In the internet age, it’s more important than ever for your local community group to have a good website. It’s one of the first ports of call for people who want to find out more about you and what your group does, so if it’s not clear then…they’ll steer clear. You can also branch out and increase your group’s visibility. There might be people in your local community who are unaware of what you do, so being able to demonstrate your work is vital. A website gives you the opportunity to create content, give updates and shout about how great the work your group does really is. If you’re not too sure where to start and you’re putting a website together yourself then we’ve got some tips.
Think about who your audience is and what they’ll be interested in hearing about. Try to write your content with an appropriate tone of voice and aim to appeal to people that you know use your services or people that your group would like to see at future events. Deciding what you want to communicate to your audience and the best way to do it is something you should think about before you do anything else.
Ensure that the theme you’ve chosen for your website matches. If people visit your website and instantly recognise logos and colour schemes, they’ll know they’re in the right place and they’ll see a joined-up brand. If they see this theme on your website, they’ll also be able to recognise it in other places; if they see a poster around your community or an event you’re hosting, they’ll identify your community group.
Once you’ve got people to visit your website, you want to make sure that they keep coming back and they’ll only do that if they found something interesting in the first place. Publishing regular blog posts and creating new content will help to educate people about your community group, give updates on your work and show people how and when they can get involved. Being able to communicate how you help in your community will help to increase awareness.
Keep your website design simple. You might be inundated with ideas, but if people visit your website and are faced with reams of text, dozens of paragraphs and a messy structure, it’s unlikely that someone will read through all of it. Get your main messages across in a clear and concise way and people will visit your website and be able to distinguish what you’re all about.
Use images and videos where you can, so that you can offer something else apart from text. It’ll break up sections of your website and you can demonstrate the work your group does or how people can get involved through a video. Video is set to make up around 90% of online traffic by 2019, so being able to engage people in this way is one way of increasing your visibility.
