Maintaining an Effective Website: Share your strategies and tips here!

A static Web site is a dead Web site.

You may not have realized it yet, but chances are you've got a dead Web site if you're not doing anything to maintain it and help it grow.

And I've got a name for this condition, which I call "Static Website Syndrome" -- SWS for short.

Is your online presence suffering from this syndrome?

Well, the good news is that there's a cure!

Transform your dead Web site into a living Web site by taking some simple steps:

1. Commit to regularly maintaining your site.
Make sure all site information is up to date and accurate, and that all links are working properly.

2. Never stop adding FRESH content to the site.
At minimum, once or twice a month there should be something new to read on your site. The more often you do this, the better. Add more pages to the site, containing information that your constituents will find informative (e.g., posting upcoming programs/events, PDF documents, support materials, etc.).

Regularly putting up new site content will help you achieve two important things:

First, you'll be keeping visitors engaged and they'll keep coming back for more. And secondly, the more information you add to the site, the better your site will perform in the search engines -- which will attract NEW visitors to your site.

So offer people good content that helps them in some way -- keep giving visitors what they want -- and naturally they'll keep returning to your site to consume more of what you have to offer.

So remember that FRESH content is king!

3. Get other relevant sites to link to your own.
You can get creative here. For example, partner up with related organizations and decide on some type of "link exchange" program, where you agree to post a link to their site on yours, if they'll do the same. This kind of mutual promotion will help generate referring traffic to your site while boosting your "link popularity", which is a factor used by the search engines to determine where your site will rank in their search results pages (SERPs).

4. Give them news.
Write up press releases about organizational happenings and publish them in a special section on your site. Press releases are a great way to create a buzz and attract interest in your initiatives -- use them to promote your cause.

5. Stay connected with your audience.
A newsletter is great for this purpose. You already get newsletters from TechSoup, so why not create one for your organization which you can send out to all your members? Consider implementing a newsletter sign-up feature on your site, where visitors can receive your newsletter at the e-mail address they used to sign-up. Also, you can make past newsletters available for download somewhere on your site.


These are just a few of the strategies you can employ to help revitalize and create interest in your organization's Web site. No matter how big or small your online presence, you need to treat it as a living and breathing thing by maintaining it on a regular basis. Otherwise, it will simply atrophy and die in cyberspace -- and you'll just be another victim of "static Web site syndrome."

Some discussion questions...

-- What does having an "effective" Web site mean for YOUR organization? How do YOU define this?

-- What are you doing (if anything) to maintain an effective online presence? Can you recommend any additional Web promotion strategies?


Yann

Thanks, Yann! I'll second the advice on keeping content current. If you think of a Website as being the front door to an organization, it's important to make the "front yard" appealing with engaging, up-to-date content that makes you want to go in the house, so to speak. I'd include with this the importance of keeping content fresh on other sites that your nonprofit has a Web presence (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc.). Now granted, this is a lot more work than just keeping a single site updated, but one that has the potential to reach a larger number of users and bring your content to other spaces besides just to visitors of your Website.

How are those of you who are using social networking sites maintaining your Web presence on these sites, as well as your home site?

--Megan

If you think of a Website as being the front door to an organization, it's important to make the "front yard" appealing with engaging, up-to-date content that makes you want to go in the house, so to speak.

I couldn't have said it better myself, Megan! Great analogy, I love it. With the keywords being: engaging, up-to-date content.

Organizations, big and small, new and old, must realize that their Web presence is a reflection on them. Pardon me for saying this -- if your Web site stinks, then it makes YOU look bad too. So please, everyone, take some time in the very near future -- today even -- to beef up your Web presence.

You can start by removing those ridiculous site counters from your pages. I still see them being used on too many nonprofit sites -- they're so 1997. Worse yet, your tracker may read something like: "This page has been visited 43 times since [enter your prehistoric date here]" -- you're not doing yourself or your visitors a favor at all with this kind of information. As a visitor, I'm not going to be interested in spending time on your site if I see stuff like that -- it's very discouraging and it tells me you don't care about your Web presence. So why should I care about you?

Get rid of those dreadful bean counters -- use something like the free Google Analytics tool instead.

Keep things simple by updating one area of the site at a time. A great first step is to revitalize your home page by removing any outdated material and replacing it with some fresh information: current events, news, links to articles or reports... whatever! Also, keep in mind that as a visitor to your site I should be able to quickly get a feel for who you are and what you do simply through skimming your home page. Then move on from the main page and continue making updates to the rest of your site. Do this one step at a time.

You'll go a long way towards inviting positive attention to your cause -- and possibly also attract more donations and future funding -- if you simply take the time to showcase yourself through your site in the best possible light.

Your online presence is the digital equivalent to your bricks and mortar organization. Just as you strive to keep your organization running smoothly and progressing forward, so too should your Web site.

It just makes natural sense.

Yann

Wow! Great comments Yann and Megan. You guy’s are right on the spot. One of the things I have noticed however, is the lack of an actual web strategy that engages the entire agency. I think that where nonprofits fall short is in their planning of a web strategy and all of the areas that need attention. Here are the areas that I feel often go overlooked.

