Last Updated on: 22nd December 2021, 11:40 am
Having a strong online presence is essential for any sports club. A club website is a great way to keep your
members engaged and motivated, to share news, to recruit new members and volunteers, and more!
Website vs social media
A lot of clubs restrict their online presence to having a Facebook page. FB is easy to set up and
update, but also has disadvantages.
- Content on FB is only going to be viewed by people who are on FB. You can’t guarantee that will be the case for all of
your players / members. - Older material will be buried beneath your latest updates. This is fine for news stories, but a bit of
a nuisance for ongoing issues like volunteer recruitment, meaning you may have to keep reposting the
same things. - There is a limit to how much you can customise your appearance – everything will have ‘Facebook’
plastered across the top – and adverts for who knows what down the side.
To make yourself stand out to potential new members, a distinctive website will get you noticed. If you have an ad-free site, you can also ensure that any links included are to your sponsors.
Getting started
Unless you happen to have website developers and designers on your club committee, you’ll want some easy-to-use software to get your site up and running.
There are scores of website platforms out there dedicated to sports clubs, although many come with a set-up cost or on-site advertising.
At Pendle, we offer Club+, a free versatile web tool for clubs, which includes a phone app and group messaging, so you can keep your followers in the loop wherever they are.
What to include on your site
At a minimum, your club website should have:
- Fixtures and results
- Club structure (How many teams do you have? Who’s on your committee?)
- Diaries for senior training, committee meetings, etc
- Contact details
- Details of how to join
- League affiliation
- Links to your club sponsors
- How to purchase club kit
- A map to your home ground
Other things to include
If your club has been going a while, a club history page will be a great addition to your site. Even if you’re relatively new, it might not be a bad idea; everything has to start somewhere, right?
Videos and images of your players in action will bring your club website to life. It’s easy to embed pictures and videos from other online service providers like Instagram and YouTube.
Some tips
Be sustainable
You might be tempted at first to pump out 1,500-word match reports (especially if you’ve just given
someone a 9-0 hiding), but it’s very difficult to keep that level of production up – particularly if you only have one person working on your website content!
Be inclusive
You should definitely record your results and if you want to go a bit further and give honourable
mentions for particularly fine performances, volunteering efforts, that’s also fine. But remember to
be inclusive and make sure you spread the love around the club, rather than just focusing on your best
players.
Be respectful
Once you publish to the web, it’s there for the whole world to see. If you have any observations about
the opposition, match officials or whoever, be sure they’re ones you’d be happy to repeat to their
face. (And that they’d be happy for you to repeat to their face!)
Be resourceful
Check around your club for more people to get involved with your online presence – whether it be writing news posts, taking photographs, or helping with your social media accounts.
Have fun
Seeing your club’s identity come to life online is a great reward, and well worth a bit of hard work!