How to Make Your Web Site Work for You

1. How to Make Your Web Site Work for You Faith in Action Web Skills Development Series: September 2006

2. FIA Programs Want to Know How Do We Maximize the Impact of Our FIA Web Site?

3. Your Greatest Web Site Challenges Not enough time + Not enough money + Not enough in-house skills = Frustration

4. You Want to Know How To… • Pinpoint Web site goals, objectives, target audiences, desired outcomes • Identify content to include • Streamline Web site management

5. Expect These Supplementary Materials (via email) Key Questions—Web site planning • Defining overall goals, objectives, target audiences, desired actions • Sample responses from RWJF National Program Offices Writing for the Web— Guidelines

6. Today’s Learning Objectives • Understanding key components for planning an effective Web site • Developing a framework for building and maintaining your Web site • Defining roles and responsibilities required to manage your Web site

7. Web Site Process Overview Planning Building Managing

9. Assumptions • These elements should be in place before developing or revising your Web site • Communications Strategy • Logo/Brand/Graphic Identity • Defining Web site requirements quickly reveals the existence or lack of a communications strategy

10. Web Site Goals • How does your Web site fit with overall communications strategy? • How will the site contribute to overall communications goals? • What functions should your Web site provide? • Event registration • Donations • Volunteer sign-up • Send email

11. What are your requirements? • Site Goals and Objectives • What are the goals for the Web site? • Are the objectives measurable? • Target Audiences • Who does your Web site need to reach to meet your goals? • Desired Actions • What do your targets need to do (read, call, sign up, show up) so you meet your Web site goals?

12. Audience Definition • Define primary and secondary audiences to target • If using a phased approach to site development, ask: • -- Does the primary audience change over time? • -- Does way in which the primary audience uses the site change?

13. Develop Site Usage Scenarios • How will your target audiences use your Web site? • An elderly woman can no longer get herself to her weekly clinic visit. Her granddaughter researches options, finds your FIA program site, and calls your program the next day. • A local businesswoman, new to the area and interested in volunteering on a one-to-one basis, doesn’t know where to turn. She finds your site via a Google search and emails the volunteer contact for more information.

14. Home Page Example

15. Home Page Example (cont)

16. Consider How Web Readers Digest Content Online • Look for specific content • Little browsing • Don’t read sequentially • You don’t know where they are coming from—could be anywhere on the web • Or where they are going • Scan quickly

18. Example:

19. The Challenge • Developing a Web site that is easy and intuitive to use • Providing content that is relevant to target audiences • Writing to support usage patterns • Ensuring consistency of “look and feel” and tone with print, and other online, communications

20. Selecting and Organizing Content • What do your target audiences need to know to motivate them to desired actions? • These are the high-level content items • How should content be organized on the Web site? • Navigation (how a user moves around the site) • Home Page layout • Primary and secondary page layouts

21. Information Architecture • An online table of contents • What content is there • How it’s organized • Enables users to drill down to discrete subject areas • To quickly get what they need

22. Establish a Standardized Format • For each page • Only a guideline • Some variance is likely • Due to differences in content from page to page • Inverted pyramid scheme • Most important information comes first on each page

23. Writing for the Web • A web page should be 50% the length of a printed page, at most • Aim for 600-700 words • Each paragraph should • Feature one idea • Run no more than 50 words • Sentences should be short and simple

24. Effective Navigation

25. Likely Content Management System* “Contact us” form Illustrations, Photos Online donations Calendar of Events Volunteer discussion list E-news subscriptions *vital Maybe Blog Search Video/Audio files Surveys and polls File Downloads Which “functions” will be partof your Web site?

26. Staff overburdened?

27. Roles and Responsibilities • Writer • Editor • Production • Project Management • Site promotion

28. Next Step: Building the Site Planning Building Managing

29. Once Web Developer Is Engaged… • Minimize construction time by • Setting up a process for quick decisions and approvals • Requesting no more than 3 design comps from site development firm • Have content ready to go before it’s time add it to the site (based on the information architecture that was in your RFP)

30. Initial Web Site Launch • Keep functions to a minimum • Avoid getting caught up in design and layout tweaking

31. Content Development • Have majority of content written, edited and approved • Initial loading of content into website can be done by vendor. Preferably by staff. • On-going content creation

32. Web Site Operations Planning Building Managing

33. Definites Content creation/editing Promotion Maybes Discussion Board/Blog /List serv moderation Newsletter publishing Subscriber list management Ongoing Management

34. How much time ? • Initial review and site modifications, or major re-do • Four to six weeks assuming all roles are filled (Web Master, Web Editor and others) • Once in place • A few hours a week to monitor and maintain

35. How to Make Your Web Site Work for You • Phil Hagerty • Director, Web Support Center, RWJF • phagerty@rwjf.org