How To Make The Best Discord Server

Creating a Discord server is easy, but creating the best Discord server? Now, that’s an art. The online world changes so quickly, and things that worked last year when it came to growing and creating an amazing Discord server, don’t work as well today.

In this post, we will look at what currently works in 2023 and how to make the best Discord server, regardless of what niche or community you are building.

You can follow one or two of these tips or all of them, but the main thing is that you take action at the end of this post and do the work.

Channel Structure: The Backbone of Your Server

A well-structured Discord server starts with a logical and intuitive channel structure. Channels are what make Discord an amazing place to grow a community, and we need to make use of proper structure to make the most of this amazing community feature.

Channels should be organized into categories based on their purpose, and the naming of channels should be clear and descriptive. General chat, announcements, rules, and off-topic discussions should each have their designated areas.

Make it all clear, and when naming channels, you can also add “emojis” within the names too, to further make it clear what the channel is for.

Use voice channels for real-time communication, and keep these channels separate from text-based channels. Also, consider private channels for specific roles or topics. You can create a system for users to opt-in to these channels based on their interests, further enhancing the user experience.

This can be achieved with bots, where you can tie channels to specific roles and have users react to initial welcome messages with their interests in the form of an emoji reaction. This can then open up specific channels based on what they react with.

Discord Bots: Amplifying Server Functionality

Talking about bots, it is time to get into more detail with them as they can add a wealth of functionality to your server. They can automate tasks, provide entertainment, enforce rules, and much more.

For instance, moderation bots like Dyno can help maintain a healthy community by automatically addressing rule violations. MEE6 can reward active members with a levelling system, promoting engagement.

For scheduling messages and announcements, dotNotify is your go-to bot, ensuring you can communicate effectively with your members regardless of timezone differences.

All of these bots help to automate harder and more boring tasks, meaning you as a server owner, can think the “bigger picture”. You can focus on ideas to grow and engage with your community knowing bots are taking care of the smaller, more time-consuming tasks.

Engagement: The Heartbeat of Your Server

Engagement is the heartbeat of your server. Without it, your server becomes a ghost town. There is nothing that kills a server more than it being a ghost town. So, you have to find a way to drive engagement and conversation.

This is probably the biggest task for any Discord server owner when looking to make the best Discord server.

Here are a few tips to boost engagement:

Host Events: Regular events, like game nights or Q&A sessions, can foster interaction among members. They can also help draw in new users too, especially if events are promoted outside the server.

Promote Discussion: Use your channels to spark discussions. For example, have a ‘question of the day’ in your general chat. 

You also need to make sure that you are reactive and always answer questions and communicate with server members. Even a simple “gm” in the morning to spark some responses is surprisingly beneficial.

Reward Activity: Use a bot like MEE6 to implement a levelling system, incentivising members to stay active. As members chat and engage with each other, they “gain XP” and level up. You can have a live leaderboard and let members see who is most engaged.

You can add prizes or special server roles for hitting different ranks. It’s amazing how powerful rewarding engagement can be.

Create Unique Roles: Custom roles can make members feel special and encourage them to participate more. As mentioned above, this can be “reward-driven” for engagement, or you can hold competitions or giveaways and set roles and rewards from that.

Discord Server Growth and Promotion

Expanding Your Reach

Once you’ve built an engaging server, it’s time to grow. There are many things you can do here, but 3 of the most popular are:

Competition For Invites: Setting up a competition for members to generate invites to your server in return for prizes can be a really powerful way of getting newer users into your server “en masse”.

Cross-Promotion: Collaborate with other server owners to promote each other’s servers. This could be giveaways or even just value swaps of knowledge and information for your server members.

Discord Server Directories: Many sites let you list your server for people to find. Top.gg is a popular one, and some subreddits allow you to promote your server too. It’s a free and targeted way of getting your server out there.

How To Make The Best Discord Server – In Summary!

Creating the best Discord server requires a thoughtful approach to structure, a strategic use of bots, and a relentless focus on engagement.

It’s also important to have a solid growth strategy in place to expand your community.

Follow these tips, and you’ll be on your way to creating the best Discord server in 2023. Remember, the key to a thriving Discord server is constant adjustment and adaptation to your community’s needs and interests. Stay responsive, and your server will flourish.