When is it time to refresh your website?

The question any organization should ask themselves is: What is the role of our website now?  Social networking technologies have changed the rules for how websites engage members, constituents, clients, affiliates & prospective members.  Websites are now the core of the information & communication for all members.

When organizations want to refresh their non profit website, their results suffer unless they fully appreciate how the world has changed.  Since most organizations refresh every five years, it is likely that the context has completely changed.  Below are key best practices for website design for non profits in the context of today's trends & expectations.

Your website content is more important than you think
What will the content on your newly redesigned website look like? Will you bring most of the content over from your previous site? Will it still be relevant? Is your content keyword optimized for SEO? These are all important questions to consider. Many executive directors and CEOs that we’ve worked with think their current content is “good enough” to bring over to their newly redesigned site. Unfortunately, many times a website not only needs a new look and feel but a complete content overhaul. Consider working with an experienced copywriter to make sure your content is right for your new website.

Develop a social networking strategy
Most organizations are keen on having social media links on their updated website. Certainly, it’s important to consider social media and inbound marketing in your web redesign. But don’t just do it because all the cool kids are doing it. Make sure you have an overall social media strategy in place, or at least an organized approach to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. You would never put out an event or service that you had no intention of supporting. If you won’t be monitoring or engaging with potential customers on social networking sites, or don’t think you have the time to do that, hire someone that will, or wait till you have a strategy in place to promote your social media presence.

Identify who's your target audience
Develop a firm understanding of who your target audience is by identifying the top 3 profiles of who your current members are. Your design should be built with them in mind. What's their habits? what other websites are they most likely to visit? are they tech savvy? The biggest mistake an organization can make is to be too generic, trying to include all. It's funny how it works, but when you try to include all, you end up including no-one, but when you target a very specific demographic, then you end up attracting a lot more, it never fails. 

Identify what your members come to your website for
Note that it's not what do "YOU" think they should be coming for. It's important to understand this and website traffic analytics should tell you that very clearly: what pages do they spend the most time on, then reflect on whether or not it's consistent with your goals. Remember, stats & numbers don't lie, it is what it is. Your design should provide what your web visitors come for, first and foremost, then use strategic areas on your pages to communicate what's important to the organization. Read "Why do you have a website anyway?"

It’s easy to get excited about a new look and feel for your website, but don’t forget how important those key factors are to go along with your fresh look and feel.