Cork board website a big hit in 2013

Cork GAA chiefs have welcomed the news that the official county board website saw an increase in traffic of more than one million visitors during 2013.

The site, www.gaacork.ie, received a total of 4.45 million hits, an increase of 26% on the 3.35 million in 2012. Each month in 2012 had been an increase on its 2011 equivalent, and this continued in 2013, which July, August and September all reporting more than 500,000, something which had never happened before in three consecutive months.

Cork County Board PRO Tracey Kennedy is hopeful of further increases for 2014, but also points to the county’s hurling campaign as a contributor.

“Obviously, the All-Ireland final and replay boosted hits in August and September,” she said, “and we’d be hoping for a further increase this year but wouldn’t expect it to be of the same magnitude as last year unless we reach another All-Ireland final.”

Interestingly, while Cork’s appearance in the All-Ireland final and replay contributed to the increase, club activity still accounted for the two days with the most views.

Sunday, October 6 – a day which had three county SHC games as well as intermediate and U21 matches – recorded 33,894 visitors, with November 3 second. On that day, when the SHC and IHC finals were played, 33,343 availed of the site.

Though visits from computers remain the most popular, twice as many people used mobile phones to access the site in 2013 as in 2012, while tablets saw a 175% increase.

Unsurprisingly, Ireland was the source of most visits, though the UK and US combined for 8% of all visits and users were based in a total of 170 countries.