Welcome to the world of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is how webpages earn top spots for user queries—and your small business can use it to connect with the right customers. In this post, we’ll hone in on local SEO for small businesses, and why this is still an effective channel for your small business’s digital marketing in an AI-dominated digital world.

What is SEO?

Research shows that almost turn to Google to research before making a purchase. That’s a huge segment of the overall market. Your customers are searching for you, and SEO is how you make sure you show up for them.

There are a lot of factors that go into how Google awards websites with top ranking spots on a search engine results page (SERP), which is the page you land on after you enter a search query. Google has stated that it prioritizes “helpful, reliable, people-first content” and outlined the EEAT acronym as a guideline, which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

The EEAT guidelines are good to keep in mind when creating any content for your website, including locally focused pages that highlight your business as a top provider in your community. Targeting geographically-specific keywords is known as local SEO. This tends to be a better strategy for small businesses, rather than pursuing highly competitive, national keywords.

For instance, if you run a , a target local keyword might be “massages near me.” When people search for that term, or any other, the top three search results capture of clicks through to their websites. Your goal is to rank in the top three, or even five, search results to capture users looking for your goods and services.

To help you do that, we’ll walk through three areas of SEO that you can apply to your business’s website: technical SEO, organic search, and conversion optimization.

Technical SEO

The first step in implementing an SEO strategy is to prepare your website. In addition to aesthetic design choices, it’s important to incorporate technical SEO into your web design process. Technical SEO basically means making it easy for Google and other search engines to find your website and connect it with the keywords you want to rank for. It’s also about making your website user-friendly and easy for users to navigate.

Your should provide the technical infrastructure you need for success. Continuing with our earlier example, a massage therapist might need the following features from their website to support operations:

• Service menu
• Gift certificates and membership packages
• Online booking
• Reviews and testimonials

Look for a website builder that allows you to add these features to your site. The platform you choose should also offer mobile-friendly and fast-loading websites. In particular, page load speed is one of the most important factors in technical SEO, and improving it is one of the best ways to signal to Google that your site should rank higher.

For existing websites, here are a few spot checks you can do to support your site’s technical SEO:

1. Check that your webpages are indexing.

Indexing means Google has found your pages, which is how it begins to rank them. Uploading a site map can help Google navigate how your pages relate to each other and find all of the content you’ve worked so hard to create. You can also use the URL inspection tool in Google Search Console to confirm this and submit pages manually for indexing by selecting “Request Indexing.” Google may naturally index your page, but it’s a best practice to go ahead and submit any new pages you publish for indexing manually.

2. Fix any broken links.

When potential customers click on a link to your website, you want them to find what they’re looking for. If customers click a URL and encounter an error page, it can lead to frustration and loss of revenue for your business.

From Google’s perspective, broken links also disrupt signals and undermine how much Google trusts your site. The good news is that you can fix broken links. First, run a report in Search Console identifying broken links (marked with code 404), then use a 301 redirect to link to the correct, live URL.

It’s also important to manually review the links in your published content to ensure that you are sending users to the right page.

3. Ensure web accessibility.

Web accessibility is the practice of ensuring that all users can navigate your site and access its content. This is a perfect example of how user experience aligns with Google’s priorities for high-ranking sites. s accessibility report is a great starting point for specific pages.

General best practices include providing text alternatives (like scripts for audio recordings and videos, and image alt-text) for non-text content and never including flashing elements on webpages, as two initial steps for optimizing your site.

Organic Search

For small businesses, your primary focus for organic search will likely be local SEO, which is the practice of optimizing your entire website or specific pages to rank for search terms that are geographically relevant, like “masseuse near me.” recommends this approach since local SEO is a “strategy that increases your business’s visibility in local search results in Google.”

A great first step is creating or updating your , which is free and helps you show up on Google Search and Maps. On the profile, you can add images, update your hours, and post answers to frequently asked questions.

Optimizing for Conversions

Conversion optimization is the final leg of the race and is vital to helping your website finish strong in your SEO strategy.

Determine what your goal is for visitors to your website. Is it that they sign up for your newsletter? Request a consultation? for an upcoming event? Sign up to watch a webinar? Purchase a product? Book an appointment? Once you have your goal, consider how to entice visitors to take that next step.

You can employ call-to-action (CTA) buttons to guide visitors down the sales funnel and toward your goal. CTAs should be relevant to where they appear on your site, visible, action-oriented, and not overly wordy (stick to two to four words). On the home page for a massage therapy business’s website, CTAs might be “Check out our services” and “Book Now.”

Positive reviews are also a great asset for your site, especially when featured on your home page and product pages. You can pull reviews from your Google Business Profile or ask happy customers if they’d be willing to share a testimonial.

By implementing these SEO improvements to your website, you’re making it easier for new customers to find you—their new favorite local business! Once customers walk through your door, you can wow them with your stellar products or services and show them that you’re a business worthy of patronizing, but it all starts with a strong SEO strategy.

The post Small Business SEO: A Beginner’s Explainer for Owners appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.

With the right design, your nonprofit’s website is an invaluable piece of your marketing and . Web design that works in tandem with your nonprofit’s overall graphic design strategy results in a website that is functional, user-friendly, and visually appealing, enabling you to foster deeper relationships with existing supporters and make a strong first impression on new audiences.

In this guide to the types of nonprofit web design, we’ll explore how you can choose the right one for your organization:

• What is web design?
• What are the types of nonprofit web designs?
• What are some tips for improved nonprofit web design?

If you’re unfamiliar with web design, you may feel intimidated by all of the new terminology and coding jargon you may have heard. With the at your nonprofit’s disposal, this process doesn’t have to be scary. Let’s get started by reviewing what web design is.

What is web design?

is the process of conceptualizing and arranging content on a website to promote a positive, engaging user experience. The goal of web design is to create a website that packages information in the most effective, engaging, and accessible way. The site should capture users’ attention to keep them on the page and provide information that helps the organization meet its goals. For nonprofits, these goals typically include driving donations, memberships, or volunteer sign-ups.

While website developers tend to focus on building and maintaining the core technical elements on the “back end” of websites, web designers focus on more “front-end” features that impact user experience. This process involves choosing layouts, colors, images, links, and other on-page elements. Web designers often combine their technical skills with and strategies to create informative and visually appealing websites.

What are the types of nonprofit web designs?

One of the most important factors in creating a strong website is choosing the right web design layout. Let’s explore the six types of web designs and when your nonprofit should use them.

1. Single-page layout

These websites are exactly what they sound like — they use just one page to convey all of their information. The page can be as long as needed and can be divided into sections to contain all the information and resources needed on the site, so users can simply scroll through the page without clicking through to any other pages. These pages appear very clean and simple and are easy to create.

However, this style is not ideal if you need to include a lot of information on your site, as the page will grow to be extremely long. Most users likely won’t scroll all the way down the page, meaning that the information located near the bottom won’t reach many of your visitors.

Consider this type of web design for your nonprofit if:

• Your organization is relatively young and doesn’t have many resources or stories to share yet.
• You need to create a website within a short timeframe.
• You want a design that is easy to set up.

When designing a single-page website, it’s important to maintain a consistent focus, so readers will be more likely to travel down the page without getting confused. If you’re just getting off the ground and want to develop a website quickly, consider setting up a site using this simple layout.

2. Static page layout

This type of design uses permanent, preset page dimensions. In other words, your organization would choose one size for the website (usually one fitted to a desktop browser) that does not change — hence the name “static.”

These layouts usually offer few user interactions (like surveys or social sharing buttons). Because of the static page dimensions and the lack of interactive elements, these websites are typically low-cost and easy to set up.

While static layouts are among the most basic web designs and are affordable and easy to create, they are not used very often due to their sizing limitations. Static layouts tend to provide a poor user experience for users browsing on their smartphones or tablets. Plus, users can’t interact with pages much, meaning their experience on the website might not be very engaging.

