The larger a clan gets the more hierarchical the organizational structure tends to become. Usually there is at least a clan leader, in small teams a clan leader may only be a team captain heading the team in game and initiating discussions to solve problems. In larger clans the leader is often responsible for the entirety of organizing the clan, with a number of basic members. If the clan expands, experienced members are usually promoted and are delegated various tasks such as recruiting, disciplining rule-breakers, member training, webpage maintenance, and others. Certain clans take this type of organization to a higher level where they emulate the structure (and sometimes name) of a military unit with specific ranks, positions, and groups. These clans are usually found in shooter games and are referred to as realism units.

In most games, players show the clan they belong to by using a unique tag which takes the form of a prefix or suffix tag. Tags are often enclosed in brackets or symbols and coloured differently if the game allows it. For example, in a name like "[EW]Bob", "[EW]" is the clan tag and "Bob" is the player's name. Some clans prefer to have a more subtle and arcane way of indicating membership, such as a simple marking in or around the name. For example, "Bob!!" with "Bob" being the player's name and "!!" being the clan's tag.

In MMORPGs and strategy games the game often features a separate mechanism used to identify the clan a player belongs to. For example in Dark Age of Camelot, the player's guild appears in full below the player's name. In games that allow players to customize their appearance (usually by picking the color of their attire), clan members might all share a similar look, or bear their clan's logo on their character's outfit. The MMORPG World of Warcraft introduced tabards, in which a guild master could customize a tabard to any look he wanted, and then guild members could buy one so they'd all be wearing guild colors.