Sports websites are buzzing with live scores, stats, schedules, and much more. These sites have their own set of craze and fan following. Around 70% of the people surf for their favorite sports team or player online. These stats highlight that fans find such websites quickly without any legwork.
Today 94% of people judge websites on their design. We already know that beautiful design can do wonders, but can it affect your sports website visitors?
Yes! Design is the fundamental pillar for every website because it helps maintain user trust and satisfaction. No matter what type of business you own, you must have a clean, user-friendly, and attractive design because this trick enhances your revenue by attracting more customers.
Designers are always looking to explore new trends that can help them create an expert design for their clients. My blog highlights some of the most crucial web design tricks every sports website should use. Read on further to find out about these designing tricks.
Top Web Designing Tips for Sports Website
1. Simplify the Website Elements
The first step for better design is to simplify your website elements. The simpler the site, the more it grabs the visitor’s attention. Your viewers want to find out information quickly, and clear navigation helps them do so. Visitors usually scan your pages by focusing on their peripheral vision rather than reading each word carefully. Therefore, they may miss crucial information if your website doesn’t provide a simple layout.
Clean and crisp navigation is necessary for every website – not just for sports websites. Prioritize the content on your page by showcasing it impressively. If you are offering a schedule, then place it well above the fold to instantly give viewers all the details about that game.
For example, the following is the site of NBA that has a better design than any other sports website. They have placed the most important information above the fold using simple elements.
2. Using CSS3 Animations Can Be a Win-Win
CSS animations trigger interest among your visitors because you can place them wherever you want on your page. You can use this animation to highlight game schedules, scores, etc.
It gives your site an unmatchable look because it enhances the overall web design.
If you are planning to use this animation on your website, then be sure that it doesn’t affect your page loading speed. Moreover, keep in mind that some visitors may consider blinking content annoying, so find out their views first.
3. Pictures and Videos Speak for Themselves
People love visual content because it enhances web design, thus increasing conversion rates. By using high-quality pictures and videos on your page, you can tell a story without typing anything. You will never lose your visitors if they find high-quality photos and video content on your website because users like to explore such elements.
4. Keep a Mobile-Friendly Design
According to the Cisco survey, mobile data traffic will increase by nearly 12 times in four years. Also, research shows that mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop usage for the first time, and currently, 41% of visitors use smartphones.
Now people prefer websites that provide all platforms, including iOS and Android. Therefore, it’s imperative to have a mobile-friendly design to stay ahead in the competition. The best way to provide a mobile-friendly design is using a Bootstrap framework.
5. Vertical Navigation Bar is a New Trend
According to Gigya, many people have already adapted the vertical navigation bar because it’s easy to read and use. Removing horizontal links can increase conversions by 15% because visitors love this trend.
Vertical navigation bars help you make your website look clean and professional because it doesn’t interfere with the page. Another benefit of using such navigation is adding additional links to it to make it user-friendly.
For example, if you want web users to subscribe to your business newsletters, then include this feature in the vertical navigation bar instead of forcing them to scroll down for it.
6. Stand Out with GIFs & HTML5 Videos
People love animated content because it grabs their attention at first glance. Therefore, you can use this strategy to grab your visitors’ attention and increase conversions.
Instead of creating a traditional video, create a gif or infographic animation so that you can stand out among all other sports websites.
For example-
See how Bleacherreport provides the most exciting and animated content on their page:
7. Embed Social Widgets to Increase Sharing Ability
Hashtags are used by all major social sites, including Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, for marketing their website brands. If you want to attract more people to your sports website, build a relationship with them by encouraging them to share pages via hashtags.
According to a study, 29% of sports fans use hashtags for discovering new content. So, by recommending or encouraging users to share pages via hashtags, you can increase your social media clout and traffic to your website.
8. Offer Live Scores on Your Website
People hate waiting for a long time to get the latest scores of their favorite games. Therefore, offering live scores is a must if you want visitors to stay on your website for a more extended period. Most of the sports websites show scores on their homepage to see them without visiting other pages.
For example, by going on nbastats.com, you can get live scores of all games. This page shows the score and provides other helpful information such as upcoming events, calendars, records, etc.
9. Customize Your Website According to the Sport You Cover
Some people love basketball, some cricket. Therefore, you must cover your website according to the popular sport in your country because some sports are more popular than others.
For example, if we talk about Cricket, then ESPNcricinfo is one of the most famous websites for this purpose. It is a leading cricket website for providing all necessary information about the Cricket world cup 2015 and ICC cricket tournaments in general.
Also, if we talk about Football or Soccer, then BBC football is an excellent example of a sports news website that provides live scores, statistics, etc., along with other relevant content to their visitors.
Conclusion
If you want your business websites to stand out among other mainstream sports sites, follow the web design guidelines discussed above and increase your chances of grabbing more attention.
For better assistance, you can always hire a professional website designing company in India to create a website that speaks about your brand in the best way possible.
