How to Setup, Customize, and Manage Your Communities

Modified on: Fri, 28 Mar, 2025 at 10:27 AM

Building an engaged online community is crucial for businesses, educators, and content creators. HighLevel’s Communities feature allows you to create a private or public space where members can interact, access exclusive content, and build relationships. This guide will walk you through setting up, customizing, and managing your community effectively.

What is the Communities Feature?

The Communities feature in HighLevel allows you to create exclusive, interactive spaces for your audience. These communities help businesses and entrepreneurs foster engagement, offer valuable content, and build stronger relationships with members. You can create groups, manage memberships, customize your domain, and set permissions to enhance user experience.

Key Benefits of Communities

Centralized Engagement: Keep discussions, announcements, and interactions in one organized space.

Custom Branding: Set up a custom domain and personalize the community to match your brand.

Membership Management: Define roles and permissions for controlled access.

Scalability: Easily add or remove members as your community grows.

Seamless Integrations: Connect with automation tools, email marketing, and CRM features.

How to Set Up and Manage Communities

Setting up a HighLevel Community allows you to centralize conversations, deliver content, and drive engagement in one branded space. This section walks you through each essential step—from creation and customization to managing roles, channels, and gamified experiences. Whether you’re starting from scratch or scaling an existing group, this guide ensures a smooth and strategic setup.

Create a New Community

Start by accessing the Communities section within your HighLevel dashboard. From there, click Create New Community to begin building your space. This is the first step in setting up a centralized hub where your audience can engage, learn, and collaborate. Once created, you’ll be able to customize your community’s branding, structure, and membership settings.

Create Your Community Group

Define your group’s identity by entering a name, URL, and short description. This is the foundation of your community and what members will see when joining. Make it clear, inviting, and aligned with your brand or purpose. Once filled out, save your group to begin customizing and inviting members.

Customize Community Settings

Community Settings is where you can tailor the look and feel of your community to match your brand. You’ll be able to upload your logo, cover image, and favicon, adjust the layout, and fine-tune visual elements to create a consistent, professional experience for your members.

Upload a Community Logo and Cover Image.

Branding plays a key role in building trust and recognition within your community. In the Branding tab of the Community Settings, you can upload your favicon, cover image, and logo. The favicon appears in browser tabs, the cover image gives your community visual appeal, and the logo reinforces brand identity throughout the portal. Use recommended dimensions for best display, and don’t worry—you can update these anytime.

Set up a Custom Domain

Set Up a Custom Domain A custom domain gives your community a professional touch. Instead of using the default URL, you can set up a branded domain. Navigate to "Memberships > Communities > Settings" to find the custom domain menu.

Set Up a Custom Domain

Using a custom domain gives your community a more professional and branded experience. After entering your desired domain name, you’ll need to update your DNS records. Once your records are updated, save the domain settings using the "Update Domain" button and wait for DNS propagation to complete. This process ensures your community is accessible through a custom-branded URL instead of the default system-generated one.

Manage Memberships and Roles

Managing access and assigning roles within your community ensures members receive the right level of interaction and control. Whether you’re running a free discussion group or a gated coaching space, assigning roles like Admin or Contributor gives you flexibility in moderation and collaboration.

Navigate to the “Members” tab inside your community.Click the “Invite Members” button.

Admin Access

If the person needs full administrative access, you can toggle the “Give Administrative Privileges” option before sending the invite. After a member joins, you can always update their role from the Members tab using the three-dot menu next to their name. Roles include Admin (full control), Contributor (limited permissions), and Member (basic access), allowing you to tailor access based on each user’s role in your community.

Create and Organize Groups

Groups are the heart of your community, allowing you to segment conversations, content, and member participation by interest or topic. To get started, navigate to the “Groups” section in the community panel. Click the blue “Create Group” button to launch the group setup screen. You’ll enter the group name, a short description, and select privacy settings to determine who can access the group. You can also assign moderators during setup to help manage discussions. Once configured, click “Save” to publish the group and invite members to join the conversation.

Set Up Channels

Channels help you structure conversations within your community group, making it easier for members to find and participate in discussions. To add a channel, click the ”+ Add Channel” button in the left-hand panel. You can create specific channels like Announcements for updates, SOPs for process documentation, or VIP for exclusive member content. Each channel can be customized with unique icons and privacy settings to help organize communication and ensure the right people see the right content.

Add and Manage Courses

Courses provide structured content that can educate, onboard, or engage your community members. To get started, navigate to the Learning tab within your community. Click the “+ Add Course” button. This allows you to attach any existing course from your account to the group. Once added, members will see and access the course directly from the community. You can always manage which courses appear, control visibility settings, or remove them later as needed.

Choose Course and Set Visibility

After clicking “Add Course,” you’ll be prompted to choose an existing course from your library or create a new one. You can customize visibility settings to control access. Choose between making the course available to all members, restricting it to certain member levels, selling it via “Buy Now,” or unlocking it based on time or milestones. These options help you tailor access based on engagement, monetization strategy, or learning progression. Courses linked here are displayed only inside the community group and won’t affect the main course catalog.

Create and Schedule Events

Events make it easy to host live sessions like office hours, AMAs, and workshops directly in your community. To schedule an event, go to the “Events” tab and click “Create Event.” Fill in the event title, description, event banner or image, and add a meeting link such as a Zoom URL. You can choose to make the event a one-time session or set it to repeat weekly or monthly. Enabling reminders ensures members receive a notification before the event begins, helping boost attendance and engagement.

Implement Rewards and Gamification

Gamification boosts participation by making your community experience more interactive and fun. Head to the “Leaderboard” section to view or customize member levels like Bronze, Silver, or Gold. Then, go to “Gamification & Rewards” in the settings to assign rewards for reaching each level. These rewards can include course access, promo discounts, or exclusive community roles. For a fully automated experience, use workflows to trigger rewards when members complete actions like submitting a form or finishing a course. This system helps keep members active and invested in your content.