Nonprofit Expressions

About Website Report Cards: Our report cards are for website owners who want to improve their sites. We look at websites and formulate our report cards by evaluating four main criteria: first impressions, usability, search engine optimization and technical standards.

Website: CrossroadsChristianRehab.com

1. First Impressions
Immediately after coming to this site I know that the site host and builder is Godaddy. Having experience with Godaddy ourselves, we know that by purchasing your domain name with them that you get free hosting as well. The site is obviously built with a website-tonight, what you see is what you get type of editor.

This is what we like to call an “online business card.”

While there is nothing wrong with having a website hosted by Godaddy, these types of websites do not get found by search engines and therefore only get site traffic through word of mouth communication and other forms of print advertising.

Questions that would immediately go through my mind as a web surfer or future donor are, “How much does this site matter to the organization? Is this nonprofit just getting started, or are have they been around for a while? Is this a professional organization?” It really comes down to trust. A website is one meter in which people can evaluate - for themselves - how much an organization is worth.

As a web design and PR company we would ask, “How is this website - if at all - meeting your brick and mortar goals?” If the answer is that its not, then it can become worse than a waste of money… it can be a hindrance to future donors or partners.

Pleasing to the eye: C

Proximity: B

Alignment: Irrelevant

Repetition: Irrelevant

Contrast: C

Reflection of branding and purpose: D

GRADE: C
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2. Usability
The usability is extremely simple. The main menu stays consistent and is conventional with modern website formats. Every page is functional, some which are more appealing than others, but has no broken links or missing information.

This simplicity is one huge benefit of having a “what you see is what you get” editor for your website when your funds are low. One deterrent, however, is the constant Godaddy ad on the top of the page. While this may irritate users, it also creates a way for them to leave your site. Once clicking on the ads, the browser automatically takes you away from the site and to the Godaddy landing page.

While the purpose of the site is clearly explained in the first paragraph of the homepage, a better place for this to appear is right underneath the name of Crossroads. You may want to replace the quote underneath the name with a quick mission or vision statement.

Another problem the site probably has encountered is its inability to collect consumer data. When you don’t know who is looking at your site or offer a method to collect such data, you lose many potential donors and what we like to call “warm leads.” Although you offer a clear way to contact Crossroads, this confines the user to sending an email or making a phone call rather than submitting their information.

User’s ability to understand, comprehend and interact with the website: A

User’s frustration or anxiety associated with the website: C

User’s ability to find the site’s main purpose upon first glance: C

Consistent Navigation: A +

Easy Navigation: A +

Navigation visibility: A +

Website accomplishes functional goals: C

Use of applications: C

Newsletter Signup: F

GRADE: C

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3. Search Engine Optimization
The site only has two pages indexed in google. The pages are constructed well with lots of text, which will actually help search engine results. The site however has no valuable links pointing toward it, this is hindering search engine traffic. Since half of the information on the page is Godaddy adds, which also hurts search ranking.

A couple quick things that would help search ranking for this site are a blog to post new content on a regular basis, and keyword research. The site has no page rank information which shows its lack of incoming links. This site could be fixed for search engines rather easily.

Title tags: C (they exist but without researched keywords)

Meta tags: C (they exist but with single word keyword phrases)

Clean URLs: A

Semantic information design: A

Descriptive anchor tags: C

Google’s Page Rank: F

GRADE: C

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4. Technical Standards
The first thing I noticed is that the code is not hand written because the only comments are program generated. The site uses a table based layout, which is an old way of laying out pages, and not preferred. Other than this the site does not use any current web technologies.

Doc type declaration: A

HTML or XHTML standards compliant: F (the site has over 20 validation errors. Thats one error every two lines of code)

CSS standards compliant: A

Accessibility standards compliant: A

Well formed code: D

GRADE: C

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FINAL GRADE: Room for a Re-Design
For a free report card on your website, please contact info@nonprofit-expressions.com

Ten questions to ask your website designer before you sign a contract! These questions should help your organization better assess your web designer’s experience, professionalism, and expertise.

1. Are you familiar with web standards?
This question is very important to ask because the web publishing industry is moving in this direction. If you find a designer who is unaware of web standards - or feels they are unimportant - the designer is likely to be an amature.

The correct response should be something along the lines of: “Yes, I code valid XHTML and CSS.” They might also ask you if you are talking about accessibility. If they can code pages that are accessible it shows their understanding of the web standards movement.

2. Do you charge all or part of your fees before the project is finished?
This is essential for you to know. The reality is that most web agencies and freelancers will charge part of the project as a retainer fee before the project even gets started. This is because a lot of work goes into the project before the first image is created in photoshop or a single line of code is written. You can think of this like the retainer you pay a lawyer to look into your case.

