6 Key Elements for a Well-Designed Responsive Nonprofit Website

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Nonprofit organizations are investing in websites to ensure they have an online presence like for-profit ones. However, creating a website isn’t necessary; using it to drive more donations and attract more volunteers completes it.

Many people don’t know what a successful nonprofit website should look like after creating it. This article looks into the features most successful nonprofits have on their websites to help you get started.

Here are the things you should keep in mind.

1. Mobile Friendliness

A mobile responsive website is essential for a nonprofit website. When creating one, you should never assume that every one of your visitors will use a computer to access it. People are becoming more tech-savvy, and smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices are becoming popular by the day.

Optimizing your website for mobile ensures it displays correctly on these devices. Meaning, people do not have to sit behind a computer to find you and volunteer or donate. They can see what you’re doing and support your cause from anywhere and using any device.

You can also include other mobile-related features to attract more people to your organization. For instance, you can create mobile forms for donations and volunteer registration. Besides, you can include mobile pop-ups to pass information to users as they navigate your website.

2.Easy Navigation

Smooth navigation keeps people browsing through your website. This element directly affects user experience and how visitors interact with your website. Thus, you should ensure the navigation is intuitive, and users can readily find the information they need.

The first step towards ensuring easy navigation is having a navigation bar on your site. You should ensure that the bar is easily visible, most preferably at the top of your webpages. Besides, it should feature only pages that you intend to drive traffic to on your site.

Various insights will help you have an easy-to-navigate nonprofit website design. First, make sure you use concise and clear language. Another thing is using less than three words to label navigation tiles. Lastly, avoid using more than 1 level dropdown on the menu.

Remember, the more organized your website looks, the more visitors you will attract. The easier your website is to use for new visitors, the more conversions you can make. The harder it is to navigate, the less the number of donors and volunteers visiting your site.

3. Faster Page Loading Speeds

Another factor that impacts on user experience is the page loading speeds. Experts indicate that many website visitors will click away from your website if it takes more than 2 seconds to display content. Thus, you should ensure your site loads quickly to avoid losing a vast number of visitors.

What makes a website take long to load is the elements it contains. You should therefore minimize the elements you have on your site if you want it to load faster. Some of the best practices you can consider are using imagery only when necessary and compressing the images you use.

You should also make sure that there are minimal pop-ups as they also affect website loading speeds. Also, minimize the use of custom fonts and start using HTML and CSS more. In general, you should aim for simplicity when designing a nonprofit website, otherwise achieving two or fewer seconds will be difficult.

It is always a good practice to test your website loading speeds. Various online tools will give you the insights you need to ensure that you know what to adjust. If you optimize your website’s right parts, you will improve the loading speeds and increase conversions.

4. Proper Imagery and Graphics usage

Images and graphics communicate better and faster than text does. Thus, it would be best to incorporate them in your website to ensure you pass information more quickly. However, it would help if you were careful when using imagery on your website to ensure that you do not distract your audience.

For instance, you should make sure that the images you use are engaging and relate to your plan. Using irrelevant ideas that don’t communicate the purpose of your website is a deal-breaker. Again, using too many images on one page makes it look unappealing and would affect your audience.

There are also a few practices that you should keep in mind when using images. Ensuring that you place them strategically makes it easier to pass information to your audience. Also, make sure that your images communicate your mission and vision and, if possible, use your photos to avoid copyright issues.

5. Compelling Content

Another essential element you should keep in mind is creating engaging content. Ensure that you have relevant and high-quality content posted on your website regularly. Besides, it should be consumer-focused to ensure it adds the right kind of value to your audience.

One major factor that distinguishes nonprofits from other websites is their knowledgebase. Thus, your website visitors will often have a lot of expectations for you. Therefore, your content needs to meet their expectations and convince them to donate or volunteer to your cause.

6. On-Page SEO

SEO

Page rankings are critical for any website. Your nonprofit website needs to rank higher if you’re to get more donors and volunteers reaching out. The first step to achieving this is using on-page SEO. For every content you create, focus on using the right keywords to reach your audience better.

Besides, you should add meta titles and descriptions to create interest in your audience. With these elements, Google can easily rank your website on the first page of the SERPs. Consequently, you will have more people clicking on your contact page and enquiring about your organization.

Conclusion

Those are some of the critical elements that every nonprofit website needs. If you’re starting one today, consider including every element mentioned above and research for more elements that could add value. In the end, your website should quickly drive the right traffic and help you increase your donor and volunteer lists.

6 Key Elements for a Well-Designed Responsive Nonprofit Website

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