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Top 10 Must Haves for your Guild Website
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By Black Label
October 2006
Every serious guild needs a guild website. This is the most important off line portal for your guild to attract
new members and to communicate with your existing members. There are a few things a basic guild website
must have. Here is our top ten “must have” items for the foundations of a successful guild website.
1) Guild Banner
If you want your guild to be taken seriously, then you need to have a guild banner. Although it’s true you
can’t tell a book by its cover. It’s also true that if you have a nice cover, the book will be opened. That’s the
goal of the guild banner: To attract the attention of new members. You shouldn’t just incorporate your guild
symbol and name onto the banner. That’s too basic and too simple. The banner should be unique and
flashy. Artwork banners or edited screenshot banners work very well and are easy to make. If you want
something even fancier, consider FLASH banners or animated GIF banners.
Now, if you are without a computer web designer. Have no fear; Guildhelper will be posting future articles
here to assist you. If you still find it too complicated, then commission a custom made banner from one of
the Guildhelper artists.
2) Photo Album
Your guild website must have a place for pictures and screenshots of your guild members and triumphs. A
dedicated area for screenshots is a necessity for a successful guild website.
Unless you purchased your own domain and space, you will need a host for your screenshots, pictures and
artwork. There are many good choices and we will list them here for you.
Photobucket
3) Forum
You must have a forum in your website for discussion and chat. This is a necessity for any guild website if
you want your members to communicate their needs, their likes and dislikes. You need to establish easy to
access communication and establishing a forum is the easiest and most effective method. This is also how
new members communicate their interest in joining.
If you want to establish a guild website that comes with forums and other goodies for free, go to Guildportal
or Guild Launch.com.
If you only want to establish a free forum and attach it to your separate site, you can go to Wide Forums and
register for a free forum.
4) Calendar of events
It’s important to have a calendar of event because that’s how your members can keep track of what’s going
on for each given day. From scheduled raids, to guild role playing events, to officer meeting to real life
outings, keeping an updated calendar of events is vital to your website.
If you want to create a free calendar and attach it to your website, go to Calendars.net and create a free
calendar there.
5) Recent news
Your website’s front page should have the most recent guild related news. The website’s first and foremost
function is to communicate and inform the members of the recent guild related events and news. Your
webmaster should be posting news such as a member hitting a milestone or when a raid or event was
successful. Remember, small news is still news.
A new recruit will check on the website to see how active a guild is by checking the guild website news. A
guild website that has a lot of up to date events and news posted will give off the image that the guild is
super active where as an inactive guild will not post as often. For example, if you are checking out a guild
website now and see that the last time they’ve posted any news worthy article in August, you might wonder
what this group is doing for the past month.
6) Laws and rules
Your guild website should have an area dedicated to the rules and expectation of your guild. This area
needs to be easily accessible for your members and potential recruits. Therefore, you can refer your
potential recruits what the guilds expect of their members. Furthermore, you can then use the website
as a tool of argument if a disruptive member claims they didn’t know the rules or what was expected
from the guild. Sometimes you’ll haven to police the guild rules. By displaying them loud and clear for
all to see, it makes that task easier.
7) Simple buttons/Menu for easy navigation
This is a simple website rule. Not a guild rule. If you want a successful usable website, it must be
easy to navigate. Some simple rules to follow.
- Set up menus on a designated spot of the website such as the right below the banner or the
upper left corner. Remember: Consistency promotes easy navigation.
- Be sure to have large readable buttons and not small text links.
- Avoid over flashy buttons or over animated buttons/menus. Such items cause distraction.
8) Roster Page
The roster page serves as the official list of members in your guild. Every member who is proud to
be a part of your guild would want to be on the roster page. Your roster page should display the
names of each member, their rank and their character archetype. If possible, include their skills and
specialties which can help guild members locate who to look for help. Use the roster pages to display
DKP point system, medals or honor badges for qualifying members.
9) Ad-free
Your guild website should be as ad free as possible. The main reason for this is more of a website
rule. Advertisement distracts the overall theme and message of the website. Avoid if you can.
10) Easy to remember web address
To top it off, your guild website should have an easy-to-remember website name. I think it’s a good
investment to register a unique domain name for your guild website and then forward the page to
your website. For example, telling potential members to go to doomheroes.com is a lot easier to
remember than www.guildportal.com
Here is a great place to register your own domain names for a cheap price.
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