Your nonprofit might choose a static website design if:

• You just want to convey basic information like , volunteer opportunities, or your organization’s mission statement on your website.
• You need a cost-effective way to set up a website in a short timeframe.
• Your website won’t change very often.
• You don’t need to include interactive elements such as an online merchandise shop, forums, or social sharing options to accomplish your website’s goals.

Due to page size limitations, this layout requires a separate, mobile-friendly version to be successful. Otherwise, important information can be lost to mobile users.

3. Liquid or fluid design layout

Liquid design layouts, sometimes referred to as fluid layouts, have flexible page dimensions rather than rigid, permanent sizes. With a liquid layout, the page will always fit the size of the user’s screen, no matter what browser they are using.

However, this layout doesn’t always resize to fit every screen perfectly. For example, a large browser might stretch content while a small one can push content together, making it difficult to read. While these flexible page dimensions are a step up from what static layouts provide, a liquid layout is still susceptible to providing a poor user experience.

Consider choosing this layout for your nonprofit web design if:

• You don’t have the time or resources to create a separate mobile-friendly website.
• You want to improve user experience, but don’t have the resources to take on a more advanced layout.
• You want to ensure that users have access to important information regardless of their device.

If you need a quick and implementable web design but don’t want the drawbacks of a static design, liquid layouts might be the best option for your nonprofit.

4. Adaptive website layout

Similar to a liquid layout, adaptive web designs change size depending on the size of the user’s browser. However, this style uses queries in a coding language called Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to detect the size of the browser and adjust accordingly, while liquid layouts only use HTML coding.

Adaptive websites tend to make more accurate size adjustments than liquid layouts. Additionally, adaptive layouts change the actual content on the page to the user’s screen so they have a better user experience viewing and navigating the site. With a smarter, more flexible layout like this one, you can build a better website that won’t entail any frustrating issues like stretched-out images and stacked or overlapping text.

An adaptive website layout might be right for your nonprofit if:

• You want a website that prioritizes user experience.
• You want to preserve your website’s design integrity across all device types.
• You want to build a website with an excellent user experience on a relatively tight timeline when compared to more complex layouts.

While its adaptive features might not always work perfectly for atypical browser sizes, this layout can make your website more user-friendly while using less time and resources than other, more complex web designs.

5. Responsive design layout

Responsive design layouts adjust their layouts and how information is displayed based on the user’s browser size. What makes these layouts unique, however, is that they are built with a mobile-first approach.

With of all website visits coming from mobile devices, the importance of providing a positive user experience on these devices cannot be overstated. A responsive design layout prioritizes these users’ preferences by building out the mobile version of the website first.

This layout adjusts on-page elements to each browser size so users never miss important information on your website. For example, it wraps text and scales images accordingly so mobile users can view the same elements that appear for desktop users. These layouts also prioritize showing the most important elements of the page, like the headline of a blog post, at the top rather than decorative elements.

Your nonprofit might benefit from this layout if:

• You have the time and resources to develop a more complex website.
• You want a web design that prioritizes mobile users.
• You want to provide the best possible user experience.
• You don’t want to build a separate mobile website.

This layout is one of the best ways to ensure users have a positive, seamless experience on your website, no matter what browser they are using. Be sure to account for the longer lead time on website development, as this type of design is often more complex to set up.

6. Dynamic website layout

Dynamic web designs are personalized to each user who visits them. The appearance of on-page elements like text and images will change from visitor to visitor. These layouts also incorporate more interactive elements.

Often, dynamic web designs are used for sites where users log in to a unique profile, including e-commerce and social media websites. Think back to the last time you logged into your Amazon account, for example. Chances are, the website adapted its layout to include personalized features like your name at the top of the page and alerts about new deals on products similar to your previous purchases.

Dynamic layouts are a great option if:

• Your nonprofit’s website content will change regularly.
• Your site allows users to log in to unique user profiles.
• You plan to use your website to sell a product like branded merchandise.
• You’re looking for a layout with increased functionality and interactivity that doesn’t require extensive coding experience to build.

If your team is exploring using a dynamic web design, keep in mind that page load speeds can be slower because the page has to fill in the users’ data when they request the page. Take measures to reduce page load speeds, like compressing all your image files and minimizing CSS and JavaScript.

Using a CMS like can make it easier to execute more complicated designs like these. Train your staff on its use or hire a consultant to maximize the potential of these tools.

What are some tips for improved nonprofit web design?

In addition to the more technical aspects of web design, there are creative aspects to consider as well. Many of these elements by conveying information in a compelling, readable way. Here are a few that your organization can use to strengthen your web design.

Get creative with media.

If you’ve ever visited a website that featured text as its only media source, you know how dull and uninteresting it can be to browse those sites. While images are certainly a step up from plain text, there is only so much you can convey with still images alone. That’s where more creative, dynamic media comes in.

Media like videos and GIFs can convey your through a more interactive and engaging channel. Videos can make a strong impact by capturing and conveying strong emotions by incorporating a blend of powerful elements like footage, music, and narration.

Also, consider incorporating innovative, highly interactive elements like quizzes, calculators, and interactive infographics. For example, if you run an animal rescue, you could include a tool that calculates how many dogs a potential donor’s gift would impact. Elements like these engage your supporters, keeping them on your website longer and moving them closer to donating.

Choose a cohesive color palette.

Be deliberate with the you incorporate into your website. For example, you should always choose text colors that contrast strongly with your website’s background colors to make the page as accessible as possible. However, you should also focus on choosing a cohesive overarching color scheme that you use throughout your website.

A well-developed color scheme can:

• Strengthen your branding. Choose colors that are consistent with your nonprofit’s branding. Then, when people access your website through search engine results pages, web ads, or marketing emails, they can immediately recognize your organization’s branding in the web design. To boost brand recognition even more, include your nonprofit’s logo in a prominent place.
• Reinforce your mission. People often have subconscious assumptions about colors’ meanings. For example, when you spot a nonprofit organization with a lot of green in its web and logo design, you probably assume its cause has something to do with nature or the environment. Choosing a color that people might already associate with your cause is a great way to signal your mission visually.

As you choose your color scheme, take care not to get carried away. Using too many colors on your website or in your organization’s branding can muddy your brand identity and make it difficult for supporters to recognize your organization.

Draw inspiration from others—but maintain your originality.

Taking a look at that successfully implement different design strategies is a good first step when designing or redesigning your organization’s site. You’ll see what works well in terms of navigation, visuals, and messaging, which can inspire your own website design.

As you peruse other sites, keep these questions in mind:

• How is this organization’s mission similar to or different from ours?
• What features grab my attention immediately?
• Which design features are the most effective? Which aren’t working?
• Are there ideas I can see translating into our organization’s voice?

However, keep in mind that your nonprofit’s mission and audience are unique. Use your own branding and content to avoid creating a generic site. This will help readers see why they should choose your organization and help you attract the right audience.

By blending inspiration with originality, you’ll build a nonprofit website that’s professional, familiar to visitors, and unmistakably your own.

Work with a consultant.

DIY websites may work for some organizations with minimal need for customization and existing web design skills, but there’s no substitute for real expertise. can guide your organization through the entire web design process, ensuring your site is both visually compelling and strategically effective.

Here are some ways a consultant can strengthen your web design efforts:

• Translate your mission into design. Consultants can turn your brand identity and storytelling goals into a site layout, color scheme, and user experience that resonates with supporters.
• Focus on usability and accessibility. They’ll make sure your website is intuitive for visitors of all abilities, with features like clear navigation, mobile responsiveness, and ADA-compliant design.
• Integrate key nonprofit tools. From online giving forms to volunteer sign-ups, consultants ensure your web design supports core nonprofit functions and connects seamlessly with platforms like or . This means supporter data flows directly into your CRM, reducing manual entry and improving donor management.
• Plan for long-term updates. Beyond launch, consultants often provide training or ongoing support so your staff can keep content fresh without relying on outside help for every change.

Choose a consultant with relevant expertise who understands your specific mission and is well-versed in the technology your nonprofit wants to implement. Check testimonials and references for organizations that had similar needs and were satisfied with their service. As your partnership continues, be open to the new perspectives your consultant will bring to the table.

