Aug. 12, 2014
Welcome to the new Gamecocksonline.com! The South Carolina Athletics Department is proud to launch the newly redesigned online home of the Gamecocks along with our digital partner CBS Interactive. The redesigned site now features a responsive design, which allows for a better user experience based on the type of device being used to access the site.
“The primary driver for the site redesign was to become more mobile-friendly,” said Eric Nichols, Associate Athletic Director for Marketing. “With viewing habits trending more to a mobile experience, we have changed our thought process to be mobile-first for our digital assets.”
During the last fiscal year, Gamecocksonline.com enjoyed more than 26 million page views by nearly 3.7 million unique visitors. That equates to more than 300,000 unique visitors per month.
The site’s traffic is a close to split between those who view it with a mobile device and those using a computer, and in 2014, more than one-third of visitors to the site viewed it from an iPhone or iPad. However, a majority of the mobile users were not viewing the mobile version of the site, thus illustrating the need for the responsive design.
The new site features bigger and bolder images to make an impact, while the more compact design allows for easier navigation, and more video content with comprehensive highlight packages will be available thanks to the SEC Network. Other enhancements include the addition of a full-time feature creator and a section titled “Must See” to give a longer life to segments of the site. Input for the web site committee came from a variety of sources.
“The core team included staff members from digital and social media, media relations, marketing and video,” Nichols said. “Throughout the summer, we also met with every sports’ coaching staff to determine their respective wants and needs related to communications which included their web presence, which was not always the same.”
With the responsive nature of Gamecocksonline.com, fans can now access live audio streaming from the site through their cell phones, thereby no longer needing the previously available mobile app. Gamecock fans should note that the All Access product is changing due to live video being moved to the SEC Network. The new pricing is $9.95 per month and $99.95 per year, which will provide access to not only Gamecock live audio content, but also content from all other schools on the CBS platform from around the country.
We hope you enjoy the new site, and we’d like to have your feedback. Visit Gamecocksonline.com/connect for a complete list of official Gamecocks social media sites.
