A website is an organizational resource ...like an employee. There may not be a health plan but there are certainly maintenance costs. No pension plan, but you’ll want to reserve your domain name in perpetuity! The point is that a website should be regarded as an organizational resource that must pull its weight.

When the internet burst onto the business scene a scant ten years ago, there were high expectations of what the internet would mean to business. Yes, those expectations were met for some. In my hometown, the sale of million-dollar-plus homes took off as the instant high-tech millionaires gobbled up accommodations appropriate to their perceived new station. There were lots of real estate bargains to be had a year or two later.

For most of us, the internet was not the freeway to affluence, but it has become a solid road to success. The internet is the new main street in town ...where we open our shop doors and invite the world to come in and have a look at what we’re offering.

Your website is that open shop door ....potential clients, customers, funders, ...will all drop by for a visit. They will come unannounced and if they don’t like what they find, they will leave without giving you a second chance.

So, how to ensure your website works.....

Identify your goals for the site

For example, is your site expected to:

    • profile the organization
    • impress funders
    • intimidate the competition
    • attract potential employees
    • sell product
    • inform and educate
    • decrease customer service calls
    • replace paper manuals and reports

Identify your target audience

Are they:

     • clients
     • funders
     • potential employees
     • customers
     • researchers
     • general public

Research your target audience

Do they have high bandwidth or low-speed dial-up access?

Are they technologically inclined and looking for flashy bells and whistles or have low tolerance for technology and are easily frustrated?

Are they highly educated or low literacy?

Is the site targeted at the general public or a specific profession with its associate techno-speak?

Are there images that would attract this audience or others that would offend them?

Web design that promotes your brand

For example:

     • folksy and grassroots
     • high tech and cutting edge
     • warm and helpful
     • corporate and professional

Ensure your web design extends your branding out through your front door.

Provide the information they need in web format

We cannot leaf through a website in the same way we fold out a brochure or turn pages in a catalogue. This means that web content is more than just posting the print catalogue or brochure. The material must be written and formatted for web-style reading.

Site architecture that is intuitive

Organize your material into a structure that is intuitive for your specific audience.

Navigation that makes sense

Nest pages within each other so that the navigational linkages make common sense. Always provide highly visible routes back. No dead ends.

Web design that is web friendly

Cyberspace is crowded with pretty websites that no one reads. Why? Because they are hard to read. Pale grey type on a mauve background may look cool ....but it is too hard to read. Similarly, italicized and handwritten fonts, backgrounds that are composed of patterns, faded out headlines and so on.

Take advantage of what the web offers

• instantly updatable – fresh information
• room for lots of information – make your site more than a corporate brochure, offer content that is valuable to your audience
• full colour images – professionally optimize images for the web and this is virtually unlimited
• audio and video feeds – create animated or video clips to instruct or inform
• interactive forms – gather information about your visitors and/or offer them opportunities for feedback
• replace expensive print products - like manuals and instructions with web-based versions

Keep it fresh

Your website can be updated in an instant. Ensure that there is something new for your audience to look at every time they come.

Websites have the capacity to be amazing workhorses .....but only when they have clearly articulated goals and direction.

Crackling Communications can help you define those goals, map out the direction to take and make your website work for you.

Carolyn Usher

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