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!

Now wait a minute.. this blog is not about people like Heath Ledger dying…. Is it?

No, but his death mere hours ago in his New York apartment is lighting up the blogosphere, and although this is a very sad story of drug abuse and a life of excess leading to ultimate destruction, it is relevant here because it is a great example of the quick response of the bloggers.

The current top Technorati (a blog search engine) blog on the sites entertainment page was posted just two and a half hours after the actor was found by a masseuse who came for an apointment to the SoHo apartment.

This is incredible if we think closely about it. Before the nightly news, and long before the next newspapers will have printed it, and before some news websites had the news posted, a blogger had all the details online.

That blog is actually a part of the New York Times website. This is also very interesting when we consider the fact that many people who never would have visited the NY Times website will have read this blog. In fact without this blog being written and posted in the NY Times blog section they would have missed out on a lot of traffic and exposure.

The lesson we can take from this is that blog search engines like Technorati are looking for the most current and relevant information to dish out. In fact by writing this blog about Heath Ledgers passing (only because it is relevant at this moment) will probably drive more readers to this blog in the next 24-48 hours as his death is big news and the masses move to search for information about it.

This principle can always apply when writing current or up-to-date content. One blog article or website story can in fact produce volumes of website traffic if the article is current and relates to something people have a lot of interest in.

This article is also an extreme stretch. When I decided to write the article I needed to find something very current in the news, including Heath Ledgers name in the article only applies because any current news could in fact be used.

The best time to write new interesting and insider content is when it is likely to be news or highly interesting to the largest group of people. If you run an organization that feeds the hungry and you see a best selling author on world hunger doing an interview on the news, that moment is a great time to write on your blog about the author, or to post a review of his book on your site.

When your sector of society or industry makes news, you should be using it to your advantage!

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

By Aaron1.
Get listed in the Search Engines. This is maybe the most simple of the ideas in this article - but its a good place to start. Most websites receive over 80% of visitors from Google, Yahoo, and MSN. For that reason alone many of the strategies I will discuss relate directly to how to get in the top search results of the search engines. You cannot spend to much time or energy making sure you show up in the search engines. For starters check and see if your site is listed on google and yahoo. In the search bar type “site:yourdomainname.com”. What should appear is every page indexed by that search engine. If you do not show up, you do not exist in that search engine. If only a few of your hundreds of pages show up it means the search engine didn’t index all of your pages. We will get into why later.

2. Keyword Phrases are “Key.” Every time someone looks for something in a search engine they usually type in a word, or several words. We call this the “keyword phrase.” You need to figure out what keywords really work for your site, by knowing what people actually type into search engines to find the information or products you offer. This is too complex to explain here, but a good Search Engine Optimization company can tell you exactly what phrases you need to know.

3. Every Page Needs a Title. The title of your page is the first thing a search engine reads, its also what appears in many search engines. If you’re home page is titled “Home” it actually can show up as Home in the search engine results. Be specific with your page titles, and use your keyword phrases in them.

4. The first Heading on your page should read like the title of the top story of a newspaper. Make it big, bold, understandable, and most of all use your keyword phrases. This is the second stop on the search engines visit, and may also appear in the search result pages when people find you.

5. Heading’s are bigger than subheadings. This is not only common sense, but the search engines feel that your h1 heading tag is more relevant to the page content than your h2 heading tag. So make sure your code actually uses semantic XHTML (the code should describe the document contents). If you use your website title in big h1 on every page you are making a big mistake. Use your keyword phrase in your heading, and related words in your subheadings.

6. META its important. You have probably heard of a META tag before if you own a website. No its not a birth defect or a medical bracelet. Its a piece of code that is hidden in your website. Every single page of your site needs them. The first one it needs is a description tag. This tag tells the search engine what the page is about. The text you put here will often end up in the search results page as well.

7. Keywords in the META. You keywords also belong in the meta section. You should have a keyword tag with the relevant keyword phrases in every page of your site. Each one should represent the page its on. (hint: every keyword phrase in the tag should exist on the page itself) for an example of a keyword tag and a description tag see the following:

8. Make Your First Words Count. When you begin any web page article or text you should make sure that your keyword phrases are right in the first couple sentences, somewhere in the middle once or twice, and again at the end. You are trying to make sure the search engines know what the article is about, while still writing for people to read.

