@keljar @guidecreative review survey results from nonprofits and best practices for key web design topics

1. 2013 WEB DESIGN TRENDS FOR
NONPROFITS
Presented by:
Kelley Jarrett, Market Manager – GUIDE Creative (@guidecreative)

2. WELCOME!

3. WINNERS!
5 Strategic expert-led website assessments
1. Riverdale Senior Center
2. International Visitors Council of San Diego
3. Friends of Lincoln Theater
4. Reading Connections
5. Wildlife Conservation Network Inc

4. W H E N WA S T H E L A S T T I M E Y O U
REDESIGNED YOUR WEBSITE?

6. HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU REDESIGN YOUR WEBSITE?
Industry Standard is to
redesign at least every 3-4
Years. But, Your Website
Should be an EVOLUTION

7. EVOLVE. CONSTANTLY.

8. DID YOU USE AUDIENCE INPUT TO HELP
YOU DESIGN YOUR WEBSITE?

10. RESONATE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
“Your website does not exist as a boutique
just to show off information about your
organization. Instead, it’s actually a tool
to mobilize your audience...”
- Raheel Gauba
“Design for Good: 4 (More) Nonprofit Design Principles” Netwits Think Tank, 10

11. DO YOU NEED TO ANALYZE YOUR AUDIENCE?
Who are you trying to engage?
What does your audience care about?
What information do they look for first?
How do they access
information?
Who do you rely on
Most to fulfill your
mission?

12. RESONATE WITH YOUR AUDIENCES
Focus on your audience needs
- Who are your audience groups and who is most important?
- What do they care about – need, goals and aspirations?
- How do they interact with you on and off your website?

13. RESONATE WITH YOUR AUDIENCES
Speak the right language
- Choose a key message and use it
consistently
- Listen for feedback on what’s working
and what’s not through social media,
blogs and surveys
- Avoid jargon, too little or too much
content
- Test!

14. H O W D I D Y O U O B TA I N T H AT I N P U T ?

15. Qualitative
is great!
Just be
SURE to
identify
trends and
ACT.
Quantitative
is key
because
trends are
EASIER to
see.

16. USER RESEARCH – QUANTITATIVE OPTIONS

17. HOW DO YOU MEASURE SUCCESS OF YOUR
WEBSITE?

19. ONLINE GIVING TRENDS
Source: Charitable Giving Report, Blackbaud

20. ONLINE ACTION
60% of donors visit a nonprofit’s website before making a gift.

21. D O E S Y O U R O R G A N I Z AT I O N U S E A W E B
A N A LY S I S T O O L L I K E G O O G L E A N A LY T I C S ?

23. 5 G O O G L E A N A LY T I C S R E P O R T S E V E RY
NONPROFIT SHOULD KNOW

24. DASHBOARD
What is it?
• Traffic
• Referrals
• Top Content
• Keywords
What to do with it?
• Change the date range filter to include “Past Comparison” to show
YOY
• Google defaults to the most recent month’s worth of data – increase to
3 months for better trends to survey peaks and valleys of traffic
• Peaks will showy what draws traffic – is it your e-newsletters or events
• Use those pages to pull traffic to other areas on the site.
• Click datapoints to add notes – “May eNews Sent”
• Use email scheduling to send a PDF of this report to key staff each
month

25. TOP CONTENT
What is it?
• View the most or least viewed pages
• Presents an overview of important data
• Unique views, exit rates, and bounce rates
What to do with?
• Ensure the most viewed pages include clear calls to action
- Especially on pages with the highest exit rates: subscribe, register, donate,
event registration, surveys
• For bounce rates over 65%, review each page’s entrance point
- Analyze and test how content, keywords or placement could improve rate
• For least viewed pages, consider deleting, moving, promoting or
linking.
• Sort by highest exit rate with an advanced filter for those viewed more
than 10% of total pageviews
- Shows pages in need of calls to action
- These are often confirmation pages, and ideal for further engagement.

26. SOURCE REPORT
What is it? – Shows details of how
users are finding your website
• Direct links (bookmarks, email)
• Referral Links (sites and social)
• Search Engines
What to do with it?
• Direct – shows which Friendly URLs are being used. Longer, hard-
URLs, with high return rates suggest webpages that have been
favorites or found from emails.
• Referral – shows which sites users come from
- High referral page bounce rates = content adjustments needed.
- Partnership opps
- Social sites most used – opp for future campaigns.
• Search engines – will help determine additional keyword usage and/or
engine optimization in order to rank higher SEO

27. KEYWORD REPORT
What is it?
• Provides top search terms used to find
your website.
What to do with it?
• Learn how people are finding your website
• Understand what language they use to describe your issue and
program(s),
• Determine if they are finding the content you want them to find with the
keywords.
With this knowledge, you can:
• Adjust keyword usage on pages you’d like ranked higher.
• Adjust your Page Title, Page Description, Headers , and first content
paragraph to include successful keywords.
• Adjust your social monitoring activity to include successful keywords

28. INTELLIGENCE ALERTS
What is it? – Uses Google algorithms to determine when something
significant has occurred on your website.
• Peak in website visitors
• Page content average views change
• Average time spent on site increases
• Change in Source percentages
What to do with it?
• Turn it on under the “My Customizations” to be alerted via email when
Google determines a significant change has occurred.
• When you receive an alert, find the reason it’s happening and do it
again!
• If there’s a peak in website visitors – try to tack it to an action. If you
can’t, note the time or external factors that may affect it.

29. I S Y O U R W E B S I T E M O B I L E - F R I E N D LY ?

31. MEET USERS WHERE THEY ARE
- In less than three years mobile will be the #1 way your
audience will access your website … Are you ready?

32. CAN YOUR USERS CONNECT VIA SOCIAL
M E D I A D I R E C T LY F R O M Y O U R H O M E PA G E ?

34. BE SOCIAL
Social media and viral sharing are highly valuable tools in
contributing to web site traffic and brand exposure
- Make it easy to connect, interact and contribute

35. BE SOCIAL
Encourage Viral Sharing
- Action Sharing
- Integrate social activities everywhere

36. W H AT A C T I O N S C A N U S E R S TA K E D I R E C T LY
F R O M Y O U R H O M E PA G E ?

38. TELL THEM TO TAKE ACTION
Let imagery and content engage users, but align actions
with your goals
- Provide a tangible to an intangible (eg. Please give $10 today
Please give 10 meals to your community today)

39. INCLUDE CLEAR, BOLD CALLS TO ACTION
Calls to action should be clear and compelling
- Never say “click here”
- Be clear, direct and descriptive: “become a habitat volunteer
today”

40. H AV E Y O U E V E R T E S T E D C O N T E N T O N
YOUR WEBSITE? IF SO, HOW?

42. CONTENT TESTING MADE EASY
1. Giving terms: Try testing online
fundraising elements like your donate
button. Test “Donate now” against
“provide a meal to a family today” to
see if the tangible element inspires
more action.
2. Colors: Try two different colors for your
donation button on your homepage.
You’ll be surprised at how much it may
affect click rates.
3. Add the Why: Try adding a quick blurb
about your current funding priorities
above the same donation button to see
if it’s inspires more clicks!

43. RESOURCES
www.guidecreative.com
www.blackbaud.com/npexperts.
www.npengage.com/
nonprofit-research/
the-2012-charitable-
giving-report/