Applicable to: Club and Association Administrators

Application(s): Admin Portal > Websites

Applicable to: Rugby Canada, Cricket Australia, Netball Australia

This article will cover the following:

1. Overview
2. What you'll need before starting
3. Creating and editing your website
4. Publishing your website
5. Using the live-data widgets
6. Managing your website after publishing

Overview

PlayHQ Websites lets your club or association create a dedicated, on-brand website directly from the Admin Portal — already connected to your PlayHQ fixtures, ladders, registrations, contacts, and news. No developer or technical expertise is required.

Because your website reads data live from PlayHQ, you never need to update fixtures, ladders, registration links, or contacts on the website itself. Change it once in PlayHQ and your website reflects it automatically.

You edit your site in a drag-and-drop editor, preview as much as you like for free, and publish with one click. Your site goes live on a PlayHQ-hosted domain, or can be connected to your own custom domain. Most clubs are fully live within 60 minutes of starting.

Video: Website Builder playlist 

What you'll need before starting

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• Administrator access to your club or association in the Admin Portal
• Your organisation's logo, contact details, and any imagery you want to use (your PlayHQ record pre-populates most details automatically)
• A payment method for the publishing fee (see Publishing your website below)

Creating and editing your website

1. Open the Websites tab

   Navigate to the Websites tab in the Admin Portal. Your website is created automatically from the PlayHQ template, pre-populated with your organisation's name, logo, address, contacts, and live data widgets.

   

2. Open the editor

   Click Edit Website to open the editor in a new tab. You are signed in automatically — no separate account or login needed.

    

3. Customise your content

   Edit text, swap imagery, and adjust layout using the drag-and-drop editor. Your fixtures, ladders, registrations, contacts, and news are already connected to your PlayHQ data. For a full walkthrough of the editor interface, see Editor Overview 

    

4. Preview your site

   Preview is free and unlimited — take as long as you need before publishing.

💡 Tip: Speed up content creation with AI
 The Website Builder includes AI-powered features to help you draft content, suggest imagery, and            recommend page structures. See AI Tools Overview and Using AI Content Assistant to get started.

Publishing your website

⚠️ Important: Your site is not live immediately after payment

Allow up to 48 hours for publication. You can continue editing in the meantime.

1. Click Publish

   When you're happy with your site, click Publish in the Websites tab in the Admin Portal.

2. Complete the subscription payment

   A secure checkout opens to complete the annual subscription fee. Pricing varies by region.

   💡 Tip: 30-day free trial
   PlayHQ Websites includes a 30-day free trial that begins when you pay. If the product isn't right for you, cancel within 30 days for a full refund.

3. Your site goes live

   Once payment is confirmed, your website will be published within 48 hours on your PlayHQ-hosted subdomain (clubname.playhq-sites.com). You can connect a custom domain at any time before or after going live — see Connecting a Domain (placeholder URL) for details.

Using the live-data widgets

Every PlayHQ Website includes widgets that pull live data from your PlayHQ records. You never need to update this content on the website — change it in PlayHQ and your site reflects it automatically.

• Club Finder — a map and list of every club in your association, with postcode search and a direct Register button per club.
• Fixtures — live fixtures filterable by competition, season, and team, with live status for in-progress games.
• Ladder — current standings in summary or detailed view.
• Registrations — every open competition and program with dates, open/closing status, and a direct registration link.
• Contacts — your organisation's contact card with logo, address, email, phone, and role-based contacts (President, Secretary, Treasurer), pulled from your PlayHQ record.
• Posts — article tiles pulled from your organisation's PlayHQ posts.
• Action buttons — pre-built Fixtures, Ladder, Register, and Shop buttons you can drop into any section.

Managing your website after publishing

Making changes to a live site
Edit your site in the editor at any time, then click Republish to push changes live. There is no additional cost for updates.

Unpublishing your website
Unpublishing isn't self-serve. To take your site offline, contact your sport's support team with your organisation name and website address.