9. Anchors are Not Just for Ships! Anchor tags (xhtml tags that create a link between two documents or pages) are very important in telling search engines what a document is about. Search engines assume you will link to other pages and sites with relevant content. So make sure your links use keyword phrases, and are descriptive. Example of a good link: (Blue mountain bike maintenance) where the entire line is a link. Example of a bad link: (read about blue mountain bike maintenance here ). where the word “here” is the link, leaving out all the describing text.

10. Make Sure the Crawlers Can See Your Entire Site. When search engines “crawl” a website they can only read text. They can’t see images, video, or flash. So make sure your site has plenty of text, and VERY CRITICAL, make sure your links are in text somewhere. If you only link from one page to another in a flash movie, or using images the crawlers may not even try to take a look at the pages you link to. If you want to see what pages the search engines have index type “site:http://wwww.yourwebsite.com” into the search engine you want to check.

11. Map it! If you want to make sure google and yahoo get to take a look at all of your pages you need to create an XML sitemap. This is really a very simple process use the sitemap generator.

12. Send Your Sitemap. Google and Yahoo want to see your sitemap so they know what pages to index. Submit to google here, and submit to yahoo here.

13. Every Page for Itself. In the world of “search” - every page on every website in the universe is competing for the same search traffic. That means unless google and yahoo can figure out what your page is about you will often be left out in the cold on page 1,234 of the search results for your search keyword phrases. Make sure you remember its every page for itself, not every site for itself. Every page should be a complete thought. Every page should have specific keyword phrases associated for it in the META tags, content, headings, and links. If you always remember this you are a step ahead of the competition. (Are they really even competition if you show up as result number 4 on page one and they show up as result number 1 on page 64?)

14. Do Some Reading. If you want to get good at the search engine game read some authors who have had success with them.

15. Get Local. If you are a local business who needs local business (you don’t sell watches online to people in china) you should get local with the search engines. Local Search is somewhat new, but very important to local businesses. You need to poke around and make sure you are listed in google’s directory results for local search. You should also check on yahoo, yellowpages.com, and other local search websites. Make sure you show up the same way you expect to in the local phone book. In todays world many people don’t pick up a paper phone book very often when they have search at their fingertips on the work computer, on the cell phone, even on people’s tv’s.

16. Get Some Links. This is a double edged sword in internet marketing. Not only can a visitor click on a link from another site to find you, the search engines assume your website is more important the more links you have pointing to your site. So ask websites that are not your competition but still relevant to your business. Remember to ask them to use descriptive text when creating your anchor’s, even better yet email them the text you want them to use. (NOTE: you can offer to link back, but its not as great an idea when thinking about search rankings.)

17. Get Listed in Online Directories. Directories like Google’s are free to get listed in, and they can count as links! Not many people actually search directories these days, but they do produce some traffic, and the links are worth their weight in gold. (NOTE: Yahoo’s directory is a complete ripoff. Unless you have a million dollar web marketing budget just forget it and move on to the free listings like google.)

18. Write an Article… or 30. Writing articles people can use in newsletters, and on websites is a great way to earn some links, introduce yourself to some readers who might grow to like you. You should write short, concise, fun articles about a topic that relates to your organization. You can them list them in an article source directory for people to use for free. These are a great way to get links because you can write a three or four line bio at the bottom of the article and put a link to your website in it.

19. Start an Industry Blog. Blog’s are the communication tool of the future. I mean who really knows whats going on in an industry like the people working there? Skip past the PR pro’s and the spin doctors and read a blog. Better yet - start a blog! What do you know intimate personal, in-depth information about? If it relates to your business you should be blogging about it. People in your field of work, and people interested in your business will want to hear what you have to say. Blogs are also a great way to earn some links because people will start linking to your articles.

20. Are You Newsworthy? Here is a tip, when you submit a press release “over the wire” it ends up on computer screens all over the world. If what you have to say is truly newsworthy it could end up in publications like CNN, Fox News, USA Today, the local paper, or on blogs. If your organization does anything newsworthy you should let the world know. Not only is the news a great form of advertising, but its free. Make sure to include your web address on any and all press releases you send out.

