Appearance
Build your club website
Every club on RunClub HQ gets a public website at its own web address — for example yourclub.runclubhq.com. It is the front door for prospective members — people deciding whether to join — and a reference point for existing members who want governance documents, the committee list, or the training timetable. The same web address is where members sign in to the member app; the public pages sit in front of that sign-in.
You build and manage the whole site from the Content area of your admin panel — no separate website builder, no HTML.
Who can do this?
Creating, editing and publishing website content: Club Admin or Content Manager, from the admin panel or the volunteer console. Viewer can browse the Content area but not change it. Branding and theme: Club Admin only, under Settings → Branding.
Your website at a glance
Visitors and members see different things on the same site:
- Anyone (not logged in) sees your published, public pages, news, documents, team, and events — anything marked public.
- Signed-in members additionally see anything marked members-only. When an anonymous visitor tries to open members-only content, they are bounced to the sign-in screen and returned to the page afterwards (see Members-only content).
You have a homepage before you build one
You don't have to author anything to have a working site. Your club is created with a Home page already in place under Content → Pages, marked as the homepage and published: a welcome hero, what the club offers, your training sessions, upcoming events, club stats, and a "register your interest" call to action. It fills itself in from your club's own data as you add events, records and members, so it is presentable from day one — and it is an ordinary page, so you can rewrite every word of it whenever you like.
If you ever delete that page, or mark a different page as the homepage and then delete that one, the site root does not break: RunClub HQ falls back to an automatic homepage assembled from whatever club data exists at the time, with sections that have no data simply left out.
The Content area
Everything for the website lives under Content in the admin sidebar:
| Section | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Pages | Your homepage and any standalone pages (About, Join, FAQs…), built from sections |
| Posts | News and announcements |
| Post Categories | Labels to group and filter news (e.g. Race Reports, Club News) |
| Documents | Uploadable files (policies, minutes, plans) for download |
| Document Folders | Folders to organise documents |
| Bios | Individual people — committee, coaches, run leaders |
| Bio Groups | The groups your bios are organised into |
| Navigation Menus | Your header, footer, and sidebar menus |
| Redirects | Rules that send an old web address to its new home |
The publishing model
Pages and posts share one publishing model, so once you learn it in one place you know it everywhere. Every page and post is always in one of four states, shown as a status badge:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved privately. No publish date set. Not on your website yet. |
| Scheduled | Has a publish date in the future. Goes live automatically at that time. |
| Members only | Published, but visibility is off — only signed-in members can see it. |
| Live | Published and visible to everyone. |
Two fields drive this, both in the Publishing panel of the edit form:
- Publish date — leave blank to keep a draft; set a past date/time to publish now; set a future date/time to schedule.
- Visible to the public — on = anyone can see it; off = members must sign in.
You can also use the Publish / Unpublish button (on the row and in the editor) as a one-click shortcut — Publish stamps it live now, Unpublish hides it from the site until you publish again.
Scheduling ahead
Write a race report or a season announcement in advance, set the publish date to the morning you want it to appear, and leave it. It goes live on its own — no need to be at your desk.
Building pages with sections
Pages are composed from sections — full-width building blocks you stack in whatever order you like. You add them under Content → Pages → Create, using the Page Sections repeater: click Add Section, choose a type, fill in its fields, and drag to reorder. Each section has a Visible toggle so you can hide one without deleting it, and sections can be collapsed or cloned while you work.
The section library
There are 33 section types. Some are static (you type the content); others pull live data from elsewhere in RunClub HQ so they stay current on their own.
| Section | What it shows | Content source |
|---|---|---|
| Hero Banner | Full-width headline, subheading, background image and up to two call-to-action buttons | You type it |
| What We Offer | Feature cards describing club activities | You type it (sensible defaults if left empty) |
| What's On | Upcoming events grouped by day — training, races and socials together, showing which need booking and which you can just turn up to | Live — your events |
| Next Training Session | The next upcoming session per training audience | Live — your public training events |
| Register Interest CTA | Inline email capture that sends a prospect a link into the join flow | You type it |
| Rich Content | Free-form formatted text | You type it |
| Latest News | Recent news posts as cards | Live — your posts |
| Upcoming Events | Next events with links | Live — your events |
| Team Spotlight | Coach/leader cards | Live — your bios |
| Club Stats | Animated counters (members, events, records…) | Live — aggregated; zero-value stats auto-hide |
| Document Library | Downloadable documents from a folder | Live — your documents |
| Membership Pricing | Membership types, fees and required affiliations | Live — your active season |
| FAQ | Collapsible questions and answers | You type it |
| Map | Map of selected event locations | Live — locations with coordinates |
| Sponsors & Partners | Sponsor logos with optional links | You type it |
| Photo Gallery | Responsive gallery with lightbox | You upload images |
| Testimonials | Member quotes with name and photo | You type it |
| Honour Roll & Results | Curated league placings and honours | You type it |
| Affiliations | England Athletics badge with supporting copy | You type it |
| Contact Form | Enquiry form that emails the club | Built in |
| Instagram Feed | Recent posts from a connected Instagram account | Live — requires Instagram connected |
| League Fixtures & Results | Fixtures and results for a league or race series | Live — your competition group |
| Event Listing | The full event listing with its type filter and search | Live — your events |
| Record Board | The club record board with its distance and age-group filters | Live — your club records |
| News Listing | The full news archive with its category chips | Live — your posts |
| Text & Image | A photograph beside a paragraph or two, image on either side | You type it |
| Timeline | An ordered sequence with a marker per step — what happens at your first session, race day, the season | You type it |
| Statement | One sentence, set large — a club rule or the thing you most want a prospect to remember | You type it |
| Callout | A short notice that survives being skim-read — a summer break, a wet-weather venue change, a free trial | You type it |
| Headline Number | One number, set large, with the sentence that explains it | You type it |
| Table | A small table — the training week, age groups, entry fees — that becomes a readable stack of cards on a phone | You type it |
| Strava Segment | A Strava segment's leaderboard — a local hill, a parkrun course, or a competitive stretch of a route | Live — requires the segment ID |
Live sections keep themselves fresh
A Latest News, Upcoming Events, or Membership Pricing section is configured once — you set a heading and maybe a limit — then it reflects your latest posts, events, or season pricing automatically. You never have to edit the page again to keep it current.