Wrapping Up

An impactful, user-friendly website can motivate visitors to learn more about your organization and find ways to get involved. As a central information hub, you can direct all prospective supporters to your site to educate and connect with them. Use the tips in this guide as a starting point on your web design journey, but don’t be afraid to reach out to the experts when you have questions!

If you’re curious about leveling up your organization’s graphic design strategy, check out these additional resources:

• Looking to update your logo? These logos can give your team much-needed inspiration.
• Quality graphic design is crucial to building your brand as a nonprofit. Get inspired with these 15 examples of how nonprofits can use graphic design in their marketing strategies.
• . Ready to take your digital marketing to the next level? Check out this resource all about the Google Ad Grant.

The post 6 Types of Nonprofit Web Design and When to Use Them appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.

However, since your website has likely been with your nonprofit since its early stages, there may be opportunities for refinement. Even if your organization or website is fairly new, you can still make small adjustments that lead to far-reaching improvements for your site.

We’ll provide insight into five common problems nonprofits run into with their websites and how you can resolve these issues. That way, you can be confident that your site offers a positive user experience and encourages people to get involved with your mission.

1. Low Engagement Rate

The overall goal of your website should be to provide an engaging experience so that users stay on your site until they find a useful resource or decide to get involved. However, some users will inevitably leave your site immediately after clicking on it.

Engagement rate refers to the percentage of visitors who interact with your website in meaningful ways, such as clicking, completing a form, or viewing multiple pages. If your website has a low engagement rate, then either your content or design likely isn’t engaging or relevant enough to keep users around.

How to Fix This Website Issue

• Alter your content strategy. Perhaps your nonprofit produces blog content once a month. You may consider increasing the frequency to once a week to ensure there are fresh and exciting posts for your supporters to read more often. Additionally, you may make your content more engaging by adding a variety of multimedia elements, such as photos, videos, and infographics.
• Survey your supporters. Not sure which mission-relevant topics your supporters would enjoy learning about? Ask them! Surveying your supporters can unlock key insights into how you can make your content more engaging and informative from those who regularly access your site.
• Improve your website’s navigation. Proper website navigation allows your supporters to easily find what they’re looking for. Ineffective navigation on your site may be causing people to get frustrated and leave quickly, lowering your engagement rate. Highlight your most important pages on a menu at the top of your site, and keep menu titles short for easy readability.

2. Low Conversion Rate

Another metric you can use to measure your website’s success is conversion rate. Conversion rate refers to the percentage of visitors who take an important action on your site that involves them further in your organization.

Whether you’re trying to use your website to convert visitors into donors, volunteers, or event attendees, a low conversion rate means it’s not clear how visitors can get involved, or the process to do so is too complicated. Nonprofit websites have an , so your goal should be to make small improvements in 0.5% or 1% increments.

How to Fix This Website Issue

• Create strong calls to action. Your calls to action should encourage visitors to get more involved with your cause. using concise, urgent language, bold text, and a link to a relevant landing page. For example, you may add a call to action on your homepage that invites visitors to “Donate today!” and directs them to your donation page.
• Simplify your donation process. Facilitate fundraising on your website with a simple donation process. Remove any clutter from your donation page, and ensure your donation form only includes necessary fields, such as name, contact information, donation amount, and payment method. Mark any additional fields or questions as optional.
• Use Google Analytics. allows you to stay on top of your website’s conversion rate by creating conversion events and tracking conversions for specific pages. You can also build reports to help you visualize your conversion metrics and easily identify areas for improvement.

3. Outdated Content

If your website has been around for a while, it may contain outdated content. Outdated content may include event pages for past events, old news stories, articles with dated references, or service pages that don’t reflect your current offerings. For example, if you’re no longer for a certain project, your volunteer recruitment page may be outdated.

When you leave this content on your site, it can reduce your organization’s credibility and professionalism for visitors. Additionally, it may make your nonprofit appear inactive or disorganized, which can deter potential supporters.

How to Fix This Website Issue

• Conduct a site audit. Start by auditing your site to identify any outdated content. Along the way, you may find other issues such as or duplicate content that your team can resolve.
• Archive old content. Once you’ve identified all outdated content on your site, archive pages that no longer drive value for users. For instance, event pages for past events are a good candidate for archiving because the information is no longer relevant and may distract people from finding your current event content.
• Schedule content refreshes. For outdated content that could still be useful with some fixes, consider scheduling a content refresh. Have your team comb through outdated articles or service pages to remove all incorrect or dated information and replace it with updated content.

4. Mobile Responsiveness Issues

Did you know that comes from mobile devices? Many people rely on their mobile devices for browsing charitable causes, finding nonprofit events, and donating.

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you could lose users right off the bat. Even though the desktop version of your website may look flawless, those accessing your site on mobile may have a negative user experience, causing them to abandon your site.

How to Fix This Website Issue

• Choose the right content management system. Some content management systems (CMS) assist you in configuring a mobile-friendly site. using WordPress because it’s compatible with Avada, a website builder with mobile-friendly themes. Additionally, the WP Popup plugin allows you to prevent popups from appearing in mobile view where they can obstruct key information on the page.
• Compress and resize images. While some images may appear large enough on a desktop, they may be too small to see or read properly on a mobile device. Make sure that images are large enough for mobile users, but compress those with large file sizes to increase page load speed.
• Test mobile view. When in doubt, use Google’s Inspect function (right-click and select “inspect” while viewing your web page) or your CMS to test your website’s mobile view. You may find that you need to rearrange the formatting of the text to fit the screen properly or enlarge the font size, which can also make your website more accessible to those who are visually impaired.

5. Poor Search Engine Visibility

It’s difficult to reach potential supporters if your content and website aren’t ranking well on Google and other search engines. Your goal should be for your site to rank as high as possible for searches that are relevant to your cause.

When nonprofit websites have poor search engine visibility, it’s typically due to issues with and content quality. To attract interested users, you need to prepare your site for search engines while still creating high-quality, relevant content.

How to Fix This Website Issue

• Choose the right keywords. One of the keys to SEO is choosing keywords that reflect your organization’s content and mission. For example, an animal shelter may target keywords like “donate to animal rescue” for their donation page and “volunteer with animals” for their volunteer page. Then, .
• Prioritize your most important pages. While it would be ideal if as many of your pages as possible rank highly, it’s best to focus on your most important pages first. Many nonprofits prioritize refreshing and optimizing their pages that drive conversions before moving on to educational blog posts and secondary pages.
• Work with an SEO expert. If you’re not sure how to best optimize your website for search engines, work with an SEO expert. In particular, an agency that specializes in nonprofit website design and SEO will be able to tend to your organization’s specific needs and put your mission at the forefront of your site’s SEO strategy.

Don’t fret if you see one or more of these signs indicating that your nonprofit needs to fine-tune its website! That just means you need to put in a little extra time to get your website up to par with current best practices to attract potential supporters and continue promoting your mission. To avoid large website overhauls, revamping your website strategy on a regular basis can help keep your content fresh and your site running smoothly.

The post 5 Signs Your Nonprofit Needs To Fine-Tune Its Website appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.

