I ran a charity website (and indeed whole digital department) for six years (for War Child). I had come from a communications background (at Comic Relief) and was reasonably IT literate, but had never been solely responsible for a charity’s website before. In the years since I have worked with, and spoken to, dozens of […]
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Charity web design – should you copy what other charities are doing?
In a recent blog post I had a look at the top 100 charity websites and the common features that many of them share. Why is it that the charity sector is so diverse, yet our websites tend to look so similar? ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal’ It’s not clear whether Picasso ever actually […]
Analysing the Best Charity Websites 2018 – a look at the top 100 UK charity sites
When thinking about (re)designing your charity website it’s natural to have a look at what other charities have done in order to spark some ideas and inspiration. And in particular it’s useful to see how the big boys do it – the charities with all the money and in-house marketing teams who can afford to […]
Website Bootcamp – 5 Exercises to Shape up your Small Charity’s Website
Enlist now if this is you: You’re a small charity that wants more donors, fundraisers etc? You’re finding it hard to compete with big rivals with big pockets? You have a website but people don’t seem to really engage with it? First up – the shouty sergeant major with some harsh words of truth […]
Custom digital dashboards to measure your charity’s online presence and drive action
I talked in a previous blog about identifying the purpose(s) of your charity website and ways of measuring its success. Today let’s build upon that with a practical tool to help you do just that. Google Analytics = Information overload Google Analytics is a brilliant, free tool. But most website owners rarely make use of […]
Charity Website SEO: What, Why and How to get your charity site found on Google
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a bit like the government’s Brexit policy – everyone knows it is important, but most of us are a little unsure as to exactly what it is. Although other search engines exist, we’ll refer primarily to Google as that’s the most important one. SEO is ultimately about getting your site’s […]
What’s the point of your charity website? How can you tell if it’s any good?
On the one hand, it’s obvious. It’s 2017, you have to have a website. Because everyone’s got one. On the other hand, have you ever stopped to think about what the purpose of it is, and how you measure its success? For an ecommerce or business site that’s easy to answer as those organisations have […]
Tips for creating charity website content
‘Content is King’ That’s one of the most well-known digital maxims. Your website’s content is arguably more important than the graphic design or the functionality of it. Yet it’s almost always the most overlooked aspect of the website development process. It’s fun to pick designs, colours and fonts and all the nice-looking aesthetics, but filling […]
WordPress Default CPT Archives vs Using a Page as a Parent of Custom Post Types
In this post for WordPress tecchies I’ll tackle a subject that crops up a fair bit in building sites for clients – whether to use the default archive functionality or to create a static ‘Page’ and use that as the parent for single Custom Post Type (CPT) posts. There’s no right or wrong answer but […]
Copywriting tip: Hoover up the fluff text on your charity website
Cut to the chase. That’s the message of this blog post. For me, one of the biggest differences between a good charity website and a mediocre one is the amount of ‘fluff’ text that’s spread throughout the site. Fluff text is words that don’t really need to be there. It’s the sentences that are taking up […]