Worked example: a homepage for prospective members
A strong prospect-facing homepage usually reads top to bottom as a funnel. Create a new page, then add these sections in order:
- Hero Banner — club name, a one-line welcome, a Join Us button (URL
/join) and a View Events button. Add a background image, or leave it blank for an accent-colour gradient. - What We Offer — three or four feature cards (group runs, coaching, socials, track).
- What's On — your upcoming sessions and events so a visitor can see they could just turn up.
- Membership Pricing — pulls fees straight from your active season.
- FAQ — the questions every prospective member asks.
- Register Interest CTA — captures an email and sends them into the join flow, no account needed up front.
Then, in the Publishing panel, turn on Use as homepage and Publish.
Making a page your homepage
Turning on Use as homepage serves that page at your site root (/). A few rules to know:
- Only one page can be the homepage at a time. Marking a new page as the homepage takes the badge off whichever page held it before.
- The homepage's own web address is ignored while it is the homepage (it's served at
/), but the address is still stored and used again if you switch the homepage to a different page. - Marking a page as the homepage forces it public — a homepage can't be members-only.
Other page options
In the right-hand panels of the page editor:
- Featured image — a header/social image; use the built-in crop tool to set the aspect ratio.
- Parent page — nest a page under another to build a hierarchy (e.g. About → Committee) and enable breadcrumbs.
- Order — where the page sits among its siblings; lower numbers first.
- Attach documents — surface existing documents for download on the page.
- SEO — see SEO and discoverability below.
News posts
Use Posts for news, race reports, and announcements. Create one under Content → Posts → Create:
- Title — the post's web address fills in from the title automatically, and you can edit it.
- Author — defaults to you if left blank.
- Categories — assign one or more (see below); readers can filter news by category.
- Excerpt — a short summary shown in listings and previews.
- Content — the body, written in the rich text editor.
- Featured image — displayed in a 16:9 frame; crop to taste.
- Documents — attach files (e.g. a results PDF) for download alongside the post.
In the Publishing panel, alongside the shared draft/scheduled/live controls:
- Featured — pins the post to the homepage's news area.
- Notify members — when the post is published, members are notified. Combine with scheduling to announce something at a set time.
Published posts appear at /news, filterable at /news/category/{category}, and each post lives at a dated URL like /news/2026/06/south-downs-relay. If your club moved from WordPress, the old unprefixed permalink (/2026/06/south-downs-relay) redirects permanently to the new one, so existing links and search results keep working.
The news pipeline in the console
Alongside the admin panel, the volunteer console (at /volunteer/content) has a Content view showing your posts by state — draft, scheduled, and published — so you can check what's queued from your phone. Anyone with content access can see the pipeline there, and can create and edit posts from the console too, not just the admin panel.
Post categories
Manage categories under Content → Post Categories. Each has a name, web address, description, a colour for its badge, and a sort order. Categories give readers a way to filter your news and give your news area structure.
Documents library
The documents library is where clubs publish policies, meeting minutes, training plans, and similar files.
Folders (Content → Document Folders) organise the library — give each a name, description, sort order, and a public/members-only setting. Typical folders are Policies, Minutes, Presentations, and Training Plans.
Documents (Content → Documents) are the files themselves:
- Folder, title, and description.
- File upload — PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats are accepted.
- Visible to the public — off makes the document members-only.
- Policy date and owner — an optional manual "last reviewed" date and the responsible person or role, useful for governance documents.
Documents reach the public site through a Document Library section, which you add to any page — your About page, a Governance page, wherever the files belong. Point the section at a folder (or leave it across all public folders), set how many to list, and place it where you want. Download links are permanent (/download/{id}), so they keep working wherever you move the section. Every download is counted and logged.
Members-only documents do not appear in a Document Library section. Link to them directly, and anyone not signed in is sent to sign in first.
