The Nonprofit Website Insider

Tips for building trust and credibility through your website, and a free user user testing webinar.

Welcome to Issue 13 of The Nonprofit Website Insider! I’m Laura S. Quinn, a consultant with 25+ years of helping nonprofits with websites. I help staff as a Website Coach + Guide, and to define Website Strategies.


Hi, website champions!

There's likely no higher goal for most nonprofit websites than establishing deep credibility and trust with visitors. It's what inspires people to take action, donate, and join your cause. But creating that rock-solid credibility factor? Easier said than done.

This week's newsletter explores concrete strategies to boost the credibility of your nonprofit's website. First up, I've given the classic Stanford Web Credibility Guidelines a modern nonprofit remix, breaking down 10 principles, from design considerations to content priorities, to help you project legitimacy, authority, and human connection from the moment someone lands on your homepage.

We're also digging into a recent study on what website factors were linked to major traffic wins or flames after Google's 2023 algorithm shakeup. Plus, practical pointers on auditing your site for both technical and experiential trust cues that'll have supporters believing in you through and through, and a free webinar.

Your trusty web guide,

Laura

Articles

10 guidelines for nonprofit website credibility | Laura S. Quinn Consulting

Almost 20 years ago, Stanford University published a first-of-it’s-kind set of guidelines describing research based principles for creating a highly credible website. Amazingly, they still are nearly completely applicable. However, these guidelines were never written to be specific to nonprofits, so I went ahead and updated the guidelines for today’s nonprofit world.

Landing page psychology: From sketchy to trustworthy and engaging | Growth Design

Growth Design applies the rules of psychology to web design issues, and reinforces an important lesson: As a website manager, your job is to make it easy for users to understand and take action — not force them to figure things out on their own. A really fun, animated example of the power of visual design.

Replenishing trust: Civil society’s guide to reversing the trust deficit | Spitfire

In the world at large, establishing trust obviously requires more than a credible website. Spitfire, a firm well known for deep thinking about branding, provides both a short article and a detailed report about what actions your organization can do to boost your community’s trust in you and the sector as a whole.

Nonprofit Credibility: Does your website help or hurt? | Wired Impact

Another useful look at boosting website credibility, these recommendations from Wired Impact also align with Stanford’s research on website credibility factors, another sign that these guidelines are enduring and much needed.

What makes Google trust your site?: A 50-Site study | Zyppy SEO

A rigorous study that pinpointed which factors correlate with significant traffic gains or losses stemming from Google's late 2023 core algorithm updates. Among the potential credibility signals Google now seems to be rewarding? The use of first-person pronouns, demonstrated first hand expertise, clear contact information in the footer, and prominent social media links in the header. In essence, the findings suggest Google is surfacing content it deems written by actual humans speaking from authentic experience — not drastically different from how we establish trust face-to-face, huh?

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