It is not professional however to charge 100% of the project costs upfront. The better agencies and designers are likely to charge two or three equal amounts as the project progresses, the last payment landing just after the project finish. Never the less, it is always good to know what a designer’s terms are before you get to involved in the project. (NOTE: a good designer will not likely know what he is going to charge until he or she fully understands your project, so you should give the designer as much information as possible before you ask this question).

3. Do you have another client who would would be willing to talk to me?
A good agency or freelancer should have more than one client who is pleased with their work. They should offer up an email address, or telephone number with the name of a person you can contact who will give them a good reference. This is key, because people in business are bound to get in disagreements and make someone angry. However, if they are a professional this should not be the majority of their clients. A designer who cannot offer you a good reference is someone you should steer clear of.

4. How often do you visit search engine optimization blogs and podcasts?
When it came to writing this question it took some planning. This is because every web designer in the world will say they are aware of search engines and that your site will rank well if you go with them. This is usually a flat out lie. The truth is that if a designer or developer does not frequently update their search information they are not savvy on what will work on the search engines this month or even this week. I once watched an organization spend upwards of 100k on a website that was built in such a way the search engines didn’t even list its pages. The developers of course said “we are going to build your website to work well in the search engines.” A good designer that is aware of search engine strategy will know what current standards are out there in the SEO community, and will know how capable he is at getting you ranked in the top search results. For instance in my company I am quite savvy when it comes to search engines, but even I will bring in another expert who does nothing but search engines if I feel the project needs it.

If the designer responds to this question with never, or sometimes, or changes the subject, you should immediately know to drop them and keep on searching for an honest one. The answer they should give would be “every week” or “I have my own search expert I deal with” or “I am not a search expert but I am very up to date on search strategies and can connect you with an expert as a part of the process.”

5. Will I be able to edit any of the content myself?
The answer in today’s world should always be “yes.” In fact, if you cannot update any of the content, or the designer cannot make that an easy thing for you to do, move on and find another designer.Solutions for this might include: “Yes with a content management system,” “Yes with dynamic forms,” or “Yes with a Adobe Contribute solution.”

6. How often do you use HTML tables to layout pages?
This question will help you know how up-to-date your designer/developer is. The answer should always be “Never.” Or something like: “Five years ago I did all the time, but today I use CSS for layout.”

The web underwent a major change in the way pages are created. Average people may not have noticed, but every web designer worth a penny knows that CSS is for layout and style, and XHTML is for describing content in a semantic way.

7. Do you use pre-purchased templates?
Now this is not always a bad thing. For a project that needs to be finished yesterday a template you purchase from a site like templatemonster is not a bad idea. However, when the agency or freelancer answers yes to this question, you should in turn ask: “Do you re-code the templates from scratch?” Because the code those templates deliver is often very, very, very bad. No designer worth paying should use one without some adjustments if not a complete re-creation of the design with all new code. You might as well design it yourself!

8. Do you use a shared hosting account, a Virtual Private Server, or a Dedicated Server to host websites?
This should tell you about the professionalism of the designer or developer. Many good designers use virtual private servers, many have their own that they re-sell. This is acceptable for small business and average church websites. At some point in the career of the designer the upgrade to a dedicated hosting platform should be made. This is not a make or break question because they may ask you what your preference is. But I will say that a dedicated server allows the development of applications in the back end much easier, and is usually the sign of a pro.

9. How long have you been in the business of building websites?
Now this seems like a no-brainer, and for the most part it is. Someone who has been in the industry for a long time is going to deliver a better product (one would hope) than someone who is just out of design school with no practical experience. Keep in mind that age doesn’t always mean more experience or expertise.

10. How can I advertise my website to make it a success when it launches?
Many designers fresh out of design school can create fresh appealing looks for a website, and many talented high school students can create very complex applications, but it takes experience to understand how the marketing and advertising will make a website actually work as a business.

Make sure no matter how they answer this question, that you are satisfied with the answer… which actually goes for all of the questions.

Your money may be spent better with someone you trust that can communicate value to you.

Good luck, and happy building!

Here is a simple definition of web 2.0 that I found surfing the blogosphere earlier today:

Defining Web 2.0 at three different levels

The mass hysteria of blogging has left many of us asking “what am I supposed to do with this thing”? Blogs are a new concept in society, but with thousands of them popping up daily learning how to use them has become considered almost a requirement for today’s website owners.

One way to improve the quality and interactivity of your blog is to add widgets. If you don’t know what a widget is you are bound to hear the term sooner or later. If you have ever really dug into the settings in your wordpress, typepad, or movable type installation you have seen at least something about them.

Think of widgets like blog gadgets, or mini applications that tie into all kinds of websites. Facebook.com for instance is full of widgets. If you have a blockbuster.com account it will tell your facebook widget what movies you want to rent and then show them to all your facebook.com friends (scary, I know!). There is even a facebook widget to take a small picture of your website and put it on your facebook page to show it off to your friends.

