How to Manage Your Website What Your Website Should Give In Return
Stephen Wilcox Ph.D. During my 30-year career I have served as technical executive and in a variety of engineering and engineering management positions. I hold a Ph.D. in Digital Signal Processing and a First Class Honers Degree in Engineering from University of Keele, England. I moved to the USA in 1995 to work with Kansas based Brite Voice Systems as Director of Engineering where we delivered some of the first prepaid cellular systems and voice dialing applications I then joined Intel in 1999 as a senior architect to help steer them into the Telecommunications markets. From my professional career in high technology I bring my deep understanding of the evolving Web 2.0 multimedia phenomenon. This has enabled me to quickly become established as a interactive website developer. I also bring my seasoned experience as an executive manager which gave me experience and skills at technical management. I speak authoritatively about website design, marketing and creating multimedia presentations. MHP Multimedia is now my full time business and I have used my experience and contacts in the industry to build a strong team of seasoned experts capable and looking for the next challenge. Visit www.mhpmm.com
Lord William Thomson Kelvin (1824 1907) Quotes "The more you understand what is wrong with a figure, the more valuable that figure becomes." "If you can not measure it, you can not improve it. "Radio has no future."
Why Have a Website? It is 2015 in America and EVERYBODY is web connected! Your Website Helps Build Reputation, credibility and Trust with potential Clients. Interact with your Customers and Clients Portray a Progressive and Contemporary Image Educate Prospective Customers and Clients Benefits to You Save Time and Money. Keep Everybody Up to Date Open doors to new opportunities Easy way of Customers contacting you
Questions? Who has re-designed their website in the last two years? Who believes their website is working for them? Who is seriously considering updating their website Who thinks they need to make more use of their website?
Website Design Check List Is your Domain Name appropriate? Not too long and clearly Your Organization Do you pass the 10 second test for a new visitor? Obvious who you are, what you provide and where you are. Or why someone would stay? Are the commonly asked questions clear and easy to find? Are the Images real or do they look stock? Is it simple to Donate and is it to a specific cause? Do you capture e-mails or invite visitors to join you? Is the site personal, are your people featured? Do you have key stories about your services and successes? Can you contact staff simply and quickly? Are Your Google Keywords on Target?
Your 2015 Website Must Have s You must be able to make updates and control its content without difficulty or need for web designers or coding experts. Your website should work on all the current devices and screen sizes and be as effective on a mobile as a desktop. Everything on your website must be up to date and consistent with all your other material.
Use a CMS Tool Basically a CMS system will let you make changes to the website almost as simply as sending an e-mail. But absolutely easier than creating a PDF or flyer. Content Management Systems (CMS) A fancy term for a platform that lets you manage the content of a website without worrying about how the website is built, formatting content for the various devices and how the most recent stuff gets to the front. There are lot s of Free websites available and these are CMS systems Top Ten Ratings There are some great Open Source Solutions
Essential to be Responsive Responsive Website adapt the content and format to optimize use of the screen size of the visitor. Best solution for Mobile devices because of the complex range of size and style of current devices. Eliminates the need for a separate mobile website Absolutely the mainstream today.
Responsive Affiliate Website Example http://addictionservicescouncil.org/
The Five Basic Website Requirements 1. Usability Customers come to your website for specific reasons. Do you know what they are and how well you perform? 2. Visuals People do not read they scan, mainly left to right then down Need eye catching clear messages and calls to action 3. Clarity Don t make visitors think too much, simple and clear works best 4. Trust Be sure you cannot be considered a fake site Be sure to deliver what you state on your homepage/navigation 5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Google is your friend, invite them in.
Usability If visitors cannot get what they want in an obvious efficient way or they cannot get the stuff they need done, even if you all think it looks great, is it doing a good job? How do you know? Navigation must be consistent and clear, same way on all pages and obvious what is a link, a button and how to use the menu. Remember Customers come to your Website to carry out specific tasks. Do you know what these tasks are?
