RevSport vs New Homepage: the ranking results vindicate the committee's decision

On 19 June 2026, if you typed "croquet queensland" into Google, our website was on page two or beyond. Not on the first page at all. Same for "croquet qld", "croquet club brisbane" and "come and try croquet queensland". Facebook, the clubs, the council websites and our own news site were ranking where the main website was effectively unseen on the internet.

The new croquetqld.org went live on 4 August 2026. Five weeks later, on 9 September, we ran every one of those searches again. Croquet Queensland is now number 1 for "croquet queensland" and "croquet qld". It is number 1 or 2 for every other important search we tested.

In June, ask an AI what to play instead of lawn bowls and croquet was not even mentioned. Today, ask Google's AI, ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini, and croquet is the answer in 17 of 18 replies.

This is the before and after, and what we changed to get there.

Brand and Topic Searches: Then and Now

Measurements were taken using two snapshots: 19 June and 9 September.

Being ranked 2nd for "croquet brisbane" to East Brisbane Croquet Club is expected, they are the correct match for the term. We are second.

Technical Checks: Then and Now

We measured eight homepage technical factors. Every defect identified in June is now fixed.

Ask an AI. Croquet is the answer.

In June, ask an AI what to play instead of lawn bowls and croquet was not even mentioned. Perplexity did not mention it. Google's AI mentioned it only inside an ABC News story it happened to quote. No AI referenced a Croquet Queensland page for anything.

On 9 September we put the same questions to the four AI tools people use:

• Croquet is named in 17 of the 18.
• Twelve of those answers are to questions where croquet is up against other sports (sore knees, instead of lawn bowls, easier than pickleball). Croquet is the first sport named in 7 of the 12: Google's AI once, Gemini three times, ChatGPT three times.
• Croquet Queensland pages are quoted as the source in 11 of the 18. In June that number was zero.

What they say:

• ChatGPT, asked what to play instead of lawn bowls with sore knees: "1. Croquet, probably the best fit." Then: "I'd actually put croquet ahead of bowls for what you're describing. Queensland Croquet says it is played at walking pace on flat lawns, requires little fitness, and is highly sociable." Its source chip reads "Croquet Queensland". It quotes us in 5 of its 6 answers.
• Google's AI Overview, asked what social sport to play instead of lawn bowls: "You can play croquet as a tactical, low-impact lawn sport alternative in Queensland." Croquet is the first option listed. Source: Croquet Queensland, the Hoopla article "Croquet or Lawn Bowls?".
• Gemini, asked for an alternative to lawn bowls for active retirees: "Croquet is one of the best alternatives to lawn bowls for active retirees across Queensland." It names croquet in all 6 answers and quotes Croquet Queensland or Hoopla in 3. On "who runs croquet in Queensland" it answers: "the Croquet Association of Queensland, commonly known as Croquet Queensland. Operating since 1922, CAQ manages over 40 affiliated clubs across seven Queensland regions", with a link to croquetqld.org.
• Perplexity, asked who runs croquet in Queensland: names the Croquet Association of Queensland as the peak body, quotes Hoopla 12 times on what a first session is like and what membership costs, and tells the reader "Go to croquetqld.org and look for the club finder". In June it sent people to a council page and Facebook.

How Google Works, in Plain Words

Google keeps a copy of every page on the web. When someone types a search, it picks the pages that best match the words, and that it trusts most, and shows the top answers.

Google decides "match" and "trust" from a few simple things. Does the page say clearly what it is about, in its title and its one-line description? Is it the one true copy of that page, or one of many? Does it have real words on it to read? Is there a map of the site so Google can find every page? Do other sites point to it?

In June our website was a shared template. Every page had the same title shape and the same one-line description. There was no map. The home page had about 2,000 characters of text, mostly widget labels. Google could read it, but it was nonsense, so our main website didn't rank.

Now every page has its own title and its own description. There is a map with all our pages on it. There is a machine-readable file especially for these search engine and AI visitors. This means each file on our site is fully ingested by the search engines.

The AI answers work generally the same way, with a difference. Google's AI Overview, Perplexity and Gemini all run a search first, then read the top pages, then write an answer from what they read. They quote the pages they read. So once our pages rank, the AI quotes us. That is why Hoopla's "Croquet or Lawn Bowls?" article is the source when someone asks what to play instead of lawn bowls: it is now the page on the internet that answers that question.

Those Hoopla articles are not accidental. CroquetClaude writes them specifically to answer the questions people ask before they know croquet exists, things like "what to play instead of lawn bowls" or "is croquet good for sore knees". That is item 8 below in practice: write the page an AI would want to quote, then let the AI find it and quote it.

It took five weeks, not months, because the structure of the new website is designed directly to achieve this.

Why It Worked

The June diagnosis stated that we had a generic page with no distinctive content on an unalterable template. June noted that "croquet queensland" is a contested search, meaning a thin page loses to clubs and richer subdomains. The prediction was that a proper page would compete, and that has been proven correct.

The 23 June Management Committee minutes approving the new homepage record President John van Barneveld:

"it's because we're sort of hiding inside RevSport that we're not visible... the only solution is CAQ's own website."

President John van Barneveld, Management Committee minutes, 23 June 2026

The result was achieved through 8 changes:

1. A dedicated website with correct structure and content. Google now reads a site built for Croquet Queensland, not a template shared with hundreds of other sports bodies.
2. Unique titles and descriptions for every page, allowing Google to match specific pages to user queries.
3. Canonical tags to identify the authoritative version of pages.
4. Structured data (JSON-LD) for organisation, articles, and FAQs. This is what lets a search engine or an AI assistant state its facts with confidence. This gets us quoted.
5. A functioning XML sitemap.
6. Increased homepage, news and Clubhub content.
7. AI crawlers are specifically allowed in robots.txt and an llms.txt file was added.
8. Topic pages on Hoopla targeting "pre-croquet" queries (e.g., lawn bowls alternatives). These are the pages Google and its AI Overview pick today.