Luckily, there are a number of online platforms and resources at your disposal to create engaging marketing campaigns that will grow your customer pool, earn more revenue, and help your business reach new heights. Best of all, most of these are free or cost effective so you can get the most bang for your buck and maximize the value of your marketing strategy.Ěý

In this article, we’ll explore the top platforms you can leverage to get the word out about your business, including:Ěý

• Your Website
• Social Media
• Mobile App

A well-designed can give your business the fuel it needs to bring attention to its services, products, events, campaigns, and more. Let’s jump into the essential marketing platforms to add to your strategy and how you can harness their full potential.Ěý

Your Website

You likely use your business’s website to house important forms and resources, but did you know that it can also be used as a powerful marketing tool? By regularly generating content on your website, you can expand your digital reach and get visitors excited about your business.Ěý

To help promote your business and its products or services, add the following elements to your website:

• Compelling landing pages: Landing pages are your opportunity to dive deeper into your business and its offerings. For example, you might create an “About Us” or “Our Products” landing page to discuss your company’s brand and the benefits of buying a product or service from you over a competitor. You can also create landing pages to help spotlight fundraising events and campaigns to earn your small business extra revenue, such as a peer-to-peer campaign or dance-a-thon. Ensure your landing pages are not only clear but also visually appealing by adding photos and videos that align with your branding.Ěý
• Blog roll: A blog is a great opportunity for your business to share important updates about your offerings, highlight rewards and customer loyalty programs, spotlight events, share stories from customers, and more. Maintain a regular posting schedule, such as creating new blog content once a week or three times a month. This will help to communicate freshness to site visitors and demonstrate that your business is eager to connect with its community.Ěý
• Clear calls to action: When site visitors visit your business’s website, you likely want them to complete one of the following actions: buy a product or service, register for an event or class, or donate to . To help drive conversions, create bold call-to-action buttons throughout your website. A call-to-action button directs users to their next step by including a hyperlink to the relevant resource. For example, if your small business offers classes, you might create a call-to-action button on your homepage that says “Sign up for a free trial!” Your calls to action should stand out on the page, so use a distinct color within your branding guidelines or bold lettering to catch your visitors’ eye.Ěý

You’ll also want to prioritize accessibility in your web design, so make sure to use alternative text for images and create a strong color contrast between the foreground and background to increase readability. This way, everyone who arrives on your website can engage with your content without experiencing any obstacles.Ěý

Social MediaĚý

Social media is one of the best promotional tools available for businesses. By regularly posting content to a variety of platforms like Instagram and Facebook, you can encourage new audiences to check out your business and increase your brand visibility. To leverage social media to the fullest, use these tips:Ěý

• Think about your target audience: In order to stand out in potential customers’ crowded social media feeds, you need to generate content that is tailored to your target audience’s interests. For example, if you’re hoping to reach a younger audience with your business’s services, you might create short-form videos on TikTok and Instagram that incorporate popular trends. Or, if you want to reach an older demographic, you could share customer testimonials on Facebook to build trust. Consider your audience’s demographics and what type of content is most relevant to them.Ěý
• Share high-quality content: recommends posting a wide variety of visuals to your social media to garner as much attention as possible, including photos, videos, and graphics. For instance, a dance studio might share photos of their contemporary students performing at a competition to entice prospective students to sign up. Your business can also create testimonial videos that feature your loyal customers or behind-the-scenes clips that show your staff working hard. Mixing up your content can help you keep audiences engaged and eager to check out your latest post.Ěý
• Use engaging hashtags: Hashtags can help you grow your business’s reach and boost visibility online. For example, let’s say you’re running a social media contest to complement your upcoming talent show fundraiser. You might use the hashtag #YourBusiness’sNameTalentShow or #YourBusiness’sCityTalentShow to tap local audiences and get them excited about this upcoming event. Encourage your community to share posts and use this same hashtag so people in their personal networks can learn about your business.Ěý

You can also use your social media in tangent with your website strategy by sharing links to important pages or resources on your website, such as your online store or . Include links in your captions or your social media bio so followers can easily navigate to your digital resources.Ěý

As you share content on social media, track metrics like reposts and total impressions. This can help you assess how your content strategy is performing and direct you to improvements you can make to amplify your reach.Ěý

Mobile App

Along with using your website and social media, you can target your audience even more closely by leveraging a mobile app. A mobile app allows you to reach your community directly with alerts on their phones. This is a great option when you want to send your audience timely reminders and updates that they’ll see and act on.Ěý

Do your research to find an app that offers innovative marketing and communication features like:

• Group chats
• Push notifications
• Digital bulletin boards to share updates and reminders

The right app will also provide features to support your revenue-generation efforts, such as:

• Integrated point of sale system
• Payment processing
• Auto-pay

You can also look for apps with features that are specific to your respective professional sector. For example, if you’re a dance studio, recommends investing in a platform that makes it easy for parents to register students for classes right from their phones.Ěý

A well-designed app will not only make it easier for your business to run its operations but will also make it simpler for your customers to engage with your business and buy your products and services. Explore apps that align with your business’s objectives and can help create a positive consumer experience.Ěý

Wrapping Up

A strong marketing strategy is just what you need to take your business to the next level. Leverage these platforms and share content with your customers regularly to keep your business top of mind. As you send out communications, make sure your branding is consistent across your different platforms so you can create a unified experience and establish trust with consumers.Ěý

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According to , “A beautiful and well-crafted nonprofit website will draw your audience in, instill a sense of trust, and compel people to take action.” But you’ll only achieve these goals if everyone who visits your website is able to gain value from your content, including those with disabilities.

This is where website accessibility comes in. In this guide, we’ll answer some frequently asked questions about accessibility and share three top tips for designing an accessible website. Let’s dive in!

Nonprofit Website Accessibility FAQ

What is website accessibility?

Website accessibility is the process of ensuring equitable access to website content by people of all abilities. This includes but is not limited to making sites accessible for those with visual, auditory, physical, and neurological disabilities. Website accessibility can also be helpful for older audiences who may have more difficulty navigating online content and makes websites more user-friendly in general.

Why does accessibility matter for nonprofit websites?

The most notable reason to ensure website accessibility is that it’s often a legal issue due to its and other similar legislation. However, there are additional benefits your nonprofit can enjoy by designing an accessible website, including:

• More site visits. When more people have a positive experience interacting with your content, it’s likely that more of them will.
• Improved search engine optimization (SEO). Google’s algorithms tend to reward accessible websites by ranking them higher in search results, which increases your site’s visibility.
• Higher donor retention. According to , a positive supporter journey is essential to keeping donors involved with your organization long term, and their experience using your website can play a major role in this journey.
• Showing that you prioritize inclusivity. Having an accessible website can also boost your nonprofit’s reputation as an organization that strives to include all members of your community.

Prioritizing website accessibility can not only help your organization avoid legal consequences but also expand your reach and solidify your commitment to promoting social good in a variety of ways.

What resources can my nonprofit use to make its website more accessible?

Your organization has a number of options when it comes to designing a new accessible website or improving accessibility on your existing site. For instance, you could:

• Evaluate various aspects of your website against industry-standard checklists such as the .
• Use a responsive web design framework that provides features to enhance user experience, including accessibility.
• Work with a that understands the ins and outs of web accessibility.

No matter what resources you use, make sure you go into the accessible design process with a clear understanding of the improvements you need to make. To help you get started, let’s walk through three key strategies for creating an accessible website.

3 Tips to Improve Nonprofit Website Accessibility

1. Ensure Adequate Color Contrast

Effective use of color in website design is a balancing act. On the one hand, you need to stay true to to make your site recognizable and memorable for your audience. However, you should also ensure that your text colors contrast adequately with their background to improve readability, especially for visitors who experience low vision or color blindness.

The WCAG 2.1 checklist recommends color contrast ratios of 4.5:1 for regular copy and 3:1 for headings or large text. For many organizations, the use case where maintaining these ratios is most difficult is when a photo is used as the background for text, as the image’s color variations create inconsistent contrast. To solve this problem, place a color overlay on the photo so the text background is all one color.

Additionally, pay attention to your use of color when incorporating hover effects (i.e. visual changes that occur when a visitor moves their cursor over a clickable element) on buttons and hyperlinks. Rather than simply having the text change color, make the clickable element more noticeable through underlining, size changes, or movement.

2. Serve Media in Multiple Formats

Multimedia elements like infographics, audio recordings, and embedded videos can make your site more interactive for your audience. However, to engage all visitors, visuals should be made accessible for individuals who rely on screen reader technology, and content with an auditory element should have a textual counterpart for those who are hard of hearing.

