Insights
We offer charities some advice for improving their websites, emphasising the importance of layout, choosing keywords, and effectively using analytics
A website represents a business, its services, values, and attracts potential customers and clients. Since it plays such a crucial role in the representation of a business, a website deserves a fair share of attention and efforts to make sure it is sensibly structured.
Planning a layout and a structure for your website is not always simple. But some essential points could allow you to improve. In this article, we shall discuss some of the essential points to consider when planning the layout of your website.
Before you start, make a quick list of what your company stands for and all the information you’d like your clients to know about your company. Include an ‘About us’ section, explain your industry, perhaps mention any known contemporaries, and ensure that you list your business services and products that you offer to your clients.
Look at other people across the charity sector. Take inspiration from contemporaries. See what impresses you most about their website and take note of what does not seem appealing. Learn from their successes and their failures, too.
SEO strategy plays a key role in getting your site to rank higher on Google. The strategy can also distinguish you from your competitors. A well-crafted SEO strategy involves the use of the right keywords, relevant content, and timely dished-out articles.
If you aren’t sure about how to go about your SEO strategy, consider hiring an SEO agency to help. There are plenty of options available online, all of which can support you.
Rilind Elezaj, the founder of SEOforX and an SEO consultant, talked about the services they provide: "We will collaborate and use the available resources to provide an effective optimization strategy for your business. My SEO services range from strategizing keyword opportunities, in-depth consultation, and outranking all your competitors."
Look up the websites that use the keywords that you are using or want to use. If possible, find out the traffic they receive. Next, visit the websites from your industry that receive the highest traffic and check the keywords that they use in their content. Again, it’s helpful to learn from others performing well in the industry, so note the succesful keywords and incorporate them into your content.
You need to ensure that the interface of your website is simple and easily comprehensive for your customers. Make a hierarchical pattern to guide the visitors through the contents of your website.
Also, you might want to categorise your products, but make sure that there aren’t too many categories or it would turn into a puzzle for your customers and won’t remain useful. Try to use pictures to convey information, wherever necessary.
URLs can be the trickiest part of a website. Try incorporating some keywords into the URLs, especially for articles that will go on your website. URLs form another crucial pillar for a website, especially in terms of SEO, and should be curated with the right keywords.
There are several points to keep in mind while planning a website, as explored above. Another vital point is to continue improving. Use analytics to see what’s working and what’s not, build on successes, and make changes to any failures.
Successful websites are ever-evolving products, always changing and always improving. Make sure you constantly monitor and always consider possible improvements.
For the sixth year in a row, we're bringing back an action-packed event filled with Digital Fundraising insights from the charity and tech sectors. Join us on 7th October 2024 for a free, one-day online event featuring informative webinars and interactive workshops.