A Club’s website Homepage is the first impression many members will face and having a clear, welcoming and user friendly site is key in hopes of attracting and retaining prospective members.
This guide provides a walkthrough of the key elements of a Homepage. These include:
- Video Demonstration
- Sliders
- Text Info Section
- Info Section
- News Section
- Galleries Section
- Events Section
- Sponsors Section
Video Demonstration #
See below our video demonstration of WordPress Homepages
Sliders #
The first section of a Homepage are the Sliders. These are the primary images and links that will slide/scroll across your site’s homepage. Examples of sliders that are used by clubs include links to Membership, Contact Us, Social Bowls and Pennant but others can be set as your club wishes.
Opening the Sliders will display the default images and links added. To remove the row, click the minus ‘-‘ button on the right hand side of the element. To Add a new row, click the plus ‘+’ on the right hand side or the Add Row button.
Next, Add any Images, Text or Links to the sliders. Images can be uploaded from your device by clicking Add Image or click any existing image and select Edit.
Paste Links to pages on your site by adding the URL in the Link section and Link Text to direct members to the appropriate pages.
If you want to reorder the Sliders, click and drag the lefthand side of the rows (a cross section arrow will appear) – this will display the option to reorder. Drag as needed and click Update once all changes are ready.
Text Info Section #
The Text Info Section is the information beneath the Sliders which clubs can add a description, images, links and colour scheme specific to their club, giving a custom and tailored feel for members.
Clubs can a title to the section and then further information as needed.
Images, video and tables are elements that can be added or embedded. Once the details are added, click Update.
Info Section #
The Info Section of a Club is a great navigational tool that when utilised well, can make the experience of members effortless and straightforward. Like Sliders, specific details of Clubs can be linked to pages throughout your site, accompanied by a small explainer text and logo to help identify where the sections link.
It is recommended to have no more than three (3) featured links as they can appear cramped and misaligned if any more are added.
Add an Icon, Title, Text and Link to the rows as needed – note, the numerical order of the rows will display Left to Right when published. The Icons that are available are templated by WordPress and cannot be edited or added to by administrators.
News Section #
The News section will display news posts from the club in order of recently published as well as linking to an Archive of past posts. Fields that can be customised are News Title (the primary title on the homepage), News Link Text (often the text linking to Archive) and News Link.
This section can be set to display by selection Yes/No.
The details show in the News section will be a some text from the post, any feature image linked set for the article and category tag. The colour scheme of the tags are set in the site’s Appearance and Theme.
Galleries Section #
The Galleries Section will display any collections that have been added to the site. It will display those in order of recently added.
Note – this is not where galleries are added but where they can be linked from on your Homepage.
To add a gallery, go to your sites Dashboard and on the lefthand navigation menu, click Galleries > Add New. There a title, images, captions and links of the images can be added and edited as needed.
Events Section #
The Events Section like the Galleries section, will display any upcoming Events posted on the Club’s site.
For more information on the Events Calendar, please see our support article How to Add Events Calendar.
Fields that can be customised are Events Title (the primary title on the homepage), Events Link Text (often the text linking to Archive) and Events Link.
This section can be set to display by selection Yes/No.
Sponsors Section #
In the Sponsors Section, Clubs can add images and links to the sites of their Sponsors.
To remove the row, click the minus ‘-‘ button on the right hand side of the element. To Add a new row, click the plus ‘+’ on the right hand side or the Add Row button.
Next, Add any Images or Links to the Sponsors. Images can be uploaded from your device by clicking Add Image or click any existing image and select Edit.
Paste Links to pages on your site by adding the URL in the Link section.
If you want to reorder the Sponsors, click and drag the lefthand side of the rows (a cross section arrow will appear) – this will display the option to reorder. Drag as needed and click Update once all changes are ready.
When live, the Sponsors will appear as images toward the bottom of the Homepage. Clicking on the images will direct members to the pages via the links set.
If there are multiple Sponsors, they can scroll left and right across the page automatically or by clicking the left and right arrows (<) (>).
Note – these links will not open in a new tab, instead, using the current window the member is using.
To open the Sponsor in a new tab, right-click the image and select ‘Open in new tab;’.
For more support please contact bowlslink@bowls.com.au