Websites

Your club’s website is like a shop window, it is important to make people stay and to explore your site.

A website can be a hugely powerful and helpful tool and should be the centre point for all of your club’s marketing communications activities and the final destination of your social media traffic.

Every judo club is advised to create their own website to help them promote themselves and their activities.

Website Building

There are a number of different services you can use to start building your own club website.

You can build your own website free of charge on through platforms like WordPress, Wix, Weebly , Drupal, and Webs.

Team Thing, Hit Sports and Club Buzz specialise in building websites for sports clubs and teams.

You may need to pay to access all the features that these platforms provide, so make sure you understand what you are signing up for when you register.

Content

Once you’ve built your website you will need to populate it with relevant information about your club. This is called content and there is a wide range of different content you can use to populate your club’s website including:

  • Listings of your club’s upcoming Competitions and Events over the coming weeks and months.
  • Updates on the club’s training times
  • Updates on results and reports from competitions your club’s players have competed in
  • General news updates so that everyone knows what is happening at your club
  • Images and Pictures from in and around the club or at competitions taken on a mobile phone or a digital camera.
  • Directions and maps so people know where to find your club. You can add an interactive Google Map (www.maps.google.co.uk) to your website for free
  • An enquiries section where people can contact the club
  • Selling club merchandise to both members and non-members using services such as eBay and PayPal.
  • Video and Audio Content using applications like YouTube, Vimeo, Audioboo and Soundcloud.
  • Any other information about the club that you think is relevant to someone visiting your website.

Think about what content you could include on your club’s website and how can you access and capture it.

Make it Engaging

When people visit your website you want to get their attention by making your website as engaging as possible. You can make your website more engaging by:

  • Making it easy to find by having a clear web address like britishjudo.org.uk
  • Making it easy to navigate by having clear options along of the top of your site such as News, About, Contact etc.
  • Encourage interaction
  • Making it easy to find your club’s contact details by listing them in the header or footer of your site on its own page
  • Displaying your club’s logo clearly and frequently throughout your website
  • Making your website informative by posting regular updates on the club and its activities
  • Break up text on your site into paragraphs and sections so that it is easier to read
  • By making a good and smart use of colours on your site. A site in black and white will not be as engaging as one in colour.
  • Making sure your website is ‘Social Media Friendly’ so that it can easily be shared on Facebook and Twitter
  • Including clear ‘calls-to-action’ and directions to next steps at the end of your news updates
  • Making your site mobile optimised so that it is easier to read and navigate by someone “on the go”