Custom Club Website Setup and Usage Guide

    Overview

    The Club Site feature lets your club run its own branded website with a Horsify subdomain (e.g. yourclub.horsify.club) or your own custom domain (e.g. www.yourclub.com.au). You build pages from ready-made content blocks, set up a menu, choose a look, and publish — no coding required. This guide walks through the whole process.

    Table of Contents

    1. Getting Started
    2. Enabling Your Club Site
    3. Managing Pages
    4. Building Pages with Blocks
    5. Building Your Navigation Menu
    6. Choosing Your Look (Theme)
    7. Setting Up a Custom Domain
    8. Publishing Your Site
    9. Best Practices
    10. Troubleshooting

    Getting Started

    Prerequisites

    • A Horsify account with an Organiser, Organiser Admin, or Organiser Contributor role
    • An organisation/club set up in Horsify
    • A subscription that includes Club Sites

    What You Can Build

    • A public website for your club with as many pages as you like
    • Upcoming-events listings and a full event calendar pulled from your Horsify events
    • About, contact, membership, gallery, news and results pages
    • Store and booking pages (where those features apply to your club)
    • A branded menu and colour scheme
    • Your own custom domain for a professional address

    Where Everything Lives

    All of your club-site tools are gathered on one Club Site Management screen. From there you'll find cards for Site Settings, Manage Pages, Navigation, Theme, and Custom Domains. Each section below tells you which card to open.

    Enabling Your Club Site

    Step 1: Open Site Settings

    From Club Site Management, open the Site Settings card.

    Step 2: Enable the Site and Choose a Subdomain

    1. Tick Enable Club Site.
    2. Enter a Site Slug — this becomes your subdomain. For example, a slug of myclub gives you myclub.horsify.club.
      • Use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens only (3–50 characters).
      • It must be unique across all Horsify clubs.
    3. As you type, the page shows the address your site will use.

    Step 3: Save

    Click Save Settings. Once the site is enabled and a slug is saved, you'll see quick links to Manage Pages and View Site, and the other tools (Navigation, Theme, Custom Domains) become available from Club Site Management.

    Managing Pages

    Open the Manage Pages card to see all of your site's pages.

    Creating a New Page

    1. Click Create Page. A template picker appears.
    2. Choose a starting template. Options include Home Page, About Us, Contact Us, Events Calendar, Membership, Photo Gallery, News & Updates, Riding School, Store Page, a Competition Landing Page, and a Blank Page if you'd rather start from scratch.
    3. The page is created with its blocks already in place, ready for you to edit.

    The Page List

    Each page row shows its title and current status (Published or Draft). From a row you can:

    • Move up / down — change the order pages appear in navigation
    • Edit — open the page builder
    • Duplicate — copy the page as a starting point for another
    • Publish / Unpublish — show or hide the page on your live site
    • Delete — remove the page (you'll be asked to confirm)

    Page Settings

    When you edit a page, the settings panel lets you set:

    • Title — the page name
    • Slug — the URL path (e.g. about, contact)
    • Layout — the page layout
    • SEO Title — the title search engines and browser tabs show
    • SEO Description — the summary shown in search results
    • Sort Order — lower numbers appear first in navigation
    • Hide from navigation and public listings — keeps a page reachable to admins for editing while hiding it from visitors

    Building Pages with Blocks

    Pages are built from content blocks — self-contained sections you stack in any order. There are more than 35 block types, from simple rich text and hero banners through to image galleries, FAQs, upcoming events, event calendars, contact info, team and sponsor showcases, testimonials, countdown timers, results boards, video embeds, a Facebook feed, membership forms, store product grids, booking widgets, and more.

    Editing a Block

    Each block type has its own visual editor — you fill in fields and pick options in a form, and Horsify handles the layout and styling. You never edit raw code or JSON.

    1. Open a page in the page builder.
    2. To add a block, click Add Block and choose a block type. Its editor opens.
    3. To change an existing block, click Edit on it — the same visual editor opens.
    4. Fill in the fields (headings, text, images, links, and so on) and save.

    For example, a Hero block asks for a heading, subheading, background image and an optional button; an Image Gallery block lets you upload and arrange photos; a rich-text block gives you a formatting toolbar for headings, lists, and links.

    Arranging and Removing Blocks

    • Use the move up / move down controls to reorder blocks on the page.
    • Use Delete to remove a block (you'll confirm first).
    • Switch to Preview Mode to see the page as visitors will, then back to Edit Mode to keep working.

    Building Your Navigation Menu

    Open the Navigation card to manage your site's main menu.

    Menu Items

    Each menu item has:

    • Label — the text shown in the menu (e.g. "Home", "About", "Events")
    • URL — where it links to
    • Icon — an optional Tabler icon (e.g. ti-home, ti-calendar)
    • Opens in New Tab — tick this for external links

    Adding and Editing Items

    1. Click Add Menu Item and fill in the fields, then save.
    2. To change an item, click Edit, adjust the fields, and save.
    3. To remove one, click Delete and confirm.

    Linking Options

    • Internal pages: use the slug path (e.g. /about, /contact)
    • Home: use /
    • External sites: use the full address (e.g. https://facebook.com/yourclub)
    • Email: use a mailto: link (e.g. mailto:info@yourclub.com.au)

    Use the move up / move down controls to set the order, which matches the order on your live site.

