10 Great Tips For Your Nonprofit Website
Our work with clients to produce and integrate online video demands that we keep up with the latest and most effective web strategies. Here are just a few of our tips on making your website more effective:
1. Make your site social media friendly. Incorporate appropriate widgets, chicklets, banners, and badges onto your site. Encourage video and photo sharing, link to your social network profiles, and make it easy for bloggers and social networkers to embed your videos and feature your banners on their web properties. This will attract new traffic sources, retain visitors, and build community around your cause.
2. Put your most compelling content front and center. If you have video or photos showing the work you do, use them! A strong collection of media can help you build connections in a way that is not possible with words alone.
3. Look at your website from the visitor's perspective. If you were a first-time visitor to your website, would you understand the mission of your organization? Are the actions you want a visitor to take clear? Is the navigation easy to understand? Surveys are a great way to gauge your site's usability and keep it dynamic in a universe that is always changing. Sites like Survey Monkey allow you to set up a survey that is simple and inexpensive.
4. Email sign-up should be one of the most prominent items, and the easiest action for a visitor to take. If you don't have an email newsletter, you should. You can build your list and strengthen relationships by maintaining regular and meaningful contact with people who have already shown an interest in what you do. It's also easier to collect emails if you provide interesting content in return.
5. Think about the home page description of your organization. If you only had ten words to describe yourselves, what would those words be? Make sure the words you use on your site are accurate and descriptive. It also helps if those words mirror the keywords and phrases people are likely to use searching for you or your issues.
6. Feature the 'Donate Now' button. Visitors shouldn't have to think about ways to engage with you - you need to show them how you want them to engage. Putting a Donate Now button on your site doesn't guarantee anyone will use it. But if you make a compelling case for your work, you should make it easy for visitors to support you.
7. Don't hide your address and phone number. Even in this high tech world, we still know that the best way to build a relationship is showing people that you're real. Phone numbers and addresses build trust and a sense of accessibility and is often the one piece of content people are looking for when they go to your site.
8. Three clicks and you're out. Make sure everything you might want a visitor to do on your site is no more than three clicks away. Research indicates that you lose 40% of visitors with each click.
9. Build and test your search function. A search function and site map is a quick and easy way to help users get to their destination as quickly as possible. Analysis on the backend through a tool such as Google Analytics will tell you if users are finding what they need on your site.
10. Connect to your blog. An organization blog is a great forum for the latest news and online engagement. Think of your blog as your website's little buddy. Only start a blog if you have something to say and are ready to make a commitment. If you aren't sure, try guest blogging for someone who already writes on similar topics. A blog also helps raise your ratings with search engines. (We blog at http://blog.see3.net/.)
For specific campaigns or issues, a microsite might be the best idea. These are smaller sites with different URLs that speak about one specific topic. You can build an online marketing campaign around a microsite without confusing the visitor with other options. For example, Amnesty International launched TearItDown.org and AVODAH launched Jews4NewOrleans.org to focus on specific issues with specific calls to action.
To learn more about our web strategy services, contact us at (773) 784-7333 or info@see3.net.
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