21. Does Your Business Card Advertise Your Website? How about your office stationary? What about all your printed materials? You spend money on your printed materials so remember to make the most for your dollar and advertise your website URL on everything you can print it on. I have even visited a few websites I saw on the side of car doors.

22. URL on the Television. Many times companies forget they can advertise their website in other advertising. It gives people an immediate place to get more information or read further about your organization. So if you are going to be on the radio, TV, or even in the newspaper anytime soon remember to advertise your website URL.

23. Install Your Signature. Microsoft Outlook is like today’s mail room. But what is a good mail room without stationary to write your letters on? If you forget to put your key information in your emails via signature, you are missing out on free advertising. Put your name, position, organization, address, telephone number, fax number, email address, and URL in your signature. Its like having your business card in every email you send.

24. Give Something Away. A great way to drive some traffic to your website is by giving something away for free. As a nonprofit a great way of doing this is to get a local business to donate it. Offer the business advertising in return, and you shouldn’t have to much trouble finding a willing donor. Then advertise your giveaway on your email contact list, your mailers, in the newspaper, (NOTE: If it is for a cause it is newsworthy) and even on a sign out front.

25. Start an Internet Newsletter. One of the best forms of advertising I have had personal experience with is email advertising. If you develop a good list you can send out a newsletter and drive hundreds if not thousands of people to your website. At one point earlier in my career I corresponded with over 7 thousand people a week via email. I was having conversations with over three thousand of them via email using personalized form responses. If you do not have an email list you can send a newsletter to, you should start collecting addresses today. I know many clients who advertise almost exclusively through email newsletter. It just works.Stay “tuned” for Part 2 of ‘Website Marketing Strategies’ - we will discuss guest blogging, rented email lists, and more!

I recently entered a debate with a friend about how to drive traffic to websites.

My friend, who offers a free service where people can sign-up online, is running many high priced ads via radio, TV and billboards to drive traffic to the site.

Although expensive, at first this seemed like a great way to get some attention. But then I started thinking…Imagine your consumer driving in their car and seeing a billboard or hearing a radio spot. The ads are attractive, eye-catching and motivate your target audience to get online. But even with the right motivation, your imaginary consumer doesn’t exactly pull out their web browser fixated on the dashboard, do they?

As a professional web developer, I know that the average web surfer doesn’t usually remember web addresses for extended periods of time. If the person has to travel even five minutes further down the road they have significantly cut down their chances of remembering to write it down, let alone remembering the site address in the first place.… Now suppose they DO remember it and they DO write it down when they reach their destination. There is another abyss of time between the writing the name down, and actually typing it into a web browser. Not only do they have to remember to look up the website after what could be minutes or even hours, they have to still want to.

People who regularly get online are called web “surfers” for a reason. They don’t generally go to a specific site unless the link is glowing bright blue before their eyes.

What was appealing to the person in the ad at that moment is no longer in front of their face. That is unless they snapped a picture of the billboard with their zoom lens while they were driving. Thus it is obvious why a billboard will never drive people to a website. They are not only unlikely to be on a computer when they see it; they are guaranteed not to be!To explore radio even further: how many people actually listen to the radio while surfing the net? I will fill you in - it is not that many. In fact not that many people even listen to radio. It is a dying media (just ask the people who sell radio ads!).

Television actually has the same problem. Most people do not watch TV while surfing, but if they do have their laptop open, they are probably not paying attention to the commercial.

So how did I enlighten my friend that they had wasted thousands of dollars of their client’s money?

I simply told them Google rakes in almost 4 billion dollars each year from internet ads, with most of that money coming from big companies like Pepsi, Disney, and eBay. The internet advertising age has arrived. We know this because today over 9 billion dollars are spent on Internet advertising. That is more than radio, magazines, and billboards; it is more than just about anything.

When a company like Disney spends multiple millions of dollars paying people to “Search Engine Optimize” their network of websites, it really says something.

When you advertise your website on other websites, you give someone an opportunity to see your site at that exact moment. If they came from a search engine it is at the exact time they wanted your information.

So tell me what form of advertising can accomplish all of that?