If you sit on a sports club committee, someone has probably said "we should really have a proper website" at three meetings running. It then gets filed under "next year", because nobody knows what a proper website involves, what it costs, or who would look after it.
This guide is for that committee. It covers what a small club website genuinely needs, what you can leave out, the data protection basics that come with taking memberships, and why a Facebook group alone tends to lose you new members. You can do all of it for nothing, or close to it.
Why a Facebook group isn't enough on its own
A Facebook group is a good place for members to chat. It is a poor front door for people who are not yet members, for three practical reasons.
- Newcomers often cannot see it. Private groups hide their posts from anyone who has not been approved. A parent searching for "junior netball near me" cannot read your training times without joining first and waiting for an admin to notice the request.
- Information gets buried. Where you train, what a term costs and who to contact are posted once and then scroll away. Admins end up answering the same question every week.
- It is not yours. The group, the history and the member list live on someone else's platform, tied to the personal accounts of whoever happens to be an admin.
None of this means closing the group. Keep it for banter and match-day chatter. Treat the website as the place that answers the questions a stranger asks before they turn up. If you want a step-by-step on the move, see how to move your club off Facebook without losing members.
The five things a club website must do
Resist the urge to build a big site. A visitor who is deciding whether to try your club needs five answers, quickly.
- What you are and who it is for. One or two sentences: "Friendly mixed-ability hockey for adults, Tuesday evenings." Say if you take juniors, beginners, or only experienced players.
- When and where you meet. Put the address, a postcode that works in a map app, and the times for each session. If you play at several venues, list each one.
- What it costs and how to join. Give actual figures if you can, or say how to find out. "Come to two taster sessions free, then fill in the form" is a perfectly good answer.
- Who to contact. A named role and an email address that does not belong to one person (more on this below).
- What is happening. A short news or notices area: fixtures, socials, the AGM date, a cancelled session because the hall is flooded.
That is it. If a visitor can find those five things on their phone in under a minute, the site is doing its job.
What to skip (for now)
Committees tend to over-specify. These are fine later, and worth skipping at the start.
- A members-only area. Most clubs do not need logins on day one. A public site plus an existing group chat is enough while you get the basics right.
- Online payments and a shop. Taking subs through a bank transfer or a payment app you already use is fine. Add a shop when kit sales justify the effort.
- A long history page. One paragraph on when you were founded beats six pages nobody reads.
- Video backgrounds, sliders, animations. They slow the page on a phone and add nothing.
- A blog you will not keep up. An empty "latest news" page with a post from 2022 looks worse than no news page. Update notices when something changes, and no more often.
- Lots of separate pages. Home, About, Training, Join and Contact cover almost every club.
GDPR and membership: the basics
The moment you collect names, email addresses, phone numbers or health details for members, you are handling personal data under UK data protection law. That applies to a five-a-side group as much as a big club. You do not need a lawyer, but you do need to get a few things right.
Collect only what you need. A name, an email address and an emergency contact are reasonable for most clubs. Do you need a date of birth? Only if it determines their age group. Do you need medical information? Possibly, for safety, but then keep it tightly controlled.
Tell people what you do with it. Your website should link to a short privacy notice saying what you collect, why, who can see it and how long you keep it. Any form on your site, such as a join request or a contact form, should sit near that link.
Do not use the data for something unrelated. Using the membership list to send fixture reminders is normal. Selling it, or handing it to a sponsor to market to, is not.
Look after the spreadsheet. The most common real-world risk is not hackers but an unprotected spreadsheet being emailed around, or a former secretary keeping a copy forever. Keep the list in one place, limit who can open it, and remove people who have left.
Be careful with children's data. If you run junior sessions, photos and names of under-18s on a public page need parental consent and a clear policy, and the safeguarding rules of your governing body apply as well.
Check whether you need to pay the ICO fee. Many organisations that process personal data must pay a data protection fee to the Information Commissioner's Office, but not-for-profit organisations processing data only for membership and running their own activities can be exempt. The exemption is narrow: selling merchandise or running a commercial bar, for example, can take you outside it. The ICO's guidance for small charities, groups and clubs is the place to check your position rather than assuming.
Cookies matter here as well. If your website uses analytics or tracking cookies, UK rules expect consent before they run. The simplest approach for a small club is to avoid tracking you do not need.
How a free club website works in practice
"Free" can mean very different things, so look at what you actually get.
A genuinely free plan should not ask for a card, should not expire after a trial, and should be live on the public internet. The trade-offs are usually a limit on pages, a web address that includes the provider's name, and the provider's branding in the footer.
On Natterio, for instance, the free plan gives you a permanent three-page site (Home, About and Contact), on a Natterio address, with no card required. The AI builder asks about your club and writes a first version of the pages for you, which you then edit. Paid plans start at £7 a month and add your own domain name; the £14 plan adds a members' forum and member accounts; and the £24 plan adds a shop and removes the Natterio branding. See the pricing page for the current detail.
One honest caveat: Natterio's forum is for adults aged 18 and over, so a junior club should not expect to use it as a children's chat space.
Three pages are enough for plenty of clubs. If you run a small club, the free plan may be all you ever need.
A sensible set-up for a small committee
- Write down your five answers (what you are, when and where, cost and joining, contact, news) in a shared document before touching any tool.
- Create a club email address, such as secretary@ or info@, on a free mailbox that the committee can share. Use it to sign up for the website and to receive enquiries. It matters when people change roles; there is a whole post on that in handing over a club website when the committee changes.
- Build the site in one sitting with a tool that does the first draft for you. Check every fact, since AI-written text can get the details wrong, especially times and prices.
- Link to it everywhere: the Facebook group's description, your email signature, posters, the governing body's club finder, your Google Business Profile if you have one.
- Put a reminder in the diary to check the site at the start of each season, when times and prices change.
Pick the right page for your sport
If you want to see how a club in your sport might look, we have landing pages for football, rugby, cricket, tennis, netball, swimming, running, cycling, martial arts and many more at /clubs.
Questions committees ask
Do we need our own domain name? It is nice to have, because it looks more permanent and you can keep it if you ever change tools. It is not essential on day one. A domain usually costs a modest amount per year; check the registrar's renewal price, not just the first-year offer.
Who should own the site? The club, not an individual. Register everything to a role-based email address that the committee controls.
What if our best volunteer for this leaves? Then you will be glad you wrote down where everything lives. See the handover post linked above.
Next step
If you would like a first draft of your club's website without paying or entering a card, you can start free on Natterio.