To ensure these visitors can gain value from your multimedia content, include the following formatting elements on your website:

• Alternative text for images. When you upload a photo or graphic to the backend of your website, there should be an ALT field where you can enter a short description of the image (about 100-140 characters). A screen reader can then interpret the alt text, allowing the visitor using it to understand the purpose of the image.
• Transcripts of audio-only content. If your nonprofit uploads recordings of interviews or podcast episodes to your website, provide a full-text readout of the audio. There are a variety of transcription tools available online to make this process easier, but make sure to read and revise the transcript so it’s accurate and readable.
• Closed captions for videos. Closed captions translate the various sound elements of a video into text as a visitor is watching it. Make sure your closed captions are legible, and allow audiences to choose from multiple language options if the software allows.

Serving multimedia content in multiple formats can be helpful for visitors experiencing temporary accessibility issues as well. For example, closed captions allow audiences to understand your videos even if they watch them while in a location where they can’t turn up their device’s volume. Additionally, alt text will sometimes appear in place of an image if a visitor’s internet connection is too weak to load the photo or graphic.

3. Develop an Intuitive Navigation Structure

User-friendly website navigation is also essential to designing for accessibility. Your site menu should include all of the key pages on your site, such as your About page, contact form, and resources. The menu also needs to be easy to use on both desktop and mobile, and visitors with physical disabilities should be able to navigate through it using only a keyboard.

To test navigation, and ask them to complete different tasks on your website such as donating online or finding a specific blog article. Allow some volunteers to use a computer as they normally would, ask a few to try out your site’s keyboard navigation capabilities, and have the rest access the website on a tablet or smartphone. Ask for feedback from each volunteer after the test and consider it as you make any final usability improvements before launching your site.

After you implement these accessibility features on your nonprofit’s website, continue to monitor it and make adjustments as needed. Provide a space for general feedback as well—whether through your contact form or a separate survey—so you know if visitors find your site easy to use and gain value from it.

The post Designing an Accessible Nonprofit Website: FAQ + 3 Tips appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.

If the answer is “no,” then it’s time for you to update your website’s functionality. After all, your website’s success as a digital marketing tool depends on how user-friendly it is to your visitors, whether they’re exploring your website on desktop or mobile.

An effective navigation system also follows web accessibility guidelines so people of all abilities can engage with your content. If this sounds like a lot for your organization, don’t worry! With the right tools and strategies, you can easily upgrade your website’s navigability so supporters will feel inclined to stay on your website and check out your content.

In this article, we’ll explore these top navigation tips:

• Design an intuitive navigation menu
• Create compelling CTAs
• Prioritize accessibility

By enhancing your web audience’s experience, you’ll be more likely to inspire visitors to take the next action—whether that’s signing up for your newsletter, applying to volunteer, or even donating to push your cause forward! This all starts with an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Let’s begin.

Design an intuitive navigation menu

If you look at any of , they all have one thing in common: a well-formatted navigation menu. A navigation menu is the bar—often located at the top of your website—that acts as a directory to your nonprofit’s most important resources, including your:

• About Us Page
• Contact Us Page
• Donation Form
• Blog

Your navigation menu should be visible on any page your visitors are on, not just your homepage. This way, visitors who might land on a blog article or your donation form can easily find their way to another relevant page or resource that they’re searching for. To ensure your navigation menu meets your audience’s needs, use these strategies:

• Categorize your links: If your nonprofit’s website has multiple important pages that you want to highlight in your menu, you can develop a dropdown navigation menu, also known as a mega menu. This allows you to group similar pages under one top-level category. For example, you might create a dropdown list under the primary navigation link “About Us” that shows pages dedicated to your mission statement, values, and current projects.
• Use short menu titles: Avoid cluttering your navigation menu by using one- or two-word titles to signal what the associated page will be about. For example, “Donate Now” instead of “Donate to our wonderful cause to eradicate cancer for good” is more effective to point to your donation page and keep your navigation bar looking clean.
• Make it mobile-friendly: According to , mobile users made up 33% of online gifts last year. With more people using their phones to interact with their favorite causes, it’s critical that your navigation menu and website as a whole are mobile-optimized. As you design your navigation bar, consider how it will look on smartphones and tablets, as mobile users should be able to see the entire bar and navigation options. The right nonprofit website builder will automatically optimize your entire website for mobile.

You’ll also want to ensure your navigation bar looks cohesive with the rest of your site design. Infuse your branding elements, including your fonts and color scheme, into your navigation menu. However, don’t go overboard with the design! A minimalistic look is best for a smooth navigation experience.

Create compelling CTAs

Calls to action (CTAs) are brief phrases that point site visitors to their next action. Often shown as visually distinct buttons with hyperlinks to the relevant resource or page, CTAs are a great way to move site visitors along their journey to becoming more involved supporters. Specifically, they can help drive target actions like donating to your organization, registering for upcoming events like an auction or , or signing up to volunteer at your next community event.

Here are our top recommendations for generating effective CTAs:

• Make sure the language reflects the intended next step: There’s nothing more frustrating than being taken to a resource that doesn’t match up with the language of the CTA. For example, if supporters click on a CTA that says “Learn more about our mission” and are taken to your donation page, they’d feel confused and likely bothered. Your CTA language should accurately indicate where supporters will be taken if they click on the button.
• Create a sense of urgency: Time is of the essence when it comes to meeting your nonprofit’s goals. Use active verbs and time-bound language to convince your audience that they need to complete this next step as soon as possible to make a difference. For example, CTAs like “Donate by midnight to get your donation matched!” or “Don’t miss out on our walk-a-thon—register now!” help to evoke urgency and mobilize people to act.
• Think carefully about their placement: Place your CTAs in relevant locations across your website to move site visitors along their journey. For instance, you might include a “Register Now!” CTA in your latest blog content that covers your upcoming gala or on your event landing page. You can also include bold CTAs in your navigation menu to the most critical actions supporters should take, such as donating to your nonprofit.

To create your CTAs and ensure that they stand out on the page, leverage a with simple front-end editing features. This way, you can easily design buttons with high-contrast colors and eye-catching visuals that align with your branding and other. Best of all, no coding is required when you’re working with a user-friendly website builder, so do your research to find the best solution for your organization’s needs.

Prioritize accessibility

When thinking about your nonprofit website design, it’s important to reflect on the needs of all possible site visitors. This includes individuals with visual, hearing, motor, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. Not only is this a best practice, but it’s also legally enforceable under .

Your website therefore needs to adhere to the , which are a series of provisions to make the web accessible to people with disabilities. To get started with prioritizing accessibility in your web design, use these key strategies:

• Add an accessibility widget: An accessibility widget allows users to adjust your content to their exact needs on their devices. This includes increasing the font size, changing colors to grayscale, highlighting links, and changing the font type to sans-serif. You can easily add an accessibility widget to your website with the right website builder.
• Enable keyboard functionality: Users with motor disabilities may only be able to use a keyboard to interact with your website. Ensure that visitors have all the same functionalities of a mouse on their keyboard when navigating your site, such as using the “tab” key to jump to different sections on a page.
• Create text alternatives: Text alternatives allow people who can’t see or interact with your visual content to understand what is being presented and how it contextually aligns with the rest of your on-page content. Create alternative text for photos and offer transcripts and closed captions for videos.

Adhering to web accessibility guidelines is a big responsibility and can be time-consuming. This is where leveraging the right technology can help. recommends investing in a website builder that offers templates already optimized for accessibility. This way, you can simply plug in your content and feel confident that you’re empowering all audience members to engage with your website.

Your nonprofit website design isn’t complete without a strong navigation system. Think through your audience’s needs, and make sure their digital journey is as seamless as possible. Remember to regularly refresh your website as needed to ensure your visitors can easily take actions that support your current goals.

The post 3 Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit Website’s Navigation appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.

Web design is still a relatively new field that’s changing all the time, but the resources available to your nonprofit make it easier than ever to transform your site into a conversion machine. incorporate smart fundraising strategies into their designs to attract the most attention and support for their initiatives. Without further ado, let’s dive into how you can reach the hearts—and the wallets—of your site visitors and convert them into loyal donors.

