Whether an in-house team builds your site or you hire a sports and athletics web design company, you need to know and play by the rules to get a site that scores. Here are a few sports and athletics web design best practices to help your website hit it out of the park.
Sports Website Design Company
The sporting life seems like fun and games, but it’s also serious business to dedicated fans and players. When you’re planning the website design for your athletics- or sports-based business, you’re playing a must-win game: A site that fails to meet your customers’ needs leaves you down for the count.
Be Mobile-Friendly
Fans and clients live on the run. Your fans are looking for you on mobile devices (and so are search engines), so your website design must be able to keep pace. Responsive web design is the only way to win this race. An experienced sports and athletics web design firm will put your business where everybody’s watching.
Make It Easy and Accessible
Online fans have short attention spans, so you’ll need to include plenty of features to help keep them engaged and allow them to navigate your site with ease. Here are some tips for a website worthy of the major leagues.
- Tell inspiring stories about players — winners and losers alike. They’ll boost enthusiasm and keep your visitors in their seats longer.
- Use clear, conversational tone. Sports fans and players speak their own language. Keep the ball rolling by using it, too — but be careful of jargon. You need to be accessible to rookies, too.
- Readability counts. This means presenting easy-to-understand information, formatted with headlines and bullets that can be skimmed or read quickly.
- Use complimentary fonts and colors to keep your visitors’ eyes on the ball, along with generous use of white space to keep them in the ringside seats.
- Hyperlinks point them to the prized info they seek.
- Statistics, scores and schedules are heavy hitters for most sports fans. Consider featuring them on separate pages, and be sure to keep them current.
- Live videos and action-packed photos create an element of excitement. Use lots of these to keep the team spirit soaring!
- Place your team logo or mascot above the fold to go the distance with your branding efforts.
Some of the clients we’ve developed an updated web presence for:
Get Them in Your Corner
Get to the nitty-gritty of what your business is about. Your sports and athletics web design company can help you knock your traffic and sales records out of the park by following these website design practices.
- Do you offer memberships? You need a detailed page for sign-ups.
- How about nutrition and exercise plans? Place hyperlinks to recipes and workout routines on separate, easily accessible pages.
- Do you have personal trainers on-site? Give each of them a place to show off their techniques and physiques.
- Set up a page where clients can schedule appointments to use workout equipment or book a personal training session.
- If you don’t have an online store, you’d better build one to sell tickets and/or merchandise.
Show website visitors what your team is made of, then show them how to get all of that goodness for themselves. Bet on these tips, and you’ll win by more than a nose!