    Navigation Tips

    • Keep the menu to around 5–7 items
    • Use clear, short labels
    • Put the most important items first
    • Make sure each URL matches a published page slug

    Choosing Your Look (Theme)

    Open the Theme card to open the Theme Builder. It's a guided, visual tool — pick a style, set two colours, and Horsify derives the rest of the palette so text stays readable automatically. See the dedicated Theme Editor guide for full detail; in brief:

    1. Choose a look — start from a ready-made preset (Classic Green, Bold Blue, and several others). Every new club site starts on the default deep sage green.
    2. Set your colours — pick a brand colour and an accent colour. The navigation, buttons and readable text are worked out for you.
    3. Add a logo — upload an image file (JPEG, PNG, WebP or SVG).
    4. Pick fonts — choose a heading-and-body pairing and set the base text size.

    A live preview updates as you go. Click Save & publish to apply your theme.

    Setting Up a Custom Domain

    Use your own domain instead of the default yourclub.horsify.club address. Open the Custom Domains card.

    Before You Start

    • You own a domain (e.g. from GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Crazy Domains)
    • You can edit that domain's DNS records
    • Your club site is enabled

    Setting this up takes three steps and usually a couple of business days end to end. Your existing website keeps working the whole time — nothing moves until the very last record you add.

    The Custom Domains page always shows you which step you're on and exactly which records to add, so you never have to work it out from this page.

    Step 1: Add your domain and prove it's yours

    1. Click Add Custom Domain and enter your full domain (e.g. www.yourclub.com.au).
    2. Horsify shows one TXT record. Add it at your domain registrar:
    Type Name Value
    TXT _horsify-verification.yourdomain (shown in full in Horsify) the verification token shown in Horsify
    1. Wait a few minutes, then click Check DNS record.

    If the record isn't found, Horsify tells you what it did find at that name, so you can compare it with what you entered. Nothing about your website changes at this step.

    Step 2: Horsify connects your domain

    Once ownership is confirmed, the page shows With Horsify. We register your domain on our network and request its HTTPS certificate. That part isn't automatic — we'll email you as soon as it's ready, usually within one business day.

    There's nothing for you to do here. Leave your DNS as it is.

    Step 3: Add the last two records

    When we're ready, the Custom Domains page shows two more records. Add them in this order:

    Order Type Name Value
    First TXT _dnsauth.yourdomain (shown in full in Horsify) the token shown in Horsify
    Last CNAME your full domain the address shown in Horsify

    The TXT record lets us issue your HTTPS certificate — add it within seven days and then leave it in place permanently, because it's also used to renew the certificate.

    The CNAME is the switch: once it's live, www.yourclub.com.au serves your Horsify club site, and whatever was there before stops being served. Only add it after the TXT record.

    We'll email you when your domain is live, and the page changes to Live.

    If your domain has no "www"

    Most registrars can't put a CNAME on a bare domain like yourclub.com.au. Either use an ALIAS or ANAME record if your registrar offers one, or point www.yourclub.com.au at us and set your registrar to redirect the bare address to it.

    DNS changes can take anywhere from a few minutes to 48 hours to take effect. Most complete within an hour or two.

    Publishing Your Site

    Draft vs Published

    • Draft — created but not visible to visitors
    • Published — live on your site

    Publish or Unpublish a Page

    From Manage Pages, use the Publish or Unpublish control on any page row. Changes take effect on your live site right away.

    Before You Publish

    • Edit the page and review every block
    • Check the page settings (title, slug, SEO title and description)
    • Test your links
    • Confirm images display correctly
    • View the page in Preview Mode

    Go-Live Checklist

    Viewing Your Live Site

    Best Practices

    Content

    • Keep events, news and details current
    • Write clearly for your members and visitors
    • Use web-optimised images (JPEG or WebP, ideally under 1 MB)
    • Make sure pages read well on mobile
    • Include clear calls to action on key pages
    • Add alt text to images

    SEO

    • Give each page a unique SEO title
    • Write a compelling SEO description (roughly 150–160 characters)
    • Keep slugs short, descriptive and lowercase with hyphens
    • Use headings in order (one main heading, then sub-headings)
    • Link between your pages

    Performance and Design

    • Compress images before uploading
    • Use only the blocks a page needs
    • Keep your club's colours and fonts consistent
    • Leave plenty of white space
    • Keep body text a comfortable, readable size
    • Make sure text contrasts well with its background

    Troubleshooting

    Subdomain Won't Load

    • Make sure the site is enabled in Site Settings
    • Check the slug saved correctly
    • Allow a few minutes for changes to take effect

    Custom Domain Not Working

    • Check which step the Custom Domains page says you're on — it only shows the records that are due now
    • Double-check each record matches what Horsify shows, character for character
    • Allow time for DNS to propagate (up to 48 hours, usually much less)
    • Stuck on Action needed at step 1? Click Check DNS record again; Horsify lists what it found at that name so you can compare
    • Stuck on With Horsify for more than a couple of business days? Email support@horsify.com.au
    • Getting a security or certificate warning in the browser? You've likely added the CNAME before the TXT record at step 3. Remove the CNAME, add the TXT, wait for us to confirm your certificate, then put the CNAME back

    Published Page Not Appearing

    • Confirm the page status is Published
    • Check it isn't set to "Hide from navigation and public listings"
    • Add it to your navigation menu
    • Clear your browser cache and refresh

    A Block Looks Wrong

    • Reopen the block's editor and check the fields are filled in
    • Make sure any images you referenced are uploaded and display in the editor
    • Preview the page to confirm

    Theme Changes Not Showing

    • Click Save & publish in the Theme Builder
    • Hard-refresh your browser (Ctrl+Shift+R)

    Menu Changes Not Showing

    • Confirm you saved your changes in the Navigation builder
    • Check each URL matches a published page slug
    • Refresh the page\n\n---\n\nSource: wiki/features/CUSTOM_CLUB_SETUP_GUIDE.md \nLast synced: 2026-09-07 11:48:21 UTC
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