1. Use calls to action.

Make the donation process as simple as possible so donors can quickly and easily contribute to your cause. This means encouraging donations immediately after visitors click through to your page. Save the longer stories for your “About Us” tab or your blog and try using calls to action on your homepage instead.

A call to action (CTA) is a punchy and straightforward slogan used to prompt action. Some classic examples include “Donate Now!” or “Contact Us.” When crafting your CTAs, be sure to:

• Keep them short,Ěýso it only takes a glance to understand the point.
• Be specificĚýas to what action you’d like visitors to take.
• Create a sense of urgencyĚýthat encourages visitors to take action immediately.
• Make them stand out on the page with large text and eye-catching colorsĚýthat align with your branding.

Also, CTAs are great for use in other contexts, like social media andĚýemail. Engaging CTA text and a solid visual design can direct traffic from your social profiles and email newsletters to your website.

2. Promote your fundraising events.

As the home base for your online presence, your website should be up-to-date on all things your organization. Therefore, you should always update your site with exciting developments, such as upcoming events and programs. You can do this in a variety of ways:

• Integrate an interactive event calendar. Many website builders will allow you to integrate an editable calendar feature into your events page. You can also configure your events to be downloadable to numerous calendar platforms, such as iCloud, Google Calendar, and Outlook. This tool makes the event planning process simple for both you and your guests!

• Include an online sign-up form. Ditch the antiquated RSVP envelopes for this environmentally- and user-friendly option. If your CMS has a survey tool, consider using that to keep track of your event attendees. If not, there are many you can try, such as Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, and Eventbrite. This way, you can easily monitor your guest list. Plus, your guests will appreciate skipping the hassle of keeping track of paper invitations!

• Promote events in your existing materials and programs. A little self-promotion can go a long way! If you already have an audience in front of you, don’t be afraid to promote your upcoming events—whether you’re planning a dance-a-thon or . If you’re posting educational blogs, for example, use the space to mention what’s new for your nonprofit and encourage engagement with a link to the sign-up form.Ěý
• Incorporate virtual events into your website. If you’re hosting a virtual event, this one’s a no-brainer! One of the best ways to use your website is to create a link to the event through your website. For example, if you’re hosting a webinar, you can integrate Zoom into your website by . This approach lets you meet visitors where they are, providing a direct pathway to your event and encouraging participation.Ěý

These are just a few tips to get you started. nonprofit web builders provide even more opportunities for you to promote your fundraising campaigns. What’s most important is that you leverage every opportunity to spread the word!

3. Highlight matching gifts.

Your nonprofit can generate significant revenue from matching gifts. According to Double the Donation,ĚýĚýis a popular way for companies to boost employee engagement and enhance their reputation while powering lasting change in the community. Businesses tend to match their employees’ donations at a 1:1 ratio, though some match as high as 4:1.

However, many donors are still unaware of this opportunity. In fact,ĚýĚýdon’t know whether their employer offers a matching gift program. To avoid missing out on crucial funds for your mission, emphasize matching gifts on your website by:

• Creating a dedicated matching gifts page.ĚýProvide a one-stop resource for supporters interested in learning more about matching gifts. On this page, you can include a short overview of the process, along with how donors can check their eligibility to submit a matching gift request. This eliminates much of the guesswork and paves the way for more donors to tap into the generosity of their employers.
• Including a matching gift search tool on your donation page.ĚýWhen supporters navigate to your donation page to complete the giving process, make it easy for them to check their matching gift eligibility by embedding a search tool into the form. Then, all they need to do is fill out their basic information to learn all the details about their employers’ corporate giving programs.
• Designing matching gift CTAs.ĚýAnother type of CTA you can include on your website is matching gift CTAs. On matching gift-related pages and blog posts, add eye-catching images and buttons that encourage donors to check their eligibility. SinceĚýindicate that they’re more likely to donate if a match is offered, promoting matching gifts can also be an effective way to drive more supporters to donate to your cause.

At the same time, your website doesn’t need to doĚýallĚýof the heavy lifting for spreading awareness of matching gifts. Maximize your results by creating social media posts and email newsletter updates that encourage supporters to check their eligibility as well. You can also send reminders in follow-up communications such as thank-you emails.

4. Integrate shareable elements into your website.

Social media has so drastically changed the world that it can be difficult to imagine our society without it. The difference between outreach strategies with and without social media is probably even more apparent to fundraising professionals like yourself. The social media space is always evolving, and you can harness its latest trends through your website design.

Start by:

• Ensuring your social media profiles are up-to-date.ĚýIf you’ve changed your branding or staff recently, refresh your social media profiles with the most accurate representation of your organization. Then, make sure your website has social sharing buttons that link to those profiles!
• Adding a shareable element to your online donation form.ĚýThis is another great strategy for wedding both yourĚýsocial media presenceĚýand your nonprofit website. Once a donor fills out the form and their donation is processed, they’ll get the option to share a donation announcement on social media. Attached to the post will be a link back to the form, prompting their network to circle back to your website.
• Encouraging supporters to share your nonprofit’s success in the past year.ĚýIncluding yourĚýĚýin a visible spot on your website, complete with your nonprofit’s wins from the past fiscal year, will show donors that you’re doing work worthy of donations. Try creating this as a downloadable PDF that supporters can share with their family and friends.

All of your website content positions you as a thought leader in your field. Allow your supporters to promote your advice for you by integrating shareable content into your website and providing easy access to the sharing buttons mentioned above. By doing so, their network will learn more about your organization and why they should donate and share the links with their followers. Before you know it, you’ll get prospects from entirely new communities paying you a visit!

5. Adopt donor recognition best practices.

Your nonprofit should work to go the extra mile in thanking your donors to increase repeat donations. You can scale up your while promoting your fundraising by using your website.Ěý

One of the most important traits of your donor recognition initiatives is their shareability. This is because sharing promotes the idea that people in your network are more likely to donate once they see that you’ve already donated. So, your donor recognition materials should be sharable to reach as many people as possible and prompt donations by reiterating that every gift counts. This way, your efforts to thank donors will be doubly effective—they’ll increase donor satisfaction while introducing new people to your fundraising initiatives.

There are countless ways to show your appreciation, but here are two popular methods:

• Use a virtual donor recognition wall. Chances are you’ve seen many donor appreciation plaques in building lobbies and on memorials. This is the same idea, but for a digital platform. You’ll dedicate a page on your website to show your givers how much they mean to you. Consider highlighting donation tiers, time spent supporting your organization, or board status, depending on what you know about your donors. Another idea for a is highlighting “why I give” stories from some of your top donors. Once a donor has been added to the wall, ensure that there’s a way for them to spread the word with a social media button.Ěý
• Create special blog content. This is a great way to bolster your site’s content while applauding your supporters. You could implement a “Donor Spotlight” series on your blog where you highlight a specific donor and their contributions to the fundraising campaign. Or, you can have a supporter write a guest post for your blog about what your cause means to them. Whatever you choose, encourage your donor to share the content with their network to get more eyes on your fundraiser.

If you recognize donors while a fundraising campaign is still underway, encourage them to share their shoutout among their own networks to get other people interested. Then, new potential supporters may visit your social media profiles or your website to learn more and, hopefully, give to your cause.Ěý

Your nonprofit’s cause is worth sharing and supporting. Now that you have the tools to spread the word with your website, it’s time to get to work. Use a nonprofit website builder to make necessary updates and promote your fundraising efforts across the Internet.Ěý

Better yet, partner with a nonprofit web design company to hand the reins over to tech-savvy professionals. They’ll help you optimize your site for fundraising so you can focus more of your time on strengthening your relationships with donors instead of learning how to code! Good luck!

The post 5 Easy Ways Your Website Can Boost Your Fundraising Results appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.

Developing audience personas can help you create more targeted marketing efforts. Instead of trying to market your website to a vast array of individuals, you can narrow down your target market to just a few overarching personas that represent different audience segments.

According to , an audience persona is “a detailed description of your target customer, written as if the persona were a real person.” Your personas should include plenty of rich detail, such as each individual’s demographics, hobbies, and motivations.

