FC Tactics

Why we built a gaming guide site

FC Tactics is one of our own projects. It is a fan site for EA Sports FC players, and it is not affiliated with EA Sports. We built it because gaming guides are one of the hardest corners of search to work in. New versions of the game come out every year, patches change what works, and thousands of sites and video channels chase the same handful of searches. If a structure holds up there, it will hold up for a local trade business or a hire company where the competition is far smaller.

It also gives us a live site we fully control. We can test page layouts, internal linking and content formats on our own site first, and only bring the approaches that hold up to client websites. Nobody's business is used as the test.

Building around the question a player is asking

Players rarely search for something broad. They search for a specific answer in the middle of a session: the best 4-2-3-1 custom tactics, how to do a rainbow flick, which controller settings to change. So the site is built around single-question pages. Each skill move has its own guide, each main formation has its own breakdown, and settings, tactic codes and Ultimate Team tactics each have a dedicated section.

That is the same thinking we use for a business website. A roofer's customers search for 'flat roof repair' or 'emergency roof leak', not 'roofing services'. One page per real question, written to answer it quickly, tends to do better than one long page trying to cover everything.

Designed for a phone held between matches

Most people reading a tactics guide are on a phone, often with a controller in the other hand. The layout keeps the answer near the top, uses formation cards that show the shape and playing style at a glance, and keeps navigation to a short list of core areas: skill moves, formations, custom tactics, Ultimate Team, career mode, clubs and controller settings.

Pages are kept light so they load fast on mobile data. Images are compressed and sized for the screen, and the important text is in the page itself rather than locked in images, so search engines and AI assistants can read it.

Internal linking that keeps people moving

Every guide links to the next thing a player is likely to need. A formation breakdown links to the matching custom tactics and player instructions. A skill move guide links to related moves of a similar difficulty. The home page surfaces the most-read guides and a trending list, so new and updated pages are found quickly by both visitors and search engines.

For clients, the same approach means a service page links to the matching location page, a relevant case study and the pricing page, so a visitor who lands on one page has a clear route to getting in touch.

Planning content around a yearly cycle

Football games run on a yearly release cycle, so content is planned around it. Evergreen guides, such as how a skill move works, are kept and updated. Version-specific pages, such as tactics for the current game, are refreshed when the new version launches rather than replaced with a new address each year, so they keep the history they have built up.

The Retro Vault section covers classic gaming cheats and codes. It gives the site content that does not go out of date each year, which balances out the seasonal pages.

Many of our clients have seasons too. Campervan hire peaks in spring and summer, garages get busy around MOT months and winter checks, and trades see storm-damage spikes. Planning content ahead of those peaks, and updating rather than starting from scratch, is a lesson that carries straight across.

Accuracy and honesty

Every guide is written by FC Tactics and checked against published sources where they exist. The site states clearly that it is an independent fan project. We would rather say less than make a claim we cannot stand behind, and we apply the same rule to the websites we build: no invented reviews, no made-up figures and no promises about rankings.

What this means if you're thinking of working with us

FC Tactics shows how we build: one clear page per real search, fast mobile pages, sensible internal links and content planned for when people actually search. It is still being developed, and we do not publish traffic or ranking figures for it here. If you would like the same approach applied to your business website, ask for a free website review and we will tell you plainly what we would change.