The Q1 2026 benchmarking report for English football clubs (group2) has just been published. Learn how 12 of England's top teams perform on the digital pitch.
The latest Q1 2026 benchmarking report for English football clubs has just been published. It covers 12 English football teams including Nottingham Forest, Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, Fulham Football Club, AFC Bournemouth, Brentford Football Club, Leicester City Football Club, Crystal Palace Football Club, Ipswich Town FC, Wolves, Southampton Football Club, Burnley Football Club, and Sunderland AFC.
The research gives an inside track on who is winning the biggest share of voice online, and quantifies the gaps, risks and missed opportunities for each team to drive traffic to their site. Though, with built-in brand loyalty, these teams aren't strictly competing with one another on a digital level, the report highlights quick wins that will improve enquiries from their online strategies and identifies the barriers that may be reducing a site’s ability to optimise digital performance and drive sales to tickets and merchandise.
To see a preview and contents page of the Q1 report, click here. To get a copy of the full report and the key takeaways, please complete the enquiry form or schedule a call.
For a glance into just six of the metrics we evaluated these 12 English football teams on, check out our quick-look table below;
Continue reading for further detail on this quarter's best and poorest-performing English football clubs or request a copy of the report for the full review.
The 70+ pages of research benchmarks each site based on 50+ metrics and indicators of a successful digital strategy, including organic visibility, domain authority, paid media ads, conversion performance, technical performance, site speed, universal search, content, social ads, accessibility, and mobile performance.
Some of the leading players in the space are high spenders on paid media channels such as Google, Bing and Facebook - but have a poor or sub-optimal conversion improvement strategy. Without an optimised, sophisticated conversion strategy that maximises the conversion rate, the return on investment is unsustainable or will underperform. Scaling spend on paid media is not achievable unless the conversion rate delivers optimal performance in the sector. Some in the space have paid media spend levels from £30k+ per month but dedicate minimal resources and budgets to conversion testing. Given the cost per clicks on ad networks will continue to rise, we recommend spending at least 10% of your paid media budget on ongoing conversion optimisation testing schedules to ensure your paid media ROI maintains long-term viability, competitive advantage, and sustainability.
Savvy digital marketers know that having a technically sound website is an essential component of a successful fully integrated digital strategy - plus a site capable of maximising conversion performance. For the football teams in our report, they'll want to ensure key, profit-driving pages such as ticket sales and merchandise stores are easily accessible, and that fans aren't struggling to find what they need by being directed through old or broken links.
In our previous audit, Southampton Football Club received the most 404 errors (61). This quarter, Southampton Football Club has slightly reduced their 404 errors to 59, and they’re no longer the football club to watch. Large site migrations — such as switching CMS platforms, changing domains, or restructuring content — often lead to 404 errors if URL mapping isn’t handled properly. Missing redirect files, incomplete content transfers, or forgotten legacy URLs are common culprits. Thorough migration planning helps avoid long-term SEO damage.
When 62% of consumers are less likely to convert if they have a negative mobile site experience, ensuring that your site is quick and easy to load will see a significant improvement on your overall conversion rates. English football clubs will want to ensure every touchpoint for their fans is high-performing and provides an excellent user experience - especially if there is frustration elsewhere!
In our last audit, Burnley Football Club received the slowest mobile site speed (8). This quarter, Burnley Football Club remains the football club with the slowest mobile site speed, and they’ve since decreased their score to 6. Poor mobile performance can negatively affect conversions and revenue. Whether a website’s goal is to generate leads, encourage sign-ups or drive online sales, speed plays a critical role in user decision-making. Delays of even a few seconds can disrupt trust and cause users to abandon forms or shopping baskets. For brands competing in crowded markets, slow speed can be the difference between winning or losing a customer.
Domain authority (DA) is an essential metric for measuring the effectiveness of SEO performance, and helps create a reliable overall gauge of how effective your site is at achieving organic traffic, i.e. ‘free’ traffic that isn’t gained through sponsored ads. Football clubs are likely to have high DAs, due to them being long-standing institutions which will naturally gain significant press coverage from highly-reputable sites.
A ‘good’ DA really comes down to how your competitors are performing, however it is generally considered average between 40 and 50, good between 50 and 60, and excellent above 60. In our last audit, Ipswich Town FC reported the lowest DA score (68). This quarter, Ipswich Town FC continues to sit at the bottom of the leaderboard, and their DA score remains at 68. Domain authority plays a key role in driving consistent organic traffic. Higher-ranking pages naturally attract more clicks, and as visibility increases, so does the likelihood of users discovering and returning to the website. This steady flow of traffic can support long-term growth without relying heavily on paid advertising.
