A website for a Minecraft server: what it should have and how to build it

In short: the first screen holds the server address as text with a «Copy» button, the version and the live player count; below that come the rules, links to Discord, the donation store and the server lists to vote on, the staff and a contact for appeals. Static hosting such as GitHub Pages is enough for one page; if you want forums, a store and voting, the free game-server CMSs NamelessMC and Azuriom cover it. Keep the site on the root domain and the server on a subdomain such as play.example.com.

What the site should have#

How to show a live player count#

A site learns the player count, MOTD and version the same way the in-game server list does — with Server List Ping on the normal game port. It's enabled by enable-status=true in server.properties, which is the default. Set it to false and, per the Minecraft Wiki, the server appears offline while still letting players in. hide-online-players=true removes the player list from the reply.

• A ready-made banner. The server banner is a live 468×60 image with the icon, address, the MOTD's first line and players online. It refreshes every minute, the codes for HTML, BBCode and Markdown are ready, and a click opens a check of your server.
• A CMS widget. NamelessMC and Azuriom show the server status on their own — more below.
• Your own script. If you write it yourself, query the server with the same Server List Ping. There's also the separate UDP Query protocol (enable-query, query.port), but it's off by default.

If the banner says «Offline» while players are joining, test the address with the online server check: it shows whether the server answers status requests. And never give the site console access through an open RCON — a player count doesn't need it.

What to build the site with#

NamelessMC

According to its developers, free website software made for Minecraft servers. It has forums, custom pages restricted by group, sign-in with Discord and Google, and Java and Bedrock server status. The NamelessMC server plugin links the site to the game: in-game registration and account verification, syncing Vault ranks to site groups, a whitelist for account holders, bans from the site and announcements in chat. The Nameless-Link bot syncs Discord roles with site groups.

Azuriom

A free, open-source CMS for game servers built on the Laravel framework. Extensions install from the admin dashboard: a store with several payment gateways, voting with automatic rewards, forums and themes. Installing it takes a web server with PHP 8.2 or later, and the developers recommend MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL as the database.

Domain: the site and the server on one name#

A handy setup is the site on example.com and the server on play.example.com with an A record pointing to the server's IP. If the game port isn't the standard one, an SRV record _minecraft._tcp.play.example.com spares players the :port in the address — details in domain and SRV record, and the SRV record generator builds the record. Put exactly the address players type in the game on the site.

SEO: getting the site found#

• A `title` of its own on every page. Google recommends a title that is unique, clear, concise and accurately describes the page; Yandex recommends an informative title with the brand at the start or end and no list of keywords. For example: «Name — survival with an economy, Minecraft 1.21».
• A `meta description`. A short one- or two-sentence summary of the page that search engines may show in the snippet. Google doesn't use the keywords meta tag.
• The address and game mode as text. A search engine won't read an address off an image, and images deserve meaningful alt text.
• A sitemap and webmaster tools. Add the site to Google Search Console and Yandex Webmaster and submit a sitemap so the crawlers learn about your pages sooner.
• Original text. Describe what makes the server different in your own words, not a copy of a server-list blurb. The description generator helps draft server-list descriptions, and how to name a server within Mojang's rules is covered in how to promote a server.

The «Protected by DGuard» badge and the anticheat#

A player choosing between two similar servers asks first whether there are cheaters. If your server runs DGuard, you can show it right on the site: the DGuard panel, under «Invite friends», has a «Protected by DGuard» badge — 234×60 or 88×31, dark or light, with ready code for a website (HTML), forums and server lists (BBCode) and Markdown. The badge goes through your invite link. Put it up only if DGuard actually protects the server.

DGuard — the best anticheat for a modern Minecraft server — checks all 47 cheat types of the comparison on every front at once: combat, movement, building, inventory, packets, world. It runs on Paper and Leaf 1.21–26.3 and is free up to 30 players online, with the same protection as the paid plans. For the rules page, the rules generator adds a clause about cheats.

FAQ#