Cancellations and refunds
For cancellation or refund requests, contact your sport's support team with your organisation name. If you cancel within the 30-day trial window, you'll receive a full refund. If a refund is issued, your website will be unpublished and your content archived. You can resubscribe later to restore access.

Frequently asked questions

Getting started, trials, and access

Is there a free trial?
Yes. PlayHQ Websites operates on an annual subscription with a 30-day free trial that starts when you pay. If it's not for you, cancel any time within the 30 days for a full refund. After the 30-day window, your subscription is active for the year.

Is the Website Builder available for Associations as well as clubs?
Yes. Both Club and Association templates are available. The Association template includes everything in the Club template plus 25 pre-designed pages (vs 10), Mega Menu navigation, Club Finder widget, rep teams pages, and careers pages.

Is the Website Builder available for my sport?
The Websites tab is rolled out sport by sport. If you don't see it in your Admin Portal, your sport's rollout is still in progress. Contact your sport's support team for the latest timing.

Can multiple people manage our website?
Yes. Any administrator in your PlayHQ organisation can access and edit the website using their existing PlayHQ credentials through single sign-on. There's no separate account, no passwords to share, and no cap on the number of administrators. See Managing Website Administrator Access (placeholder URL) for details on roles and permissions.

I'm getting an error when I try to create my website.
This is usually caused by an account being linked to an old or duplicate organisation profile. Contact your sport's support team with the error message and the names of any older organisations attached to your profile.

Someone else opened the website and now I'm locked out. How do I get access back?
Website access is tied to your Admin Portal role, so any organisation administrator can open and edit the site. If you're seeing a different issue, contact your sport's support team with your organisation name.

Pricing and payment

How much does it cost?
PlayHQ Websites is an annual subscription, and pricing varies by region. Visit pricing.playhq-sites.com for current pricing in your region.

What's the difference between the Club and Association templates?
The Club Template comes with 10 pre-designed pages built around team pages, news, registration calls-to-action, and shop links. The Association Template includes everything in the Club Template plus 25 pre-designed pages, Mega Menu navigation, Club Finder widget, rep teams pages, and careers pages.

Are there any hidden costs?
No. Setup is included in your subscription, along with ongoing platform updates, new features, and access to all standard templates and widgets. The only optional additional cost is a custom domain name, which is separate from your subscription.

How am I billed?
Payment is made directly through the platform via secure online checkout. You won't be sent a separate invoice — your receipt is available immediately after payment.

Is the cost deducted from my registration payments?
No. The website subscription is a separate payment and does not come out of registration revenue.

We have an existing website provider. Can we still switch?
Yes. You can run both sites in parallel during a transition period, or migrate your content using our AI content scraper (up to 30 pages). When you're ready, point your existing domain at your new PlayHQ Website. Standard annual subscription pricing applies — visit pricing.playhq-sites.com.

Do you offer a custom-built website service?
Yes. For organisations that want a fully custom website beyond the standard templates, contact your sport's support team to discuss scope, examples, and pricing.

Setup, content, and pages

Can you migrate content from our existing website?
Yes. Our AI content scraper imports text and images from your current website (up to 30 pages) directly into your content library, ready to drag and drop into your new site. No copy-pasting required.

What AI tools are available in the Website Builder?
The Website Builder includes AI-powered features to help you create content faster, suggest relevant images, and recommend page structures based on your organisation type. See AI Tools Overview (placeholder URL), Using AI Content Assistant (placeholder URL), and How to Write Effective AI Prompts (placeholder URL) to learn more.

How do I add or create new pages?
In the editor, open the Pages menu and click Add Page. Choose a layout from the template library or start from blank. Pages can be reordered and nested to create sub-pages. See Creating a New Page (placeholder URL) for a step-by-step walkthrough.

How do I add pages to my navigation menu?
In the editor, click on any text, button, or menu item, then use the Link option in the toolbar to point it to another page, an external URL, or a file. To add a page to your navigation menu, edit the header navigation and add the new page to the menu structure. See Updating the Navigation Menu (placeholder URL) for details.