A strong organic performance is strategically important as it ensures your site ranks above competitors for core, transactional keywords. When 93% of your customers won’t go past the first page of Google, your absence or lack of targeting for essential keywords will cost you conversions. For English football teams, they'll need to ensure their targeted keywords meet their business goals for their site and are optimised in line with any commercial targets that are in place.
Three brands saw a decrease in organic traffic on desktop, with Leicester City Football Club reporting the biggest loss (-42%). On mobile, 4 brands saw a decrease in organic traffic, with Leicester City Football Club receiving the biggest drop (-32%). Optimising for mobile usability is essential, as mobile users now make up a large share of organic traffic. Brands should ensure their websites are fully responsive, easy to navigate, and quick to load on smaller screens. A smooth mobile experience reduces bounce rates and helps maintain strong rankings across all devices.
Google Universal Search Results are an evolving opportunity to make your pages visible on a SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Universal results often appear before traditional listings and are eye-catching for users. Universal search results refer to rankings on a SERP that are not the traditional ‘blue line’ Google link, and a site can appear for universal search results without being strong in standard rankings. Football teams can use the 'image pack' search result to highlight their merchandise to fans looking for their store, or 'people also ask' results to quickly answer questions about their stadium or facilities.
Crystal Palace Football Club continues to secure the most Universal Search appearances (4,551) — an increase from 3,420 previously. The majority of their appearances came from ‘people also ask’ (3,000).
Longtail keywords are often considered high intent and potentially more likely to convert as a searcher is being more specific. Optimising for longtail keywords also puts your content strategy in a strong position to rank for new search terms as they enter Google’s index. Longtail keyword opportunities for English football teams can tie nicely into merchandise and ticket sales, including terms such as "Southampton FC season ticket price" or "new Bournemouth kit full range".
Crystal Palace Football Club continues to secure most longtail keyword appearances for position 3 (1,692) — an increase from 1,680 previously. Crystal Palace Football Club also secures the most appearances for positions 4–10 (2,628) — a decrease from 2,813 previously. Longtail keywords can strengthen a website’s overall SEO strategy. When used consistently across blog posts, product pages, and FAQs, they help search engines better understand the site’s topical authority. Over time, this can improve rankings for broader keywords as well.
With the number of Facebook users in the United Kingdom (UK) hitting over 44 million users in 2023, it is not surprising that companies have jumped at the opportunity to advertise on the social media platform. Facebook’s UK digital advertising revenue has been estimated to have breached 2.6b GB pounds in 2019. Football teams can use paid social advertising to drive awareness of new kits, special fixtures, or featured deals on either merchandise or tickets.
We’ve included screenshots of Burnley Football Club’s sponsored Facebook posts. This English football club included short lines of text to attract social media users to read their content.
When it comes to social media and on-site content strategies, it is important to release content that has a longer shelf life. An article is considered 'evergreen' if it has maintained its relevancy to an audience for a long period of time. It's great for your engagement, but great for Google too, who will recognise content which achieves traffic over a long period of time. Social media could be especially useful for sharing information about team news, post-match analysis, new kits, and upcoming fixtures.
Leicester City Football Club secured the most Facebook Likes (9.9m) and the most Instagram followers (78m). Facebook was the most popular social media platforms of all brands. Wolves received the highest total engagement rate (731,660) and the highest average engagement (604).
Around 20% of people in the UK have a disability – 2 million of which are people living with sight loss. In addition, 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some degree of colour vision deficiency. Football teams will want to ensure they are welcoming to all fans at any point in their customer journey, so should take care to consider accessibility when planning their digital strategy and image.
In our previous report, Wolves flagged the most accessibility alerts (164). This quarter, Wolves remains the football club to watch, though they’ve decreased their accessibility alerts by one point since our previous report (currently a total of 163). Additionally, Brentford Football Club reported 70 contrast errors — the highest of all football clubs. Unresolved accessibility alerts signal that a website is not fully meeting the needs of its audience. Users increasingly value brands that demonstrate empathy and responsibility through inclusive design. When accessibility issues persist, audiences may perceive the website as outdated or careless. Addressing these alerts shows commitment to all users and helps build trust, credibility, and long-term engagement.
To get a copy of the full report, please complete the enquiry form. If you want to talk to us about accelerating your digital performance, please call us on 01543 410014 or schedule a call with Rory Tarplee.