Maintaining your website

Your website will need ongoing attention. Be realistic when planning your site, it's better to start off with a small site that develops over time, than a larger site which you don't have the resources to maintain. Users expect up-to-date information each time they visit your website. They don't care about your resourcing issues. They expect everything to work: no broken links, no missing images, and no typos. You want them to leave the site having had a positive experience.

Key principles

• Plan a monthly and annual content schedule.
• Identify key tasks and responsibilities.
• Set an editorial style guide as you would for printed materials.
• Write, design and build new content.
• Establish quality assurance guidelines (see below).
• Establish a sign-off process.

Identify 'dynamic' content, sections that need to be updated regularly. For example:

• Micro-content - short headlines and links.
• News - remember to link to other relevant pages of your site.
• Campaigns.
• Fundraising.

Make it readable

Make sure new content links to old content and vice versa. Keep layout consistent using templates. As content increases, you may need to introduce a search facility.

Tracking effectiveness

Successful sites employ 'log file analysis' to track site effectiveness. This is done using a file on the web server which keeps track of every file request made by users. Analysis of this data is used to track usage of the site. You can buy software products help to process the data, e.g. WebTrends, WebAbacus, Microsoft Site Server, I/PRO, RedEye.

Hits and page impressions

Reports produced by the software will analyse all activity on the website including hits and page impressions. However, the most important measurement is number of visitors. Your aim should be to increase new and repeat visitors. Repeat visitors are most valued - if people are returning, they must be getting something useful from your site.

Look at 'drop off' points,' apparent problem pages where people leave the site. For example, analysis may show that the donations page causes people to leave. Consider creating 'user journeys' if your analysis indicates that popular sequences of pages are used. These can be determined by the average length of visit and number of pages per visit.

Respond to the facts

Analysing this data will give you direction about:

• Areas to re-design - problem pages.
• Areas to focus on - successful content.
• Areas to get rid of - unsuccessful content.

Find out more about other campaigning issues and examples in the In more depth section.