Website Tips for Charities

The following provides advice for organisations thinking about building a web site. There is a glossary of terms at the end of the document.  

Who will be responsible for keeping the site up to date?  

Keeping your website up to date is essential. A website that is out of date may cast doubt on your organisation’s effectiveness and people may question if your organisation is still running. 

• Ensure that more than one person has full access to the site to enable you to update the site if the member of staff or volunteer leaves your organisation 
• If someone volunteers to build you a site, ensure it is on a system that is easy to manage, add and edit content. Also make sure you are fully aware of any long term or ongoing costs (see section on where to build your website)  

Planning a web site.  

Keep it simple and within your capacity to keep up to date. It is very easy to create a website with exciting features but ask yourself if you have the time to keep it up to date. 

Decide what is essential to show on your site, for example:  

• An ‘About us’ section – this may be your home page 
• A ‘News’ section – if you will have the time to add regular news stories 
• An events listing / calendar page 
• A ‘Contact us’ page  

If you start with this list, you can always add other sections/functions if you have the time. 

Where to build your website.  

There are many systems that are designed for people without specialist IT skills. These are often called ‘out of the box’ solutions as they are set up ready for you to add your information.  They offer templates that are good starting point and most have simple user interfaces with guides on how to use them. They can be a very cost-effective way to create a web site if you have no prior knowledge of doing this. 

Commissioning someone to build a site has higher costs and may result in higher running costs to keep the site secure. 

Here are some website providers known for their easy-to-use templates, which can be great for small charities: 

• Wix: Offers a wide range of customisable templates and a simple drag-and-drop editor. 
• Squarespace: This has high-quality templates and a user-friendly interface. 
• Weebly: Provides simple and straightforward tools for building websites, with a variety of templates that are easy to customise. 
• GoDaddy: Offers a very beginner-friendly website builder with a selection of templates. 
• Jimdo: Simple and easy to use, Jimdo offers templates that can be customised.  
• WordPress.com: While slightly more complex, WordPress.com offers many templates and plugins that can be used to expand the functionailty of your website. 
• OurGateshead: For organisation work with Gateshead residents, OurGateshead is a free, easy to use website that allows you to promote your organisation. 

These platforms should help you get started with creating a website for yourorganisation. 

How to help search engines find your site.  

Most people find websites via a search engine (e.g. Google or Bing). There are some tips to help these search engines send people to your site:  

• Keywords: Ensure your text contains the words and phrases people may use to search your organisation and your services/activities. For example: 
• Don't write: “We have a large range of services available for everyone”.  no-one searches using these words  
• Do Write: “We have a large range of activities including: art and craft classes and walking football. We run sessions for families with toddlers and young children, a weekly youth club and activities organised for older people, all taking place in the heart of [your location]”. This contains many words and phrases that people would use to search for activities. Adding the town/village name will also help prioritise your pages for people searching for that location. 

• SEO – Search Engine Optimisation. Whilst this can seem daunting at first, most of the above website providers provide tools and guides to improve your place in search results. It is well worth looking at their training tutorials to see how you can increase your visibility.  

Registering a Domain (web address)  

Whilst most web providers will give a link you can share with the public, the cheapest service they provide will have an address (URL) that is not personal to your organisation e.g.: www.wix.com/yourorganisation or www,weebly.com/profile62119 

For a small annual charge, you can register a dedicated URL for your organisation e.g.: www.YourOrganisation.org.uk. This makes it a lot easier to promote your website and for people to remember.  

Most web site providers will guide you through the process of registering a URL and linking it to your website.  

To help build trust in your website it is recommended that you purchase an SSL Certificate (Secure Sockets Layer): This is a security feature that encrypts data between your website and its visitors. This is shown by adding “https” in the URL. Many website providers will provide a free certificate if you purchase a Domain.  

Promoting your website 

Whilst keywords and SEO tools will help increase how many people find your site, the best way to promote your site is word of mouth. 

• Tell your members, users, volunteers and staff  
• Ask people to share the site on social media  
• Add a link to your website on your emails and any posters/flyers you produce 

Glossary of Basic Website Terminology 

Here is a list of common terms that you may come across when building or maintaining a website.  

• Alt Text (Alternative Text): This is text added to images on your website to improve accessibility. 
• Analytics: Tools that track and report on your website’s traffic and user behavior (e.g. Google Analytics). 
• Banner: A graphic or text display at the top of your website, often used for announcements or promotions. 
• Blog: A section of your website where you can post articles, updates, and stories related to your organisation’s work. 
• Breadcrumbs: Often displayed at the top of web pages, this is a navigation tool that shows visitors the path they have taken to get to the current page, helping them understand their location within the website. 
• Cache: Temporary storage used to speed up the loading of web pages by storing copies of files. 
• Call to Action (CTA): A prompt on your website encouraging visitors to take a specific action, such as donating or signing up for a newsletter. 
• CMS (Content Management System): Software that allows you to create, edit, and manage your website’s content without needing to know how to code (e.g. WordPress). 
• Domain Name: The address where your website can be found on the internet (e.g. www.yourcharity.org). 
• Favicon: A small icon/image that appears in the browser tab next to your website’s title. 
• Footer: The bottom section of your website, often containing contact information, links to important pages, and social media links. 
• Header: The top section of your website, often containing the logo, navigation menu, and other important elements. 
• Homepage: The main page of your website, typically the first page visitors see. 
• Hosting: A service that stores your website’s files and makes them accessible on the internet. 
• Hyperlink (Link): A clickable link that takes users to another page, file or another website. 
• Landing Page: A standalone web page created specifically for a marketing or advertising campaign, for example you may create a landing page for a campaign to increase your membership. 
• Meta Tags: Snippets of text that describe a page’s content; they don’t appear on the page itself but in the page’s code and help search engines understand what the page is about. This is a system to improve your visibility in search engine results. See section SEO below 
• Navigation Menu: A set of links that help users find their way around your website. 
• Pop-up: A small window that appears on top of the current web page, often used for announcements or to capture email sign-ups. Some users will block pop-ups so it is important to have other ways to share this information. 
• Plugin: A software add-on that adds specific features or functionalities to your website (e.g., contact forms, calendars). 
• Responsive Design: A design approach that ensures your website looks good and functions well on all devices, including smartphones and tablets. 
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Techniques used to improve your website’s visibility on search engines like Google. 
• Spam: Unwanted or irrelevant messages, often sent in bulk. 
• SSL Certificate (Secure Sockets Layer): A security feature that encrypts data between your website and its visitors, indicated by “https” in the URL. 
• Template: A pre-designed layout that you can use as a starting point for your website’s design. 
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The full address used to access a specific page on your website (e.g. https://www.yourcharity.org/about). 
• User Experience (UX): The overall experience a visitor has when interacting with your website, including ease of use and satisfaction. 
• Webmaster: A person responsible for maintaining a website, including updating content and ensuring it runs smoothly. 
• Wireframe: A basic visual guide used to suggest the layout and structure of a website before the actual design is created.