Team and bios
Show your committee, coaches, and run leaders under Bios.
Bio Groups (Content → Bio Groups) are the categories people are shown under — Committee, Coaches, Run Leaders, and so on — each with a name, description, sort order, and visibility toggle.
Bios (Content → Bios) are the individuals:
- Group they belong to, name, and role (e.g. Club Secretary, Head Coach).
- Biography — a short profile in the rich text editor.
- Photo — square or 4:3, croppable.
- Email and phone — optional public contact details.
- Order and Visible — position within the group, and whether to show them at all.
Bios reach the public site through a Team Spotlight section, which you add to any page — an About page, a Contact page, or a page of your own at /team if that is what your club calls it. Point the section at one Bio Group or leave it across all of them, and set how many people to show. If you have no bios yet, the section falls back to members who have a public role set.
Navigation menus
Control the links across your site under Content → Navigation Menus. You can define a menu for each location: Header, Footer, or Sidebar.
Each menu is a list of items you add and reorder. For every item you set a label and point it at either:
- a Page (choose from your existing pages), or
- a URL (a relative path like
/news, or a full external link).
Set target to _blank to open a link in a new tab, and nest sub-menu items under a top-level item to build dropdowns.
Branding and theme
Your site's look comes from Settings → Branding:
- Accent colour — the primary brand colour used across the site (and as the hero gradient when no background image is set).
- Secondary colour — a supporting colour for design accents.
- Public site theme — Always light, Always dark, or Follow visitor device (matches each visitor's system preference).
- Logo and icon — used in the header, footer, and social previews.
The same Branding area holds your club contact details (address, phone, contact email, website) and links to governance documents, which are reused elsewhere in RunClub HQ.
Members-only content and the sign-in bounce
Any page or document can be restricted to signed-in members by turning Visible to the public off. When someone who isn't signed in tries to open members-only content:
- They are redirected to the member sign-in screen.
- After they sign in, they're returned to the exact page they were trying to reach.
This lets you keep, say, meeting minutes or a members' handbook on the public site's structure while ensuring only members can actually open them. (The homepage is the one exception — it is always public.)
SEO and discoverability
Each page and post has a collapsible SEO panel where you add meta tags (for example description, keywords, or og:image) as key/value pairs. These feed the page's <title>, meta description, and social-share preview.
RunClub HQ also publishes a sitemap.xml for your site automatically, so search engines can discover your published, public pages, posts, and events.
AI assistants
More people now ask an assistant — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity — where their local running club meets, instead of typing it into a search box. Your site answers that question with a plain-text summary at /llms.txt: what the club is, where it is based, your next fixtures with their dates and start times, your published pages and news, and how to join. It is built from what you have already published, so there is nothing to fill in and nothing to keep up to date.
Two things it leaves out on purpose. It never lists members, even those with a public profile — a club publishing a committee page has not asked for those names to be repeated to whoever asks an assistant. And it never quotes a membership fee, because fees change with the season and a stale price is worse than none; it links to your joining page instead.
The file is only published once your club is live and open to search engines. It is off during your pilot, and turning on Discourage Search Engines under Settings → Branding switches it off as well. A club that is not ready to be found is not ready to be summarised.
Keeping your old site's links working
When a club moves its website, the addresses people have bookmarked, posted on Facebook and linked to from race listings all stop working at once. Content → Redirects is where you stop that happening: each rule takes an old address and sends anyone who asks for it to the right page here.
Adding one:
- Open Content → Redirects and choose to create one.
- In Old path, put the address that used to work. You can paste the whole old web address; it is reduced to a path for you.
- In New destination, put a path on your site (
/about) or a full address elsewhere. - Leave Type on 301 — Permanent unless the move really is temporary. Permanent is what tells a search engine to carry the old page's standing over to the new one.
- Add a note saying why the rule exists, for whoever reviews it in two years.
The list shows each rule's old path, where it goes, its type, whether it is live and when it was last used — so months later you can see which rules are still earning their place. A rule you no longer want can be switched off rather than deleted, which keeps its history.
Two things worth knowing. A redirect only fires for an address nothing else answers, so a rule pointing away from a page that is still published does nothing until that page is unpublished. And if your club came from WordPress, old dated news links are already handled for you — see News posts above.
A whole site's worth of addresses at once
A club switching off an old site usually has dozens. Send us the list — from the old site's site map, or from Search Console if you have it — and we will load them in one go rather than one form at a time. See Moving your club to RunClub HQ.
Good to know
- No in-app live preview yet. You build a page from its sections in the admin form, then publish to see it on the site. To iterate privately, keep a page as a Draft (or members-only) while you work, and publish when it's ready.
- Section order is the page order. Sections render top to bottom in the order shown in the repeater — drag to rearrange.
- Deleting is reversible for pages and posts. They are soft-deleted and can be restored from the trashed filter in their list.
Related
- Communications — email members directly, including when you publish news
- Events — the events your Upcoming Events and Map sections draw from
- Members and Subscriptions — the seasons and fees behind the Membership Pricing section
- The member app — what members see once they sign in