Gain Input from your Organization:

The first thing to do is to consider your organizations stakeholders. This could include your Board Members, Staff, volunteers, clients and those who benefit from your services or products. Getting these groups together into one group and having candid discussions on the broader scope of your organization and how the Internet can impact your mission and the way you deliver your services is a great way to start. Get this group to have broad discussions regarding your agency and try to connect the dots between your Internet presence and your current strategic plan.

Integrate your Web Strategy and your Organizational Strategy:

When planning your current organizations strategy you should brainstorm on ways to integrate your services that are offline into an online environment. Get input from staff members and directors on how to make flyers, booklets, newsletters, fact sheets, brochures, program information, events and other informational sources easily available online. Get your staff to think of creative ways to integrate your website into their day to day efforts.

Commit Resources:

Nonprofit resources are generally stretched pretty thin so you have to be creative when committing resources. Remember, the web is here to stay so it is something that you are going to have to deal with as an organization sooner or later. In many cases for nonprofits the sooner the better. Internet technology and services will cost your agency money. The key thing to consider is making a commitment to appropriate resources and that your Internet expenses should be structured to provide increases in efficiency that will save you resources elsewhere. For example, it will cost you money to have a website and technology platform in place to easily and instantly deliver your newsletter and other electronic communications to your member base but you should also look at how this will save your organization in man hours and print costs over time. Once you can see an accurate projection of efficiency it is easier to commit to such a project.

Effect on your Staff:

You should consider the effect that an Internet fundraising strategy will have on your staff. Remember that they should be encouraged and empowered to bring solutions and be supported by management. They should be encouraged by management and have clear cut responsibilities and know the role that they play in the overall strategy. Everyone from the receptionist to the executive director to the Board chairperson should understand what role they play and be involved in the strategy.

Another great resource for finding usable tools and tips for maintaining an effective website can be found at www.EphilanthropyCourse.com

They talk about some of the strategies mentioned here and go into other areas that are commonly overlooked as well.

Best wishes.

Brian, thanks so much your excellent follow-up post! The additional advice you provided is 100% on target -- I couldn't agree with you more.

Aligning your Web site strategy with your organizational strategy is key. So how do you do this? Brian gave us an answer here:

When planning your current organizations strategy you should brainstorm on ways to integrate your services that are offline into an online environment.

Let me give a simple example of how organizations can start to do this:

Maybe your organization currently sends out a monthly or quarterly paper-based newsletter to its members? If so, you'll want to look into converting this process to an entirely Web-based solution. Translation: move from a traditional newsletter to an e-newsletter. Why? Because the e-newsletter format offers several key advantages over the paper-based version:

1) It's convenient and saves money (and trees too!)
2) It allows for analytics/performance tracking: For example, you can monitor your newsletter's "open rates" and make improvements to optimize this metric.
3) You can offer visitors to your site the option to "Sign-up to receive our newsletter". This can drive up your membership base and boost interest in your cause.

Yann

With all this talk about setting up an electronic newsletter, I was wondering what sort of software people use to do this?

Hey, great question. There are a lot of newsletter applications to choose from out there however, I like to use constant contact at www.constantcontact.com

They have really nice templates to use and they are great for non-techie users to figure out. I also like the analytics that they have. You can view who has opened your newsletter, see if they have forwarded it or deleted it or clicked on any of your links.

They also have an easy opt-out feature. One very important issue however.

It doesn't matter what newsletter software you use if you have a poorly written newsletter. Here are a few tips on writting a newsletter and avoiding some of the major flaws that NPO newsletters have. If you avoid these flaws you will have a great newsletter that will hopefully engage your donors and keep them excited about donating to your organization.

1. Your newsletter fails the personality test. Remember, a good donor newsletter should be written in a very friendly, even intimate tone. Don’t use your organizational or institutional voice. Be very down to earth, familiar and personable.

2. Lack of emotion. Many newsletters don’t use emotion to relate information. Information is important but you need to remember to tug on the heartstrings of your donors.

3. Your newsletter is not a newsletter. Some newsletters are actually just thinly veiled self serving messages from the executive director or board members.

4. Your newsletter is not centered on your donors. Make sure that your newsletter is donor-centered and that your donors feel both needed and wanted.

5. Your newsletter doesn’t allow for easy reading. Make sure that you opt for bullet lists, numbered lists and smaller text blocks of information rather than long articles.

6. Poor newsletter headlines. One of the worst thing a newsletter can have is a weak headline. Make sure that you spend some time on your headlines so that they capture the attention of your readers.

7. TMI. Your newsletter contains too much information like statistics, graphs and charts. These are good tools when used properly, however you should spend more time story telling or using good anecdotes.

Make sure that you consider these flaws when writing or reviewing your newsletter.

This is not meant to be a complete list of flaws that a newsletter can have because it is just my list of what I have seen over the years and my hope is that it will help you if you are writing your first newsletter or working on an existing one.

So let me know if you have any “fatal” flaws of your own that you know of.

My organization is beginning to understand the value of putting fresh content on our site. We have a new CMS in place. My question is: Does anyone keep a history of what your content was prior to editing the page? On our previous (and much smaller) site I would print out pages when changes were made, which did not happen too often. Is there a way to track these type of changes when the new content has been saved over the original?