What makes a good charity website?.

The research looked at more than 200,000 different web pages and found that many users leave within 10 to 20 seconds, with the average site visit lasting less than a minute. These are fairly stark statistics, and I expect they will surprise many of you reading this. The truth is, most people do not care about your website as much as you think they do. They are not lapping up every update, post or cleverly worded mission statement anywhere near as much as you are probably thinking.

Harsh, perhaps, but this is the likely reality.

What is clear is that the time you have to grab your visitor's interest is incredibly short. If you want several minutes of their time, rather than a handful of seconds, you then need to give them a reason to stay. This can be done, but you need to communicate your value proposition concisely and clearly, ideally within those first 10 seconds.

Before you give up in complete despair - I want you to know its not all doom and gloom! There are a number of strategies I will share with you which will help you stack the odds a little bit back in your favour.

It clearly explains the charity's mission

Essentially, this is the what, who and how. This message has to be front and centre on your homepage. 

It still baffles me when I see a website that makes me scroll or click to understand exactly what the charity actually does. You should never make the visitor work for this information. If you do, you can wave goodbye to that attention.

This piece of vital content should be clear, concise and use plain language. It shouldn't be "clever" or use internal language. It should be written in a way that your visitors understand instantly and easily.

Consider these two headlines:

1) Standing with young people facing homelessness

It sounds positive, but what does it actually tell us? 

2) Working to end youth homelessness in Luton by providing accommodation, education and support services.

The second might not sound as clever, but I know exactly what the charity exists to do and how it intends to do it. For those first few seconds of somebody's visit, that clarity is far more valuable.

It communicates authority and empathy

Authority and empathy are two of the most important signals users look for when visiting your website, and you should always be clear on both. Visitors want to be assured that you understand the problem, that you deeply care and that you have the experience and expertise to be in the best position to respond.

This can be done in various ways. Partnerships, qualifications, past successes, case studies and statistics are all good examples of the kind of content that can be used. Stories and testimonials from the people you support can also demonstrate that you understand the human side of the problem. 

It makes important actions obvious

You don't get if you don't ask!

It can be very easy to assume that users know what you want them to do, but experience tells me you should never assume. It is far better to be as obvious and explicit as possible.

Most charity websites have at least one action they would love their visitors to carry out. Sign up, donate, download a resource or volunteer, these are all legitimate requests. Your website needs to make these actions clear. I always think of a good call to action (CTA) as having three key components that should be clear for it to be successful.

1. What do you want them to do? For example, "We would like you to volunteer at our annual event."

2. How do they do it? Fill in this form below 

3. What happens next? A member of our team will call you with all the details.

A webpage should ideally be focused on a single main action, which should be available at different points on the page, especially if it has a large scroll. It should visually stand out from everything else and be easy to find.

If you have gone to the effort of explaining who you are and what you do beautifully, make sure you don't drop the ball when it comes to asking for action.

It demonstrates impact

Users want to back the winning team, or at the very least, the team they feel has the best chance of winning.

For charities, this means showing people that the work you are doing is actually making a difference. It is one thing to explain the scale of the problem and another to demonstrate what your organisation is doing about it.

Statistics are great for this. If you supported 2,000 people last year, say so. If 80% of people completing one of your programmes achieved a particular outcome, that is useful information. Case studies, testimonials and real stories can then give those numbers some context and help visitors understand what that impact actually looks like for a real person.

I think the strongest charity websites do both. They use numbers to demonstrate the scale of their impact and stories to make that impact feel real.

It works well technically

Your website has to work, perfectly.

More than half of users leave a site if they have to wait two or three seconds for a page to load, so page load speed is absolutely vital if you want to grab your users' attention. All websites obviously have to be optimised for mobile users, we were having that conversation years ago, but there is a subtle difference between having a website that is optimised for mobile and one which has actually been designed and built with mobile users in mind from the start.

It is also worth mentioning the other functional elements that can make or break your site's success, such as good navigation, effective search, and forms and donations working properly and as expected.

There is no excuse for your website not being technically excellent and, if it isn't, it is almost certainly costing you somewhere.

It feels cared for and loved

You can normally spot a neglected website fairly quickly, and we have probably all been guilty of this at some point.

There is an event from 2022 still sitting under "What's coming up", half the team have left, one of the buttons goes nowhere and somebody is still wishing visitors a Merry Christmas in February.

I always advise clients to avoid time related content if there is any danger of not updating or removing it afterwards. There is nothing wrong with publishing news, events and updates, but if they are going to sit untouched for the next three years, they can very quickly do more harm than good.

Your website is part of how people judge your organisation. Keeping it accurate, current and working properly shows that somebody is paying attention, which in turn builds trust and authority.

Whether we like it or not, if you do any kind of marketing, you are competing in the attention economy and, unfortunately, digital marketing is pretty ruthless when it comes to the amount of time you are given to capture that attention.

However, we have plenty of tools at our disposal, so it is not a hopeless cause. If you follow these simple principles, you will be well on the way to keeping visitors engaged for longer and giving them a reason to stay.