In this guide, we’ll explore these tips for developing useful and relevant personas that help you approach web design and user engagement more strategically:

1. Research your target audience.
2. Develop personas based on shared characteristics.
3. Map the website visitor journey.
4. Adjust your content strategy to appeal to users’ needs.
5. Evolve your personas over time.

Let’s start by reviewing how you can research your target audience to identify your major supporter segments.

1. Research your target audience.

Begin by digging into your audience data and website metrics to understand what your current audience looks like. Use these resources to support your research process:

• Google Analytics. How are audience members finding your website? Knowing where visitors are coming from can help you understand which marketing channels your audience prefers. For example, if you receive a lot of traffic from organic search, you can focus on improving your SEO marketing approach.
• Internal data. What do you already know about your audience members? Review your nonprofit’s internal database to assess supporter data points such as demographics, behaviors, interests, geographic location, occupation, and more.
• Social media engagement data. Who interacts with your nonprofit on social media? Understanding who shares and comments on your posts can give you a better idea of the type of content your online audience is most interested in. By reviewing your audience members’ social media profiles, you can also see if they interact with similar organizations or discuss topics relevant to your nonprofit’s mission. If you’re missing any supporters’ social media information, you can to add this information to your database.

Your audience research can give you a better understanding of your current audience composition and reveal any gaps you need to fill in your data.

2. Develop personas based on shared characteristics.

To build your audience personas, you’ll take the information you gathered through research to get a sense of the common attributes present in your audience. Take the following steps to build your personas:

• See what patterns and archetypes emerge from your user research. Summarize your audience research to start grouping audience members based on commonly shared characteristics. Create your personas from the major segments that arise. For instance, you might create a persona for young supporters, middle-aged supporters, and senior supporters. Or, you might create personas based on audience motivation, such as ones for donors, volunteers, and community members looking to access your services.
• Bring your personas to life with specific information such as a name, age, occupation, income, and motivation for using your website. For example, one persona for a nonprofit might be Helen, a 60-year-old woman looking for a new primary care physician in her area. Be sure to include information about each persona’s pain points and how your organization’s website can address their needs.

You can use this template to ensure you’re bringing your personas to life with plenty of specific details:

The template includes areas to input information about each persona’s name, job title, industry, geographic area, age, level of technical expertise, and average time spent on your website. Plus, it helps you think through each persona’s needs, goals, and barriers, and how your nonprofit can address those needs through your messaging.

3. Map the website visitor journey.

The website visitor or user journey defines the exact steps and actions visitors take while interacting with your website. This includes the links they click, the information they review, the forms they fill out, and other actions.

Create clear user pathways or maps for each persona. Depending on your organization’s mission, your website might include visitor journeys for audience members such as:

• Donors: These audience members are looking for information about how your organization uses donations and your online donation form.
• Volunteers: Volunteers are interested in details about your volunteer opportunities, schedule, and your volunteer registration page.
• Constituents: Community members and beneficiaries are seeking information about how to receive aid from your organization.
• Corporate sponsors: These audience members want to see specifics about your corporate sponsorship opportunities, such as online advertising opportunities or event sponsorships.

You can make the browsing experience simpler for these personas by including calls to action (CTAs) or menu items that speak to their needs and interests. For example, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America website allows visitors to self-identify as a certain audience persona, and then access information that’s relevant to their needs.

Visitors can choose whether they are a parent, teen, educator, alum, or supporter. From there, they are sent to a detailed web page with all the information they need to know to get more involved.

Determine how you can structure your website so that each audience member can easily find the information they’re looking for. Browse through lists of for more examples of how different organizations approach the user journey.

4. Adjust your content strategy to appeal to users’ interests.

Adopt a varied content strategy that intentionally includes content types that appeal to each of your primary audiences. Strategize how you can appeal to your audience with the following content:

• Blog posts. Vary your blog content so that it speaks to several audiences. For instance, you might create posts recapping your volunteer events, thanking peer-to-peer fundraisers for their support, explaining your nonprofit’s current major projects, or highlighting your upcoming fundraising campaigns.
• Landing pages. Your volunteer registration page, online donation page, and other essential landing pages should include content that’s relevant to your audience. For example, your online donation page should include a variety of donation options for different audience needs, such as monthly giving options, pledges, and matching gift information.
• Visuals. Your photos, videos, and infographics should also appeal to and feature different types of audience members. Make sure your visuals don’t just show one type of community member, but individuals that represent all of your audiences to show the diversity of your supporter community.

Your content plays a major role in engaging web visitors and encouraging them to stay on your website for longer. When each audience member can easily find content that speaks to them, they’ll view your website as a much more valuable resource.

5. Evolve your personas over time.

Your audience’s interests and motivations will naturally evolve over time, so you should continually update your user personas as needed. Refreshing your audience personas allows you to continue engaging with community members effectively and anticipating their needs.

Update your personas by:

• Collecting ongoing user feedback. Use a tool like to assess website visitor heat maps to determine how users are engaging with your site. You can also create short on-site surveys to gather direct user feedback. Review these results to determine how you can update your site to better appeal to user needs.
• Keeping your internal database clean and updated. Maintain data hygiene within your nonprofit’s internal database by continually auditing your data and removing duplicate, outdated, or inaccurate information as needed. Create standard data entry procedures to ensure any new data is added properly and kept organized. This will allow you to access accurate audience data such as demographics and occupations to refresh your personas as needed.
• Making content adjustments to continue appealing to your core audiences. Assess website analytics such as average time spent on page and bounce rate to determine whether your content is effectively engaging your audience. Take a close look at your most engaging pages to determine what makes them so successful in capturing audience attention.

The more you listen to your audience to understand what they want from your website, the more online support you can drive for your cause.

Knowing who your core audience members are can make your nonprofit web design process much simpler. Understanding your primary audience personas and updating your records over time ensures that your website will remain a flexible, engaging tool for marketing your cause online.

The post 5 Tips to Build Audience Personas for Your Nonprofit Website appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.

Online marketing is not only cost-effective, but it expands your organization’s reach beyond traditional mailed invitations and posted flyers. These five tips can help maximize your golf tournament’s online presence:

1. Use golf tournament management software.

Using a software platform built just for golf makes it simple to promote your tournament, especially when it includes a custom event registration website. This makes sharing the event with supporters as simple as sharing a link via email, social media, SMS, or push notifications.

Ěýusing golf event management software to:

• Reach avid golfers in your area looking for charity tournaments to play in
• Collect golfer and sponsor information for further donor stewardship and invitations to other fundraising events and subsequent golf tournaments

• Offer the option for people to make a donation, even if they can’t play in the tournament
• Allow supporters to follow along on live leaderboards
• Connect with your organization and learn more about your cause

The right tech tool makesĚýĚýsimple and efficient.

2. Optimize your organization’s website for accessibility and user-friendliness.

Your nonprofit’s website is the hub of your digital presence. And while you likely update content regularly, do you consider the user’s experience? When prospective golf tournament attendees and sponsors visit your website, can they easily navigate through the site to find what they’re looking for?

Accessibility and user-friendliness should be priorities for the best possible experience for all visitors, but also to increase your site’sĚýSEO value, and ultimately, your organization’s reach for fundraising events like your golf tournament.

AĚýpowerful nonprofit website builderĚýcan help you implement these best practices so your website is as user-friendly as possible:

• Prioritize accessibility.ĚýAdd alt text to images, avoid flashing colors and illegible text, and properly use headings to organize content. You can also use high-contrast colors in the site’s design, avoid abbreviations and misspellings that might cause screen readers to mispronounce words, and use captions for images with embedded text.
• Reduce load speeds., laggy load speed is the driver behind a staggering 32% increase in website bounce rates. Speed your website up by reducing unnecessary code in the backend of your CMS and optimizing image sizes for the web.
• Ensure your site is mobile-friendly.Ěýcomes from mobile devices and 92% of web surfers access the internet using their smartphones. Your website should be responsive; that is, automatically resize and reformat for viewing on any size screen.

