What is your website for?
Does it have a purpose?
Are you trawling the January sales online? Can you find what you’re looking for? Some websites are clear and easy to use. Others are frustrating and overwhelming. What is it that makes a good website?
We recently had the privilege of working with a fantastic charity to refresh their website, bringing a new clarity and focussing on the audience they actually needed to reach. Along the way we had some game-changing conversations exploring what a charity website is really for. In this blog we share some of those valuable learning points.
Getting back to basics…
Start with the purpose.
An organisation’s website often grows and mutates over time until it contains far too much information about everything you have ever done.
Step back - what’s the main thing you want people to do after visiting your website? Donate to a campaign? Buy tickets? Sign a petition? Become a volunteer? Partner with you? If a few apply, rate them in order of priority. Tackle the top one - what do your website visitors need to know before they can take that action? Is it simple to find that information and make that response? Does that call to action have the prominence it should have on your site right now?
Focus on the audience
Asking the question “who is our website for?” is a key step in clarifying what should be on your website. Once you know this, you might choose to change your strapline with your main audience in mind or reposition tabs and pages so that the most relevant ones for them are now easiest to find. You will probably also find there is a lot of irrelevant content you can simply get rid of.
Embrace the maths
The end of the year is also an ideal time to dive into your website statistics to learn more about the people who visit your site and their areas of interest. For example, if your case study section receives the most views then you might decide to make this even more prominent and to add fresh case studies more frequently.
An outside view
Many charities we support reference the fact that having an outside opinion from someone who has limited knowledge of the charity is really valuable. So if “review website” is on your list of jobs in 2024, why not invite a friend or neighbour in for a cup of tea and an honest opinion!
-
If you’d like an outside pair of eyes to look over your website and give it fresh purpose, please feel free to get in touch with our team.
