The truth is, designing a sports website takes time and experience. Fortunately, for those creating it, some tips/tricks can make it easier and provide valuable results. Ideally, this task should be passed to an experienced designer, but as long as you understand your audience’s desires, even an amateur can create a sports fan website.
Before you get tangled up in the technicalities, think about the content you provide to your audience. What sports will your site promote? Will you be providing specific information or various types of data? What will make your website different from the other sports fan websites out there? You need to plan carefully and allow your ideas to evolve if you want to answer these questions.
This article will look at 8 things to keep in mind when building a sports fan website.
Basic Things to Consider When Creating a Sports Website
When you are managing a sports website, you need to keep the following in mind:
- Most popular sports websites are created with the average male in mind
- Typically, men aged 25 to 34 years old spend over an hour each month browsing sports information
- Website similar to PGA, NFL, and Nascar tend to have more female followers
- Men are the dominant visitors of NBA and MLB websites
However, trends are always changing. Furthermore, female sports enthusiasts are more involved in professional leagues, so they should be targeted equally.
When you manage your website, optimize the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more. Typical sports fans spend a lot of time on these venues, where communities are built and common interests are discussed.
Additionally, you need to make sure that your website is optimized for mobile since most fans/online shoppers browse the internet on the go.
Tips/Ideas for Launching a Sports Website
Instead of simply promoting a sport/club, a sports website helps sports fans share their passion with the world. This is where they can discuss player trades, scores/statistics, favorite teams, and more.
For those creating these sites, it’s a great way to build community and tackle an interest that will bring traffic and increase monetization on advertising.
- When choosing your domain name, be creative. Your default will be a sports-related name that will get peoples’ attention. If you plan to use your site to sell/advertise products, you should choose a domain ending in .com, but if you are associated with an organization or club, you should select one ending in .org.
- If you don’t have the experience to design a template, you’ll need to purchase one. This will provide you with a website that will stand out, and you won’t have to concern yourself with whether you can upload media, post content, or insert links.
- Begin working on your content ahead of time. You might consider writing some biographies of famous players or providing information on championships or other upcoming events.
- Upload media and invite experts to discuss sports news/trends. You can make your site even more credible by linking to other sports-related sites.
- Invite your visitors to engage in the conversation, sharing their opinions and commenting on the latest news. You can even create a forum page where visitors can interact with each other.
- Another element to consider is a widget application, which allows the site to automatically collect live updates and other information and share to your page without you having to do anything.
- Be sure to monitor your website regularly and fix any issues immediately. If the site is loading slowly, then the chances are that links were not properly placed or visitors don’t know how to get around in it.
- Also, keep browser compatibility in mind. Ideally, you need to ensure that it performs well on Chrome, Explorer, and Firefox. Colors should be relaxing, and fonts should be professional.
- Finally, before publishing, proofread your work and only post content when it’s free of errors. If you need to, hire a professional.
Rules of Leading Sports Websites
Did you know that it takes less than 5 seconds for a visitor to determine whether to stay on a website or not? Of course, this doesn’t give them time to digest your content, but it’s a snap judgement based on what they see.
Below, we will explain how some of the recent trends in web design work to your advantage:
Simplicity
Ideally, you should limit the number of elements that you have on your website. Sure, visitors should be provided with detailed, fresh information. However, you will not impress them by packing every widget and gimmick you can find. This could end up pushing your visitors away completely.
Therefore, plan each page on your site carefully and know what each element should be achieving. Then, only add content that will help you accomplish your mission. Your approach should be free of fluff and should be aligned with your purpose.
Whitespaces & Large, Simple Fonts
Typically, sports websites provide a lot of content, which should be easy for visitors to digest. Two things can make this happen:
- Whitespaces
- Fonts
Whitespace is the “negative” space around the content that makes paragraphs easier to read. Whitespace provides breathing space for the content that relaxes the eyes/mind of your visitors, allowing them to focus on what’s important- the content.
According to experts, sports websites work best with simple, large fonts because they allow visitors to absorb the information they want without putting on their reading glasses or zooming in.
Keep Your Brand Involved
When a loyal fan visits your sports website, they should feel at home. This is why it’s essential to make sure that your website is easy to recognize. Therefore, you need to include your brand symbols: colors and logo.
Mobile-Friendly
These days, everyone is always on the go, and traffic comes from mobile devices. This is why you need to make sure that you design your website to be suitable for any screen.
This is also considered when search engines arrange their search results. For example, if your website isn’t optimized for a variety of screens, then you won’t be placed at the top of the results list. Therefore, compatibility should be of primary importance.
There are several ways that you can do this, such as using special plug-ins or mobile themes.
Professional Imagery
In web design, pictures are critical because it makes it easier for you to communicate to fans/visitors. If you want to make your website appear professional, you’ll want to provide pictures of players that are being supported. If you need to, consider hiring a professional photographer.
Provide Information on Upcoming Events
Imagine your fans are waiting around for information on game day, but it never gets posted. Chances are, they won’t return the next day. If you have a sports website, you need to be providing information on sporting events so that your fans have easy access to it.
Contact Information
True fans will do whatever they can to keep in touch with their favorite teams. Therefore, make sure that you are providing social media profiles and other contact information. This means that potential sponsorship partners, press, and anyone that needs to can contact you.
Latest News
One thing that supporters are always interested in is the latest news on the team. So you can get fans involved in what is going on, provide them with a glimpse behind the scenes and allow them the opportunity to connect with you.
Final Thoughts
Your website represents who you are, and you only get one chance to prove yourself. Therefore, it’s critical to build a website that shares your message and makes users happy with a highly visual, uncluttered interface.
Be sure that your website provides all of the pertinent information for your visitors. You can even offer an “About Us” page to help visitors understand you and your brand better. Visit Viafoura for assistance on community management for sports websites.