3. Leverage your social media presence.

Use your organization’s social channels to spread the word about your golf tournament and invite people to get involved. Prioritize the platforms where you have the strongest presence and can reach your target audience. If you have the resources available, consider running targeted ads to broaden your reach. You can focus your ad’s audience by demographics, interests, geographic location, age, and other factors to hone in on the folks most likely to play in or sponsor your charity golf tournament. Make sure any social media posts direct users back to your event’s registration website so they can get involved as soon as they hear about it.

Social media is also a great place to recognize sponsors of your golf tournament and publicly thank them for their support. This can prompt other businesses to get involved, so be sure to include the link to your event website where they can purchase a sponsorship, register a team, or make a donation in support of your cause.

4. Use Google Ad Grants.

Make the most out of this free resource: the GoogleĚýGoogle Ad Grants programĚýgives nonprofits up to $10,000 of premium real estate atop the Google results pageĚýevery month! This can be a boon for registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations to not only market your golf event, but get even more visibility for your cause online.

If you’re already taking advantage of a Google Ad Grant, run a campaign around your charity golf tournament in the months and weeks leading up to the event date. As soon as you have a date set for next year, consider running a new campaign to get it on supporters’ radars as soon as possible.

If not, don’t wait to get started! Either way, you may want to consider working with aĚýĚýif you need help deciding the best keywords to target for your campaign and ensure your organization complies with Google’s rules.

5. Segment your audience to target your invitations.

Your donor database is a gold mine of information; it’s just a matter of segmenting it properly. A one-size-fits-all approach may not be the bestĚýdigital strategyĚýto garner support for your golf tournament, so drill down further and divide the records into useful chunks.

There are a number of data points you can use to segment your donor data for different promotional email campaigns, including:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Giving capacity
• Giving history
• Participation in events
• Volunteer history

Next, craft targeted marketing messages that appeal to each of your desired segments. For example, you might invite a supporter to register a team to play in the tournament that’s happening at a golf course in their community. Separately, you could make a more focused appeal to a high-capacity donor that previously supported your gala for a donation to support the tournament.

The Bottom Line

Marketing your charity golf tournament online is necessary for a successful, lucrative event that raises money for an important cause. Whether it’s through golf event management software, your organization’s website, social media, online ads, or targeted email campaigns, your nonprofit can leverage its digital presence to attract players and sponsors for a lucrative golf fundraiser.

The post 5 Tips for Marketing Your Charity Golf Tournament Online appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.

A well-designed website will give your organization the momentum it needs to expand its reach, drive donations, and deepen connections with supporters. However, if your nonprofit is new to web design, creating a strong digital presence can feel overwhelming. To create a site that accurately represents your organization and stirs up passion for your cause, you’ll need to develop a web design strategy.

As you launch your nonprofit’s website, these tips will help you get started:

• Incorporate your organization’s branding.
• Add accessibility features.
• Create a well-designed donation page.

Your website should effectively introduce new users to your organization and keep existing supporters engaged with your cause. Use these essential tips to turn your site into an asset that actively boosts your donor acquisition and retention, helping you create a thriving supporter base.Ěý

Incorporate your organization’s branding.

Your nonprofit needs a way to stand out from the digital crowd. A surefire way to distinguish your organization from other nonprofit organizations online is by clearly branding your website. Nonprofit branding can help your organization:

• Boost visibility
• Strengthen relationships with supporters
• Increase your nonprofit’s credibility

To maintain consistent branding across your website, build a digital style guide with your unique elements that you’ll use to communicate your brand. You can then reference this guide whenever you create new content. According to , you should include the following brand elements in your style guide:

• Colour palette. Choose a few colours that work well together and speak to your organization’s values. For example, blue conveys feelings like trust and authority in audiences, while red is often associated with passion. If you’re an environmental organization, you could create a colour palette with blue and green to speak to your commitment to the environment.Ěý
• Typography. Decide the fonts, use of capitalization, and hierarchy of text headings you’ll use throughout your website. Select fonts that are easy to read so users can engage with your content without getting distracted. For example, many nonprofits use sans-serif fonts for their clarity and legibility.Ěý
• Mission and positioning. What sets your nonprofit apart from other organizations championing the same cause? Your website is your opportunity to prove to users why they should support your organization, so leverage your nonprofit’s positioning to highlight your mission, the work you’ve done to date, and goals for the future.Ěý
• Tone. Maintain the same tone of voice throughout your content to create a consistent voice. This will facilitate users’ reading experience and create a feeling of continuity so all of your web pages feel like they belong to your nonprofit.Ěý
• Logo. Your should be simple, memorable, and representative of your organization’s values. Display your logo in the top middle or left hand corner of each webpage to boost brand visibility.

You can also extend these elements to your email newsletters, social media graphics, and other marketing materials to create a unified brand across your in-print and digital presence. If you modify any of these branding elements, make sure to reflect this change in your style guide so all members of your team know how to express your updated brand.Ěý

Add accessibility features.

The to people of all abilities. By prioritizing accessibility in your design, you’ll open your nonprofit up to wider audiences, expanding your support base. Plus, a user-friendly design makes it more likely that supporters will spend more time exploring your website’s resources and even donate to your cause.Ěý

Incorporate these accessibility features into your to promote inclusivity:

• Alt text. Include a brief description that summarizes your images and how they relate to the rest of your content. This allows people with visual impairments to still engage with your visual elements and build an emotional connection with your organization, especially if your images highlight constituents and your nonprofit’s work in the community.Ěý
• Colour contrast. Maintain a colour contrast ratio of at least 4:5:1 to facilitate a positive reading experience. Your text should stand out boldly on each page so your content is legible and easily accessible by all users.Ěý
• Closed captions. If your website has video content, provide closed captions that are in sync with the audio content. Closed captions make it easy for people with hearing disabilities to access your content.Ěý
• Sequential HTML heading tags. Your heading tags should occur in a hierarchical order, so ensure your title uses an H1 tag, subheaders use H2 tags, and so on.Ěý

To make your website more accessible, explore the (WCAG) for a complete list of standards to follow. Following these guidelines will not only boost your accessibility, but will also help your website rank higher on search engines.Ěý

Create a well-designed donation page.Ěý

Your donation page is the foundation of your online fundraising strategy. An informative and user-friendly donation page is much more likely to inspire donations and encourage people to give again in the future. As a result, you can establish a reliable donation pipeline to fund your nonprofit’s events, programs, and invaluable services year-round.Ěý

Make sure your donation page has the following elements to ensure a positive user experience:

• Flexible payment options. Offer donors multiple payment options beyond credit and debit card, including Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle. This allows donors to choose their preferred way to give, making the donation process more convenient.Ěý
• PCI-compliant payment processor. Choose a donation tool that includes a secure payment processor so your donors’ private information is protected and your nonprofit can safely receive donated funds. This will also help donors build trust in your organization.Ěý
• Monthly giving option. Add a monthly giving option to your donation page to encourage recurring giving. Recurring giving is especially useful for frequent donors, since they’ll only have to fill out their billing information and donation amount one time. Then, this amount will automatically be transferred to your nonprofit’s bank account each month, saving your donors time and boosting your nonprofit’s revenue.Ěý

You’ll also want to ensure that your donation page, and the rest of your website, is optimized for mobile use. Mobile-friendly websites make it easy for users to engage with your content and give to your organization via their smartphones. In fact, found that mobile-friendly donation pages yield 34% more donations, making it well worth your time to optimize your site for mobile users.Ěý

Use free tools, like Google Lighthouse, to audit your website performance for mobile and find areas of improvement. For example, you can check for elements like page load speed, image quality, and accessibility to improve your mobile users’ experience.Ěý

A comprehensive, well-designed website can help take your nonprofit’s mission to the next level. With these tips, your nonprofit can effectively attract new donors and keep existing donors actively engaged in your cause. If you’re new to the web design process, partner with a reputable to build a strong digital presence. Good luck!Ěý

The post How to Build a Strong Digital Presence for Your Nonprofit appeared first on 91ż´Ć¬.