How do I add documents (Word, Excel, PDF) for download?
In the editor, drag a Button or Image element onto the page (or select existing text), open the Link option in the toolbar, and choose File. Upload your document and the element becomes a download link. See Uploading Documents or Files to Download (placeholder URL) for more.

Can I have one website that covers multiple separate associations?
The Website Builder is one website per PlayHQ organisation. If you run multiple associations under the same umbrella, each would need its own subscription and site. You can link between them and use shared branding to create a consistent experience.

Can the website cover sports not on PlayHQ?
You can add any text, imagery, and content to your website regardless of sport. The live-data widgets (Fixtures, Ladders, Registrations) will only display data for the sport(s) your organisation is set up for in PlayHQ. For other sports, you can create static pages with manual content, but live data won't be available.

Customisation and branding

Can I customise the look and feel with our brand colours, fonts, and logo?
Yes. Your club logo is automatically synced from PlayHQ, and you can fully customise colour schemes, typography, layouts, images, and content using the drag-and-drop editor.

How do I change the colour of a button?
Click the button in the editor to open its settings, then use the Design or Style tab to update fill, text colour, and border. To change all buttons of the same style at once, edit the global button style in your site's theme settings.

How do I remove or hide a section I don't need (e.g. the Shop button or Download the App section)?
Click the section in the editor and use the Hide or Delete option. For sport-specific sections you don't use (e.g. Shop in cricket), you can safely remove them.

The Shop button still appears on my mobile menu after I removed it.
This is usually a cached version of the site. Click Republish to push the latest changes live, then refresh your browser (or open an incognito/private window) to confirm. If it still appears, contact your sport's support team.

Can I customise the mobile navigation menu?
Yes. The mobile menu icon, position, colour, and behaviour can all be adjusted in the editor under the header settings.

Can I change the imagery throughout the site?
Yes. Click any image in the editor to upload your own, choose from your content library (including images imported via the AI scraper), or select from the built-in stock image library.

Domains and going live

Do I need to purchase a custom domain?
No. Your site works perfectly on the default PlayHQ subdomain (clubname.playhq-sites.com). A custom domain (e.g. yourclub.com.au) is optional. See Connecting a Domain (placeholder URL) if you'd like to set one up.

Can I connect a domain I already own?
Yes. We support auto-connect with 30+ providers including Wix, GoDaddy, Squarespace, and Ionos. If your provider isn't supported, we'll handle the DNS configuration with you.

Can I keep my domain registered with my current provider?
Yes. You can keep your domain registered with your current provider (Wix, GoDaddy, HostPapa, etc.) and just point the DNS to your new PlayHQ Website. There's no need to transfer the domain registration.

How do I redirect my existing website URL to my new site?
Once your site is published, contact your sport's support team and we'll provide the DNS records you need to add at your domain registrar. Most go-lives are complete within 24 to 48 hours of the DNS change.

Can I set up email on my domain (e.g. Google Workspace or Microsoft 365)?
Yes. Email DNS records (MX, SPF, DKIM, TXT) are managed separately from your website hosting and don't conflict with pointing the domain to your site. Your registrar can add them alongside the website records without issue.

Can we set up 301 redirects from our old website URLs?
In the editor, go to More > Settings > URL Redirect to set up 301 mappings between old paths and new pages.

Do I need to add PlayHQ servers to my SPF records so emails don't go to spam?
No. Your PlayHQ Website doesn't send transactional email from your domain, so no SPF changes are required.

Live-data widgets

A widget is showing no data — what should I check?
Widgets pull live from your PlayHQ records. Check that:

• The relevant competition, season, or program is set up and visible in the Admin Portal
• Registrations are open and visible (for the Registrations widget)
• Your contacts and role assignments are complete (for the Contacts widget)
• Posts have been published (for the Posts widget)

If everything looks correct in PlayHQ and the widget is still empty, contact your sport's support team.

My Contacts widget keeps disappearing or breaking.
This usually points to incomplete contact data in PlayHQ. Open your organisation's settings in the Admin Portal, complete the contact fields, and the widget will refresh automatically. If it continues to behave inconsistently, contact your sport's support team.

