Don't let the photo above fool you. According to the ITTF, they are extremely popular:
ittf.com Ranks Third Among Olympic Sports Federations
By: Sheri Soderberg Pittman
1/19/2009
At a recent marketing seminar I was participating in, we were learning how to analyze and effectively use information about website traffic. When the course instructor asked attendees to name some of their websites, we discovered that ITTF.com had a very high ranking. After the seminar, I was curious to compare our traffic with the other Olympic international federations.
What a surprise it was to discover that the ITTF’s website ranks third among the 35 official IF websites! That’s pretty remarkable!
I compiled a spreadsheet from statistics I gathered at Alexa.com. According to the website, “Alexa computes traffic rankings by analyzing the web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other diverse traffic data sources.” Among all sites on the web, Yahoo ranks first (1), followed by Google (2).
FIFA, the football/soccer international federation has the highest ranked website among the IFs, with a ranking of 1,992 (in top 2,000 websites worldwide). Tennis is second with a ranking of 25,352, followed by table tennis with a ranking of 28,278 (in top 30,000 websites worldwide). Only five other IF websites rank in the top 100,000: Athletics, Skiing, Volleyball, Badminton and Skating.
President Adham Sharara enthusiastically exclaimed, "I always suspected that our website was very popular and fan-based. But I never imagined that the ITTF's website would be in the top 3 international federations in the world. This is amazing.”
How did this happen? We’ve got a great website! It appeals to a wide range of visitors from competitors to spectators, from juniors to veterans, and from able-bodied athletes to Paralympians. Access to itTV allows viewers to watch events via live or delayed transmission. Pop-down menus exist for all major international tournaments. The ITTF online museum brings our sport’s history to life. An extensive photo gallery contains hundreds of catalogued pictures. There’s even an interactive table tennis game. Our website contains a total of 16 distinct subject categories on its toolbar, with several other subcategories, pop up features, and articles accessible from its home page.
Undoubtedly the ITTF’s innovative and creative P4 Plan, which was adopted almost a decade ago, has helped the ITTF to accomplish this distinction. Increasing the popularity of our sport at the international level, including increasing the visibility of table tennis through electronic media, is the Plan’s top priority. Great accomplishments like this add to our sport’s international stature.
While still contemplating the thought-provoking news, President Sharara added, “We always knew that the number of visitors during our top events was astronomical -- in the millions -- during our World Championships, but now it's great to have it confirmed by an independent source, which is the world expert in assessing website traffic. I am extremely pleased."
The ITTF is currently analyzing this exciting information in order to identify innovative ideas to keep promoting table tennis and boosting our sport’s image and popularity.
“We can safely congratulate ourselves and thank our Web-Master, Mohamed El-Shentenawy, for his tireless work and Mr. Ian Marshal for his prolific article writing and keeping our fans coming back to our website” concluded Adham Sharara.
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