pages to create a cleaner front page. These are the comments I made at the time:

"Not surprisingly the main focus appears to be the tournament calendar and the grading list, followed by the current British Championships, membership and the Grand Prix and people looking for a club near them.

Surprisingly low; submit your tournament (can go under calendar), and ChessMoves.

At a very basic level, this hints that we could have a front page of the ECF website that just has the above links, and get rid of most of the rest! We also want people to subscribe to get the email alert, but I would foreground ChessMoves and make it possible to download a copy, but then a link to the membership page.

Experience shows that most people won't scroll down to find anything, so this list is not practical ===>> (comments attached)

The ECF

ECF Home Page (don't need this link)
About the ECF
Membership
Membership benefits (don't need this link, should be under membership)
Game Fees (don't need this link, should be under grading)
ECF Grading / FIDE (YES)
Arbiters and Coaches (don't need this link)
ECF International (don't need this link)
ECF Junior (YES)
ECF Media (don't need this link)
Competitions and Awards (don't need this link)
British Chess Championships 2011
County Championships (don't need this link, all can go under 'ECF Events')
National Club Championships (don't need this link)
ECF Grand Prix (YES)
ECF John Robinson Junior Grand Prix (don't need this link, put under junior)
Tournament Calendar (YES)
Submit your tournament
ECF Certificate of Merit
ECF Shop

Blogs

ChEx – the Chief Executive's blog
English Chess Organisers' Handbook
Manager of Chess in Prisons

ECF Resources

Chess Moves – the ECF newsletter (YES, we want people to read this)
ECF Membership List (don't need this link)
ECF Titled Players (don't need this link)
British Champions 1904 – present (don't need this link)
Junior Champions 1923 – present (don't need this link)
FIDE Honours (don't need this link)
Clubs and Associations (YES)
Live games calendar (don't need this link)
Chess journalists (don't need this link)
Chess Links (don't need this link)
Chess on DVD (don't need this link)
FIDE and the ECU (don't need this link)
Useful documents (don't need this link)
Email alert (YES)
National Chess Library (don't need this link)
Chess Clubs (YES YES YES)
Running Events (don't need this link)

Links (don't need any of the other links, just this one, then a sub page)

British Chess Magazine
British Rapidplay Chess Championship 2011
ECF Correspondence Championships
ECF Schools (put under junior)
English Chess Forum
FIDE Arbiters website
FIDE Rating Charges (don't need this link, put under grading and rating)
The Chess Arbiters Association
The National Chess Library

Recently updated

ECF International on 18th March'11
April 2011 on 18th March'11
October 2011 on 18th March'11
Chess Moves - the ECF newsletter on 17th March'11
Useful documents on 17th March'11

Alex H did something even simpler - googled the ECF!

"If you type in "English Chess F", of the suggestions that appear, Grading comes up. If you type in ECF, Grading comes up.

If you search for English Chess Federation it lists the 8 most frequented bits:
ECF Grading
Tournament Calendar
ECF Junior
Clubs and Associations
Nigel Short & CJ de Mooi tour
British Chess Championship
Membership
Competitions and Awards"

In short, there is a place for new items on the front page, but the ECF site is not a news site, but a place to go and find information. If I were a new member of staff in an organisation devoted to widgets, even if I knew nothing about widgets, in a few clicks I would expect to be able to answer any query I had, or any I received from a member of the public by looking at the organisation's own website, or Google. Currently Google is winning!

[Andrew Walker]

Adam
You could have run all the above past me (some of it you did) but here it is on the forum, and not in my inbox. Ho-hum. I seem to remember the following --
- your list of what we do / don't need in an email
- the same suggestions being put out to the Board
- an eerie silence ...
What I don't want people to think is that you're busy making suggestions (some very good) which I'm happily ignoring. As ever, all I want (and we in the office want) is strong, consistent direction from, well, our Directors. You know my email