Widgets connect a website service to another location.

The newest widget I decided to add to this blog is BlogRush. Blog Rush is a website that offers a service to help drive traffic to your blog. You put the sleek little widget on your blog and it shows headlines from blogs with similar content to your visitors. Meanwhile the same thing is happening all over the web and your blog is getting shown all over the blogosphere.

Where to find Widgets?
You can find them all over, but a great place to look is on the website for your blogging engine. The wordpress plugin directory, or the movable type plugins are a great place to start.

In the next post we will discuss adding extras to your blog, plugins, plugins…. plugins.

Website Report Cards
(for website owners)

Have you ever gone to a website and said “I wish my website looked like this!”

What is it about a website that either draws you in, or makes want to click the “back” button? There are no black and white rules of web design. Everyone has a different opinion on style, a different method of navigating, and a different level of web experience.

But the fact is that there is some criteria that the majority of the World Wide Web can agree makes a website “bad” or “good.”

In our experience doing website re-designs (taking an old site and making it better) it is important that you (as a website owner) know what to look for in your website, and know what to ask your web designer! We have decided that a report card method would be the most helpful.

How we decided on the criteria:

1. First Impressions
Is the website pleasing the the eye? While this is the most subjective of the four criteria, based on our own experience and expertise, there IS such a thing as bad design,

In design school they teach us that there are four basic principals of good design. They include: proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast.

Another question to ask is: Do the colors and images reflect the organization’s branding and purpose?

2. Usability
In grading usability, we follow the concepts set out by people like Steve Krug (web usability consultant whose clients include Apple, AOL, Netscape and many others). Usability is the visitor’s ability to understand, comprehend and interact with the website without frustration or anxiety.

Can you tell what the site’s main purpose is upon first glances? Most websites only have 3 seconds to introduce themselves to a visitor before they click the “back” button.

Is the navigation consistent, easy to understand and highly visible? Is the information flow in such a way that you can find what you are looking for without having to think about it? Does the website accomplish its goal in a functional way? Do the applications work? Is there a newsletter, and is it easy to sign up for?

3. Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing the amount of traffic a website gets from search engines by using targeted key words.

Does the site have title tags, meta tags, and clean URLs? Does it have semantic information design (such as an h2 tag following an h1 tag)? Does it have descriptive anchor tags?

Although there are only a handful of questions here, SEO is actually a very complex topic that we could talk about for hours. These, however, are the criteria that we are placing in our report cards.

4. Technical Standards
The technical standards are not subjective criteria. These are critical elements used by software engineers in the technical community even beyond the scope of web design.

Does the website have doc type declaration? Is it HTML or XHTML standards compliant? CSS standards compliant? Accessibility standards compliant?

And last, does it have well formed code?
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Now that you understanding our criteria, let me explain our grading methods. First, each of the four criteria will be a separate grade in of itself - like a report card from grade school! Each subject gets its own grade.

Second, we will give the website a pass or failing overall grade. This will tell you if it is still stuck in kindergarten, or has graduated to go to college! (Is it stuck in code from the 90s, or is it up to Web 2.0 standards).

So stay tuned for our Website Report Cards. Our first grade will be given to NewChurches.com.

For a free report card on your website, please contact info@nonprofit-expressions.com

Putting Your Money Where Your Eyes Are

Unlike traditional “donate” buttons, World Vision does not include a long list of where your money might go after you give. Instead, using a picture-filled online gift catalog, you can donate something specific that tugs at your heart.

And your options are definitely outside the box. For $16 you can donate two soccer balls or basketballs. With $50 you can donate four chickens to a family who can eat and sell the eggs. $70 provides a child with the supplies and uniform to attend school.

For $360 an alpaca will make itself at home with a family who can use the wool of the animal. With a gift of $2000 you can give farmyard animals which include two each of cows, goats, pigs and sheep, plus 20 chickens. $22,000 can be donated towards a new or renovated school.

If you want to make a significant difference but $22,000 is out of your budget, consider the option of donating item “shares.” Your gift combines with other shares to purchase a large and needed item, such as a deep well for a community. Among the portions available for purchase are shares of homes, pigs, prosthetic limbs, and eye surgery.

Another feature World Vision has set up is multiplying gifts. In addition to livestock that reproduce, individuals can give a certain amount, perhaps $100, which is “matched” by other corporations and organizations so that the value of the gift is potentially as high as $1300.

World Vision also has a solution for the problem of shopping for the person on your Christmas list who has “everything.” Donate a gift from the catalog in someone’s name! Your friend or family member will receive a card saying exactly what you gave to a needy child, family or community.

See World Vision’s unique donation system for yourself.