What your charity website is trying to tell you

 A charity’s website is the world’s window into the soul of the organisation. It’s the most effective way for people to learn about a charity’s cause and for charities to get their message out there.  

As more people visit a charity website, the more people engage with their mission, giving charities a higher chance of converting them into donors or sponsors. If the experience provided is seamless (the site is easy to navigate, for example) and the content is engaging, the more likely these donors will return to donate monthly and become vocal advocates for the cause.

Creating this seamless and engaging experience can be difficult, particularly for charities who lack time and resource to dedicate to revamping their website. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is helpful in drawing more people to a specific site, but it can be time-consuming crafting SEO content or expensive if hiring an expert to help.

Similarly, paid advertising online can drive potential supporters to your website, helping you to appear at the top of search results as and when people are searching for terms related to your cause. Humanitarian aid charity Afghanaid was able to use online advertising to double its donations during its ongoing Crisis Appeal. 

But advertising and SEO are only part of the solution. Once people are on your site, what happens next? For charities, like Afghanaid, the next step is converting these visitors into active supporters and donors, and that is where much of the complexity rests.  

Charities must have an understanding of what visitors want from their website, how they move through it, and what compels them, in the end, to donate. If these are the questions, advanced web analytics can provide the answers.  

Why charities should look beyond basic analytics 

If charities are not looking at their web analytics, they may be missing out on vital clues as to how they can boost donations simply and effectively. Web analytics can reveal patterns of behaviour, highlighting areas of friction perhaps where supporters drop off during the donation process or successful pieces of content that lead to the most donations. Spotting these trends allows charities to adapt, to improve their donor experience, and ultimately supercharge their fundraising.  

Google Analytics is a commonly used and free option available to charities, but it can often provide only a surface level of insight. Just as investing in advertising and SEO can drive people to your charity website, investing in your web analytics drive them towards the next step – donating. 

“The more visibility you have, the better you can understand how people use your website, and the better you can maximise revenue,” states web analytics experts Metriscope. “If you aren’t properly monitoring your website, if you aren’t looking for struggle points and frustrations for your visitors, then you could be losing some of them. If you are losing half of your donors because of struggles on your website, you’re effectively doubling the cost per new donor of every previous part of the chain.” 

Indeed, by monitoring and investing in more advanced web analytics, charities can reduce the cost needed to bring in new donors. It allows charities to be more efficient with their spending – insights from advanced analytics can reveal the most effective activities that drive both visitors and donations. So, if charities are paying for SEO and advertising, they can be sure their money is going to the right place, where spending will drive results.  

What advanced web analytics can tell you 

While heatmaps can tell you how a single website visitor is using your site, they are not the silver bullet for understanding how your website is used. Fully integrated advanced analytics can give you a fuller picture of everything your visitors see, “putting you in their seat with them”, according to Metriscope.  

“You can spot problems based on behavioural analysis of users – are people happy or frustrated with the page they are using,” Metriscope explains. “You don’t have to watch each user’s journey through your site – although you can if you want to – as flagged events will highlight each user that encounters certain problems, and machine learning will spot problems you didn’t even know you needed to look for.” 

Areas advanced analytics can help with include: 

• Abandonment: Advanced analytics can flag when donations are abandoned, helping to identify problems in the process, such as a button that doesn’t work or content that is distracting
• Fraud detection: Advanced analytics can identify when people are trying to interact with your site fraudulently, perhaps creating multiple accounts with the same address or trying to login with multiple usernames. The right web analytics can warn organisations in real time
• Cost: Advanced analytics can help organisations quantify the problem they face – and crucially, whether it’s worth addressing. Metriscope’s Monetisation Reports, for example, reveals how much a problem costs in monetary terms. A common issue that costs a charity 25p every time can be just as expensive as a large-scale issue, if not sorted promptly

Where can I find advanced analytics 

There are lots of options for advanced analytics packages, but for charities, budgets are often more limited, making it harder to compete with the seamless experiences providing by private organisations with more money to spend.  

Metriscope offers registered charities a half-price discount on all of their products and services. Metriscope also offers charities that all-important flexibility, with the price scaling depending on how many people visit your website, starting at £5 per month (£2.50 after charity discount) for organisations with 1,500 monthly visits or less.