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

We took the first measurement on 19 June 2026, when the website was on the RevolutioniseSport (RevSport) shared template. The new croquetqld.org went live on 4 August 2026. On 9 September 2026, five weeks after the new site went live, we ran every search and question again. Nothing has been measured since, so every position and count in this guide is the 9 September 2026 reading.

Brand and Topic Searches: Then and Now

On 19 June 2026, a search for "croquet queensland" did not show our website on the first page. The same was true for "croquet qld", "croquet club brisbane" and "come and try croquet queensland". Facebook, the clubs, council websites and our own news site ranked in its place. On 9 September 2026 our website was number 1 for "croquet queensland" and "croquet qld", and number 1 or 2 for every other important search tested. The 9 September searches were run on Google signed in, with the location showing as Queensland, the way a local person searching would see them.

For "croquet brisbane", East Brisbane Croquet Club is first and we are second. That is expected. The club is the correct match for those words.

Technical Checks: Then and Now

We measured eight homepage technical factors on both dates. Every defect found in June is now fixed.

Ask an AI. Croquet is the answer.

In June 2026, when asked what to play instead of lawn bowls, Perplexity did not mention croquet. Google's AI mentioned it only inside an ABC News story it quoted. No AI gave a Croquet Queensland page as a source for anything.

On 9 September 2026 we collected 18 answers: 3 from Google's AI Overview, 3 from Perplexity, 6 from Gemini and 6 from ChatGPT. Croquet is named in 16 of the 18. Perplexity named it in 3 of 3, Google's AI Overview in 2 of 3, Gemini in 6 of 6 and ChatGPT in 5 of 6. The two answers without croquet were both to "What sport is easier on the knees than pickleball for older adults?", one from Google's AI Overview and one from ChatGPT.

Twelve of the answers are to questions where croquet is up against other sports: sore knees, instead of lawn bowls, and easier than pickleball. Croquet is the first sport named in 7 of the 12. Google's AI named it first once, Gemini three times and ChatGPT three times.

Croquet Queensland pages are given as the source in 11 of the 18 answers. In June the number was zero.

ChatGPT was asked what to play instead of lawn bowls with sore knees. Its answer began: "1. Croquet, probably the best fit." It went on: "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". ChatGPT quotes us in 5 of its 6 answers.

Google's AI Overview was asked what social sport to play instead of lawn bowls. It answered: "You can play croquet as a tactical, low-impact lawn sport alternative in Queensland." Croquet is the first option listed. The source is Croquet Queensland, the Hoopla article "Croquet or Lawn Bowls?".

Gemini was asked for an alternative to lawn bowls for active retirees. It answered: "Croquet is one of the best alternatives to lawn bowls for active retirees across Queensland." Gemini names croquet in all 6 of its answers and gives Croquet Queensland or Hoopla as a source in 3. Asked who runs croquet in Queensland, it answered: "Croquet Association of Queensland (CAQ), commonly known as Croquet Queensland. Operating since 1922, CAQ manages over 40 affiliated clubs across seven Queensland regions". It gives a link to croquetqld.org.

Perplexity was asked who runs croquet in Queensland. It names the Croquet Association of Queensland as the peak body. It quotes Hoopla 12 times, on what a first session is like and what membership costs. It 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.

It judges "match" and "trust" from a few 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 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 the main website did not 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 made for search engine and AI visitors. Each page on the site is taken in fully by the search engines.

The AI answers work in much the same way, with one difference. Google's AI Overview, Perplexity and Gemini run a search first, then read the top pages, then write an answer from what they read, and they quote the pages they read. 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.

The Hoopla articles are not accidental. CroquetClaude writes them to answer the questions people ask before they know croquet exists, such as "what to play instead of lawn bowls" or "is croquet good for sore knees". This is change 8 in the list below: 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 to do this.

Why It Worked

The June diagnosis was a generic page with no distinctive content, on a template that could not be changed. June also noted that "croquet queensland" is a contested search, so a thin page loses to clubs and to richer subdomains. The prediction was that a proper page would compete. That has been proven correct.

The Management Committee minutes of 23 June 2026 record, under "Website visibility", that croquetqld.org sat inside RevSport's hosting and was hard to find on Google, and that CAQ would take back control of its domain and set up its own website in the coming weeks.

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, so Google can match a page to what a person typed.
3. Canonical tags, which identify the authoritative version of a page.
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 aimed at "pre-croquet" questions (for example, alternatives to lawn bowls). These are the pages Google and its AI Overview pick today.