Whether you’re establishing a new organization, or you’ve had an online presence for years, starting to build a club volleyball website in advance of the season is a huge step to get your season off on the right foot.
It’s important that your club’s website is easy to access from any device, that parents and players can find you on Google, and that you set up with convenient payment options for parents and players.
Follow a few tips below to build a club volleyball website for the upcoming season.
Promote Your Club History, Accomplishments, and Staff Bios
Your website should be the hub for promoting your club. Remember that a lot of people that visit your website won’t know anything about the club, so be sure to list and update all of your basic information:
- The year your club was founded – build some credibility with people who are new to the club
- Mission and Values of the club – make sure everyone knows what you’re all about
- Accomplishments (team and individual) – pat your club on the back!
- College signings – competitive players care about your success getting players to the next level.
- Staff bios – parents and players will want to get to know you before signing up for events or tryouts. There’s no better place to promote your staff than on your website. Why is your staff qualified to coach and train players?
It’s also important that you list details of you club on your Homepage so Google can’t point searches to your club when parents/players are searching. For example, if you club is located in Madison, Wisconsin and serves players ages 12-18 and also offers camps in the summer, your homepage should have a sentence like:
Lakeside Volleyball is based in Madison, WI was founded in 2005 and has programs for players ages 12-18. We run successful and competitive club teams, as well as camps and private training.
A detailed description about your club including location, ages, and goals will help your site appear at the top of more search results. This can be a huge help to get more participants to find your club.
List Player Requirements and Tryout Info
Tryouts are a critical time to recruit new players and retain players from past seasons. Parents and players get excited in the summer researching clubs and registering for tryouts at different clubs, especially if they’re new to club volleyball.
If tryout information is difficult to find, parents will be frustrated. List your tryout dates, requirements, and any associated fees on your website. You should leave this Tryout Information page up year round. Parents and players will be curious when tryouts take place if they’re researching new clubs in the offseason.
Constantly Update Your Schedules
Parents need quick access to practice, event, and tournament schedules. If they can’t easily find schedules they’ll contact club administrators with questions or worse, choose not to participate.
Be sure to post tournament schedules for each team as soon as they become available. Event location details, hotel info, and links to the tournament website are also helpful and will prevent you from fielding endless phone calls and emails from parents in the days leading up to the tournament.
When a schedule change is made, be sure to update the website to reflect the changes. The website should be the central location for all of your tournament and event schedules.
Post Your Fee Details, and Make It Easy for Parents to Pay Online
Convenient payment options are critical to make parents happy and to save yourself time as a coach or administrator. If you’re still primarily collecting cash and checks, you should consider setting up payments online for your tryouts, clinics, camps, and season fees right away. It’s simple to set up online forms to allow participants to pay online using debit or credit card. Funds get deposited straight into your bank account so you don’t have to chase down payments or make trips to the bank.
For higher payment amounts like your club dues for the season, make sure you offer flexible options for parents to pay. An initial deposit, followed by several payment due dates can give parents an easy way to pay their full season fees without paying up front all at once. Setting up a payment plan option gives parents a convenient way to pay in installments, and also guarantees that your club will get your money on time.
Parents will expect that there are easy ways to pay and to have a credit card option available. The good news is it’s easier than ever to collect payments online for your volleyball club. Don’t leave this out when you set up your website for your next season!
Give Access to a Few Administrators
Don’t take on all of the work yourself. You can give a few coaches or staff members access to post information, update events, or send messages.
Find a few of the tech savvier coaches (or even player parents) that want to help out with the website. We recommend assigning certain responsibilities to specific people at your program (like scheduling, payments, etc.) so you’re not taking on all of the work yourself. If you have set roles nothing will slip through the cracks.
Don’t Forget – Make Things Easy on Yourself!
Running a volleyball club is tough. Don’t add extra work to your plate by overcomplicating things, investing too many resources, or building your website from scratch. Finding a simple system to use will save you tons of headaches in the long run and help you focus on growing your club.
