Last time, we focused on mapping out your upcoming programs. Knowing what you’re going to be offering to athletes in your area helps you understand what you bits of information you need to update on your website. When the season starts getting close, you want to balance sharing good things from last year with looking out of date old and stale.

• Update Website Content: First, you need to update your website. Go to your homepage and check out your CTAs. What is the last news article you shared? Is it still current? Do you have old pictures on there? Take a few minutes to go through your main pages. You’ll be able to tell in a few seconds what needs to be updated. 
• Build Helpful Content: Mentally, put yourself in the position of someone who is brand new to your organization. What do you need to know?
  • What do you do, and do kids enjoy it?
  • What program should my kid sign up for?
  • What are the costs, and when does it start?

Trust me; if you’re in the weeds and have done it for years, you’ll forget what it’s like to be a first- time parent. Build pages titled “New to Soccer” or “First Time Families.”. Create a page for “Registration” and one for “Tryout Information.”. Not only will these be valuable for new visitors, but they can serve to share information as you progress to the season. 

• Online Apparel Store (Uniforms/Spirit Wear): Everyone loves apparel. Unfortunately, the way that people order apparel is generally a pain. The “order window” and “8-week8 week delivery” and “ship to the coach” methods leave people in a sour mood. SquadLocker (a SportsEngine partner), solves all of these issues. You can have an online apparel store, that ships direct, and sends items out a few weeks after they order. It’s a bonus that they also stock name brand apparel. If you want to add a small percentage to make it a fundraiser, you can do that too. I highly recommend you use this system. 
• SportsEngine.com Listings: Over the past summer, millions of people visited SportsEngine.com to read articles about coaching, athlete safety, running their club, and hundreds of other topics. Many of them also took the time to look for local programs in their area (FUN FACT: the largest group of searchers were for U7 programs). In SportsEngine HQ, you can add and edit your program listings, so they are found by parents searching in your area. When you set up a registration, it will ask if you automatically want to add your program to SportsEngine.com, but you can always go in and manually add new (or remove old) programs. 

Think of your website as a place where you can store information, educate new families/visitors, and create pages that are easy to share with information people are looking for. (FWIW, I’ve answered the same email of ‘when is our tryout session’ this morning. Link sent, done). 

Next time, we’ll discuss setting up a new season for your teams and leagues. Until then, Go Twins.