FC Inter's website and online store

One of the Veikkausliiga’s most historic and successful clubs, devoted to blue and black, reached out to G-Works with the clear goal of revamping its website. It was clear that the previous website and online store had run their course and no longer met FC Inter’s needs or aligned with its strategy. Areas for development on the site included not only its visual design and technology but also the content structure and the proper presentation of content on the site.

At the start of the project, we needed to develop a solid game plan for the upcoming project. G-Works and FC Inter collaborated in a workshop to identify the problems with the existing website, define the goals of the new site, identify target audiences, and establish its structure, visual guidelines, and technical solutions. Useful information for the design and implementation was also obtained from FC Inter’s working group’s requirements specification materials, which were analyzed in detail. The cornerstone of the project definition was to design a solution that would bring together the first team’s communication and commercial perspectives with FC Inter’s significant youth programs and community engagement.

After successfully defining and conceptualizing the new website, it was a straightforward step to move on to the design phase. Structurally, the most significant decision for the site was to separate the content of FC Inter’s three major areas—the first team, the youth program, and InterAction (FC Inter’s program aimed at addressing social issues) were organized into separate sub-sites. However, this was done in a way that makes it easy for visitors to navigate between the sub-sites. Although the sub-sites serve different functions, their visual design is consistent.

When designing the website’s layout, we quickly found a common direction that satisfied all parties. Special thanks for this also go to the FC Inter project team. During joint design meetings, we were able to effectively move the site’s visual design forward. On several occasions, G-Works designer Joona shared the Figma design file directly with the project team and made changes and illustrations based on comments and ideas raised during the meeting. This was a highly effective approach.

FC Inter’s new website is a technically comprehensive project. The site utilizes the latest technology architecture, in which the backend—i.e., content management—and the frontend—i.e., the visitor interface—are separated from one another. With this solution, even a large website performs exceptionally fast. The security and integration benefits of this model are also undeniable. Content management for the website was implemented using the WordPress content management system, with which FC Inter was already familiar.

The separation of FC Inter’s three main areas (first team, youth programs, and InterAction activities) into their own sub-sites was achieved using WordPress’s Multisite feature. This feature allows FC Inter’s content editors to easily switch between the content management interfaces of the different sites. If necessary, it is also easy to grant content contributors permissions, for example, to manage only a specific sub-site’s WordPress administration.

One of the most important elements throughout the website is the presentation of upcoming and past matches, as well as statistics on teams and players and league standings. We integrated the Finnish Football Association’s statistical data into the website via the Torneopal system. Thanks to this integration, all statistical data is automatically updated on the site. We also made it possible to enrich the upcoming match data from Torneopal with our own data in WordPress.

In addition to the first team’s statistics, we expanded this functionality to all of FC Inter’s approximately twenty youth teams. Match data and league standings for all youth teams are also automatically updated on the youth program’s website.

FC Inter is seen and heard. News, match reports, match previews, video interviews, events, and social media updates are posted at a steady, rapid pace. The website was designed and built to support this extensive communication need. Although each sub-site has its own dedicated publishing sections, the site’s design also placed strong emphasis on seamless navigation between sub-sites when moving from one publication to another.

Internal cross-linking on the website has also been taken to a high level and automated as much as possible. Tags allow different types of content to be cross-linked with one another. For example, on a match page, a list of news articles related to the match and a list of videos related to the match can be displayed. This feature ensures that visitors always have access to interesting content related to a specific topic. In addition, Google’s algorithms favor this approach, leading to increased search engine visibility.

The previous website contained over 10,000 articles accumulated over the years, spanning nearly 20 years. We wanted to preserve this historical data. We carried out a migration in which all of these articles were transferred to the new site. The migration required careful planning to ensure that the old articles would fit the new layout. In addition, redirects were set up to ensure that the old article URLs would point to the new addresses.

A WooCommerce online store was built as an extension of the website. Before building the online store, it was clear that the new product images would be visually appealing, and the online store was designed around them. The online store also follows the look and feel of the main website, and it will be easy for FC Inter’s content editors to add new products to various product categories going forward. The online store was launched just in time for the season’s first home game, allowing fans to browse and pre-order products that would be sold at the stadium.

The project was completed and launched to the entire soccer community well ahead of schedule, before the start of the new Veikkausliiga season. The entire project proceeded with excellent synergy between the project teams at G-Works and FC Inter. Even the more challenging issues related to the website were efficiently resolved.

The G-Works project team—Valtteri, Joona, and Rasse—would like to thank the FC Inter team for an excellent start to our collaboration. “We’re excited to continue this journey together.”