Visuals Aim for a consistent look and feel which is true to your brand and logo. Ensure appropriate professional look No clip art or popular stock images It takes about 50 milliseconds (that s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they ll stay or leave. You need a key image to grab that short attention. Text will not work, no headline will register in 0.05s
Clarity Your Website is Driven by Content Avoid complex text, always talk about what you show Make key points at least three different ways Different Text, Different Images, Different Navigation Is your site being updated regularly? Weekly, Monthly, or Occasionally Weekly is the minimum, less than monthly Google will see you as stale and static, this translates to no new traffic. Old information or Past Events rob credibility. Responsive Mobile Aware Sites force Blocks of Content Create these blocks to be self-sufficient and clear Order these Blocks to make a story, Create different paths to important calls for action
Trust Fake or Spam Donations Commercial Support Websites are common NCADD Is independent and Nationally supported Make that obvious Be clear and open about you non for profit status and recent filings Ensure your location is clear and include a photograph with the sign because this identifies you with a physical place Make it easy to contact you and feature your staff again to make you real Include links to trusted placers like local news or state listings, again makes it clear you are real Deliver on what you claim If you claim something be sure you back it up
Search Engine Optimization - SEO A really Hot Topic and subject of many Scam s Google is big, powerful and cleaver Respect Google Many people claim to be able to manipulate Google and get you to the top of searches quickly Do Not respect Them What SEO mans to you: Bots (computer controlled visitors) will visit your site often, they will index all they find and draw conclusions from what they find. Based on their findings the search engines will rank you against similar sites The higher you rank, the more likely people will find you. SEO means helping those Bots come to the correct conclusions and to rate you favorably.
Basic SEO Advice (In order of what helps the most) 1. You must post new stuff to your website at least Monthly 2. Establish some key words and use them whenever possible but do not over use them! 3. Be sure you are listed in Google Plus/Google Plus-Local 4. Create unique, accurate page titles 5. Offer quality content and services 6. Meta Data (hidden tags where you say what the site and pages are about) is less important now because people lied!
Website Low Hanging Fruit There are some common issues all Affiliates seem to have Management of Events and how they get reported on the Website Merging the old way and new way regarding Newsletters Asking for Donations without due cause Ways you an get more out of your website At No Cost
An Event Lifecycle The Problem A few weeks before an important event you send your web person a PDF flyer about the event and say put this on the website The Solution Bring your website into the Event Planning process and make it the focus of the messages. Your Website should be the most up to date medium in the organization even you and your staff should go to it for information.
Early Event Planning Save the Date Create a simple promo banner with the event title and its date. Blog and Share that date announcement as much as possible and include the words/link check our website for the latest details " If you are running this event a second time you will have all the feedback, blogs and pictures/video of the last event. You can link this to the save the date and blogs to remind people how good the event is You can share this information with potential sponsors so they can see how their investment will be perceived Smart organizations include pictures with the sponsors logo in the background.
During the Event Planning Process Blog often as things get finalized Announce Sponsors or event details as they happen Update the Save the Date Promo several times Create an Event Details Page Include all the details, make this a living version of that PDF flyer you always made. When fairly final include a downloadable PDF for visitors to print and post in their workplace/clubs Make the event PDF/Flyer contain a link to the website for more information
During the Event Be sure to get photos, pictures and video of the event taking place Get these out on blogs the same day, tell key people you might have interviewed/photographed to see it on your website. Be sure you get any Sponsors captured either in person or with their logo somehow in the picture. If that is not possible be sure to mention them in the blogs. Be clear who s job it is to post that same day and do not get distracted from this. The first blog does not need to be long. Make sure that the event page is changed the same day so the out of date event details get replaced
After the Event Complete the Event page update to be a complete record of the event Do this with next years event in mind so it becomes and advertisement Ensure any Sponsors get good recognition about their contribution This helps them contribute again in the future This helps attract new sponsors because they can see the value Past Events make good Blog Topics Always OK to reference some past event in a blog particularly during slow times of the year.
Websites and Newsletters The Problem Many Newsletters have the most up to date copy and information and this never gets translated to the website. PDF is a lousy web format, so no download our Newsletter The Solution Ensure everything that would be in a Newsletter is put on the Website first throughout the publication cycle. Then create the Newsletter from stuff on the website, make it a teaser for many of the articles already on the website. Include the full versions as links from the newsletter.
Case Study Affiliate had five newsletters and spend significant time creating them each month. They also had one Blog which went out weekly but was not part of their main site. They now have one main Blog with all the information together but also split them out into the separate sections on the website. The newsletters are now produced by taking content from the website They plan in the future to simplify the e-mail newsletters and get them to link to the main website for the full stories.
