'Tis the season to clean up your website

'Twas the site before Christmas, when the time came for a good cleaning. With the end of the year approaching and possibly some extra time on your hands, there's no better time to jump in to refreshing and revitalising your website for the new year. Below are a few simple changes you can make to your website to make things easier and more professional for your users.

 Updating the 'look and feel'

1. Make your home page your main news page
This will be an easy way to ensure that your members can quickly access any new information and saves them from having to scour through your website.

2. Look to update to the fading news layouts
The fading news layouts give a nice sleek look to your news articles and can help to prevent your site from looking too text-heavy. There are a few options to choose from here with these news templates and they are explained here.

3. Utilise widgets for key information
Widgets are a great way to provide quick and easily accessible information on every page of your website. Using them to display your major sponsors, social media links and YouTube channel are excellent ways to liven up your right hand column. Be careful however, not to overload your site with widgets. A long and drawn out right hand column will not only lessen its effectiveness but also detract from the look of your site.

4. Customise your website header
A personalised header can be uploaded on your website to impart your own club or associations flavour. Below is an example of what can be done with a custom header.

Navigating your way

1. Most popular menus on the left hand side
Finding information and pages on your website shouldn't be a puzzle. The areas that are most important  for your members (i.e. Fixtures/Results, News, Referee/Umpire information) should be on the far left of the menu. It's likely to be the first place on the website users will look.

2. Make fixtures and results the star
Fixtures/Results/Ladders are by far the most popular aspect of any Fox Sports Pulse standard website. Don't hide them! Make them very clear and easy to find and as mentioned above, keep them over on the left hand side.


3. Keep your menus succinct
Your menus across the top of your page should be sorted logically and easy to follow. Try to group your pages together into the one heading. If you find that your website has a 'More' section (as below) on the far right of the menu, see if you can move/group any of those pages into another section. Keeping it simple is the best way to go.

4. Get a domain name
A domain name is the first point of identification for your website and all websites should have one. Domain name providers will be able to give you a cheap .com.au domain, otherwise you can take advantage of a free domain name for your website with the .sportingpulse.net format. More information on domain names can be found here.

There is plenty more than you can do with your website, so should you have any queries feel free to get in touch with our Customer Service team.