Where does data from the "Register Your Interest" form go?
Submissions are stored on the site's CMS and can be emailed to the contact address listed for your organisation in PlayHQ. To change the recipient, update your email within the form settings in the editor.

The default news section shows placeholder articles not linked to our PlayHQ Posts. Why?
The Posts widget gives you a choice. If you use PlayHQ Posts, the widget surfaces them automatically. If you prefer to manage news directly in the editor, the placeholder articles give you a starting layout to replace with your own content. See Managing News/Blog (placeholder URL) for more.

Can we add a "view all news articles" link to the Posts widget?
Not at the moment. This is on our feature request list, but we don't have a timeline for it yet.

Can we configure the number of articles shown in the Posts widget?
Not at the moment. This is on our feature request list.

Can we backdate posts to bring across old news articles?
No. Posts use their publish date and can't be backdated. Older articles will need to be added with a current date.

Is there a way to bulk import existing news articles?
No. Articles need to be added manually one at a time.

The Ladder widget says "Ladder" but our sport uses a different term (e.g. "Standings"). Can we change this?
The widget currently uses "Ladder" as it's the most common term across the sports we serve. We're working on making this label configurable — expected within the next month.

Integrations and analytics

Can I install Google Analytics on my site?
Yes. The editor has a dedicated section for tracking tags. Paste in your Google Analytics measurement ID (GA4) and the integration applies automatically across all pages. See Adding Google Analytics to your site (placeholder URL) for a step-by-step guide.

Can I install Meta Pixel (Facebook Pixel)?
Yes. Meta Pixel can be added through the same tracking tags section and will fire on page views, registration clicks, and other standard events.

Can I use Google Ads or Google Tag Manager?
Yes. Google Ads conversion tags and Google Tag Manager are both supported via the tracking tags section in the editor.

Can I access the PlayHQ API to pull data into my own website?
Yes. The PlayHQ Public API documentation is available at docs.playhq.com/tech. Contact your sport directly to request an API key. Note that PlayHQ does not provide customer support for the Public API.

Is there an online shop or e-commerce feature?
The website integrates with PlayHQ Shop (where available for your sport), so members can buy merchandise through the same registration flow they already use. The Shop button on your site links directly to your active Shop. For sports without PlayHQ Shop, the button can be removed or linked to an external store.

Data, privacy, and visibility

Is the "Register Your Interest" form GDPR / privacy compliant?
Yes. Data collection on PlayHQ Websites is covered by the PlayHQ Privacy Policy, which is referenced from the form. If your organisation needs an additional marketing opt-in, you can add a custom checkbox to the form in the editor.

Who can see Posts published in PlayHQ, and how does visibility work across the hierarchy?
Posts published by an organisation higher in the hierarchy (e.g. an association) are visible to organisations beneath them and surface on their respective PlayHQ Websites where the Posts widget is enabled. Posts published by a club don't surface on their parent association's site by default. See Communicating with participants via Email and Posts for full details.

After publishing — changes, cancellation, and refunds

How do I make changes after my site is live?
Edit your site in the editor at any time, then click Republish to push changes live. There is no additional cost for updates.

How do I cancel, and can I get a refund?
If you cancel within the 30-day free trial window (which begins when you pay), you'll receive a full refund. After 30 days, your annual subscription is active for the term. For all cancellation or refund requests, contact your sport's support team with your organisation name.

What happens to my website if I cancel?
Your website is taken offline and the content is archived. You can resubscribe later to restore access.

Support, training, and resources

Where can I find video tutorials?
The PlayHQ Websites YouTube playlist covers the onboarding series and step-by-step videos for the most common tasks.

What support is available after my website goes live?
You'll have access to help documentation in this support centre, video tutorials on the PlayHQ Websites YouTube playlist, and email support through your sport's support team. You can also access contextual help directly in the Website Builder using the in-editor help search.

Are volunteer rosters or scheduling features on the roadmap?
The Website Builder is focused on the public-facing site (fixtures, ladders, registrations, contacts, news). Volunteer rosters aren't part of the website itself, but you can link to external tools (e.g. SignUp, Google Sheets) from your site.