Newsletters The Way Ahead Re direct the efforts creating newsletters or other PDF fact sheets/information into a blog on the website. Use the website as a source of material to create mailings and other e-mail/written communications. Once Set Up adding a blog to the website is no more difficult than sending an e-mail
Donations The Problem A Donate Now Button on a website does not seem to bring in much revenue? The Solution Make the reason for Donations real Ask for Donations when people are feeling good about themselves and your organization
Donations, couple of examples Your Event raised money, but not quite all you needed. Post that fact in a positive way by the story about the event and blog in a positive way about it. Ask for a small donation to help close the shortfall Run a Campaign for a specific thing at a defined cost. Blog about progress and show how the target is being reached. Have the option to list sponsors and causes on your website In memorial, Celebrations some people will use them
Checklist List of basic things all web owners should know and maintain. Domain Name Hosting and e-mail Google Social Media
Domain Name (www.yoursitename.org) The Domain Name is like your Phone Number, it is how to get to your website. Also know as the site URL, the www is now optional often written as http://yourwebsitename.org The URL/Domain Name is independent of who supports the website or where the website is hosted. Do you know who owns your Domain Name? Which Company hosts your Domain and can you be sure it is renewed and you have access? Should be registered to the organization and the admin email a company e-mail account The Domain is the key to your website and most important
Website Hosting & E-mail Accounts Domain Hosting, Website Hosting and E-Mail Provider DO NOT need to be with the same company. Do you know who provides these services and do you have access? Many companies (like Microsoft) offer deep discounts for non-for-profit Your e-mail should be name@yoursitename.org and not Google or other mail provider. Important detail for building credibility and trust Web Hosting Company should offer protection and quality of service Protection against hacking and spam but also backup and recovery Do you know how to use this service if you have an attack?
Google Plus Why Take Google Plus Seriously? Google+ (or Google Plus) is a social networking and identity service that is owned and operated by Google Inc. Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" that enhances many of its online properties, and that it is not simply a social networking website, but also an authorship tool that associates web-content directly with its owner/author. According to Business Insider and Tasty Placement, having "Google+ followers boosts the [Google search] ranking the most, a "+1" still does way more for your search ranking than Facebook or Twitter. I am finding the Google Plus results are winning over website URL s for many businesses with small or inactive websites. Google seems to have reasons to trust Google Plus information so favors it.
Case Study Affiliate had no active Google Plus so we claimed it on Feb 1 st Already had over 8k visitors We expect this to grow significantly as we add more content and posts. We did nothing other than claim it and got 8k visitors ion a month Claim your Google Plus [1] Search on Google for your name and Google Plus, i.e ncadd.org Google Plus [2] Find your organizations page, likely to be there because Google creates them automatically. [3] Start the process of claiming it
Google Analytics Using Google Analytics is a MUST HAVE It is Free, can be trusted and gives you the tools to see how well your website is working. How many Real Visitors Where they come from Where your Visitors Go How Long They Stay To use Google Analytics you must embed some code into your website. You get this code by registering for Analytics and them must use someone to add that code to your website. Often requires a webmaster/ administrator
Sample Analytics Report - Overview
Sample Analytics Report - Sources
Sample Analytics Report - Behavior
The NCADD National Website The NCADD National Site is a big site which rates well gets a lot of attention from Google and typically gets 8-9K visitors a day. Over 200k real visitors a month More that 50% (4k visitors a day) take a quiz about addiction Around 5k visitors a month go on to look for affiliates websites We post around 30 articles a month, many to the News Section We are a source of News with the Addiction Update and Medical Reports
Live Website A Great Website But three years old Has many of the issues we covered Not Responsive I don t think it passes the 10s test Multiple types of navigation Complex Layout, difficult to find things Find an Affiliate is less than ideal Password Protected Affiliate Area did not catch on.
RSS Feed of News and Addiction Medicine Automatic sharing of articles, not links Has positive effect on SEO Keeps the site updated with weekly changes Good Source of Information Free service from National
We are Getting a New Website Latest design and technology Currently like 60% done Designed for Mobile & Touch
New Geo Affiliate Search Has GEO Search which automatically find local Affiliates from current location. Lists and shows location of nearest Affiliates Can also show other resources
New Affiliate Landing Pages Unique URL for each Affiliate Ncadd.org/yourname Customizable Images and Content Add text, images or buttons Supports videos or other animations Under your Local Control Just like a FB page Can even take a blog through RSS feed letting you automatically post back to the National Site
The End So do we value our website more? Can we see how we might measure it? Our Questions? Who believes their website is working for them? Who is seriously considering updating their website Who thinks they need to make more use of their website? All Material and this presentation available on line. Contact me for a free assessment of your website Steve at mhpmm.com 973 500 0245