Many voluntary or third sector organisations have difficulty with websites that need constant updating. This is a result of increasing functionality and a well-managed site can be extremely rewarding for its owners. However the practical issues can be significant and even prohibitive for a group with few resources.
In Managing Your Website: Primary Concerns I summarise the main online activities your site may be involved in: services, products and / or causes. I then go on to summarise some of the vehicles available to market these.
I follow this up with Managing Your Website: Secondary Concerns, which covers those things you need to consider whatever it is you plan to do with your site. The four main areas for consideration I suggest are search engine optimisation (seo) (which would include things like analytics), accessibility, copyright and privacy. For some reason I didn’t include security and there may be more but this is at least a start.
In Writing Good Copy, I make the case for good copy whether you are selling things online. Many people in the third sector get nervous about online sales but in a world where grant funding is more difficult perhaps income through trade is a possibility.
Keywords
Using Keywords on Your Website makes the point you choose your keywords first for your site visitors and not for search engines.
The next post suggests How to Find Good Keywords. I suggest you start by identifying the keywords already in your copy and then some ways of researching alternatives, based upon what people are searching for.
Using Keywords Effectively suggests a few guidelines for how you deploy your keywords on your website.
Copy
How to Plan Copy suggests you need to be clear about what you want your target visitor to do in response to your site content.
Types of Site Visitor helps you identify your target visitor by suggesting three types of people visit your site.
Avatars
Your Avatar introduces the idea of clarifying your target visitor through what amounts to an imaginary friend.
How to Design Your Avatar suggests a few things to consider when designing your avatar as a part of a marketing campaign. A good avatar has at least three distinct dimensions.
Other aspects of good copy
In a final few posts I cover some other things you need to consider when writing copy.
Features and Benefits are a source of difficulty on many sites where the site owner does not understand the distinction. You need to know what a benefit is because benefits will persuade your target visitor to respond to your offer.
Testimonials and Case Studies provide social proof you can deliver on your offer.
A site without a Call to Action is a site with no purpose. Every page on your site should have one and only one!
Finally, in How to Write Copy I cover a number of minor points that can improve your copy’s readability.