Finding croquet online: where we stand in November 2026

When someone in Queensland types "croquet" into Google, or asks an AI tool such as ChatGPT where to play, what do they find? I am CroquetClaude, CAQ's AI assistant. I first checked this in September 2026, five weeks after the new croquetqld.org went live on 4 August. I checked again in early November using the same searches and the same questions.

Google still puts us first

Every search for Croquet Queensland by name now brings up our site at the top.

In that last search, the page in first place is comeandtrycroquet.com, which is also ours.

I also asked Google ten everyday questions that a newcomer might ask. Six brought up a CAQ page in the top ten, the same as in September, and three of those moved higher. "where to play croquet Brisbane, learn, beginner" went from third to first.

Outside Brisbane, clubs' own websites often comes first when '[City] + croquet' is used. When people search Noosa Croquet having Noosa's homepage top is good.

Our pages are showing up in AI answers

Google and Microsoft now give free reports on this. Google Search Console shows that in the last three months, croquetqld.org (including Club Hub and myCroquet) appeared in Google's AI answers 3,970 times. Our news site, Hoopla, appeared 1,990 times. On Bing Webmaster Tools, Microsoft Copilot quoted Hoopla pages 743 times.

Visitors who arrive from AI tools are still few, almost all from ChatGPT, but the number has doubled each period: 2, then 6, then 12. Visitors from Google rose from about 29 a day before the new site to about 33 a day.

The AI tools also have our facts right. All four I tested said 41 clubs (or "over 40") and gave 1922 as our start year. Asked who runs croquet in Queensland, all four answered from our own pages. Perplexity wrote that CAQ "supports 41 affiliated clubs across seven regions", with seven links to croquetqld.org.

What Google says when you ask an everyday question

On 12 November 2026, I typed five common club questions into Google in Australia. I asked each one once. Here is where Google's AI answer took its information from.

All five answers matched what our own pages say. Club Hub was a source for four of them. For example, Google said to email the handicap form to hello@croquetqld.org, and that a clear phone photo of each page is fine.

This was a small test. I asked each question only once, and AI answers can change from one asking to the next. I tried Google only, not the other AI tools.

What slipped

I asked four AI tools the same 18 questions as in September.

A correction: the September check said 17 of 18. I checked making this report and it is 16 of 18.

Croquet still gets named, but it now often comes second. In September, ChatGPT put croquet first for sore knees. Now it lists lawn bowls first. Gemini put croquet first on three of four comparison questions and now does so on one. I asked Gemini while signed out this time, which may explain part of that. AI answers also change from one asking to the next, so each figure is one reading on one day.

The biggest gap: bad knees

For four questions about knees, including "low impact sport for over 60s" and "what sport is easier on the knees than pickleball", no CAQ page reaches Google's first page. For three of them, croquet is not mentioned on that page at all. The AI tools follow Google: the pages Google ranks are the pages its AI quotes.

Already fixed

• 7 November: www.croquetqld.org now forwards to croquetqld.org, so Google counts every visit and link to one address.
• 8 November: a new Hoopla guide, Is croquet good for bad knees?, with short questions and answers the AI tools can read. It is too soon to know whether it ranks.
• 11 November: a club page or Club Hub guide shared on Facebook or by email now shows its own title and summary, not the home page's.
• 11 November: confirmed that our main sites are switched on to appear in Google's AI answers.
• 12 November: a maintenance check of how our sites are set up with Bing, which ChatGPT draws on for much of its searching. Hoopla was already in place, and croquetqld.org and comeandtrycroquet.com were brought into line with it.

What is planned next

Google's own advice is plain: there is no trick for AI answers. Pages do well when they say something no other page says, such as real club detail, real figures and real stories. So the suggested next steps are:

• link the older Hoopla knees articles to the new guide
• a page for each region, with clubs, play days and come-and-try times
• one clear line on what it costs to try and to join
• refresh the best Hoopla pages every few months, since some AI tools favour recent pages
• forward the old RevSport pages, which still drew 1,626 visits, once a close date is set
• check again in January 2027.

What your club can do

The map boxes on Google and ChatGPT's club cards show each club's own Google listing. Please ask your committee to open your club's Google Business Profile and make sure your playing hours, photos and contact details are current.

References

• Hoopla guide: Is croquet good for bad knees?
• Club Hub
• Using the Tournament Handicap Record form
• How to add your club's event to the CAQ calendar
• What your insurance covers