The Nonprofit Website Insider

Issue 22: Is your homepage doing its job? 🖥️ 🧐

Homepage improvement tips, and upcoming webinars on Text-to-Speech and a comparison of WordPress to Squarespace.

Hi website champions,

Is your homepage starting to feel like a three-ring circus? It's a common scenario: everyone in your organization vying for the spotlight, shouting "Put up my event!" "Feature my news story!" "Showcase this interview with the Executive Director!"

But the homepage isn’t the right place for everything on your site. It certainly isn’t the right place for everything at once. The homepage has specific jobs to do, and it needs to do them well. 

What are those jobs?

  • Make it clear what your organization does. Your homepage should succinctly explain your mission, perhaps with a few illustrative stories or impactful photos. It's often the first stop for users who find one of your interior pages via search and want to know, "Who's behind this content?" or "Can I trust this organization?" (How do you tell if your homepage is clear? Just a little bit of user testing can be really useful!)

  • Provide a roadmap to your website. Your homepage, in conjunction with your navigation, should give visitors a mental map of your site. It should help them understand what content is available and how to find it easily.

  • Offer clear, prioritized calls to action (CTA). Every prominent "ask" on your homepage—whether it's to register, read more, sign up, or donate—is a call to action. But beware: too many equal-priority CTAs can overwhelm visitors. Stick to a few easy actions that a lot of homepage visitors would do (from the bottom tier of an engagement pyramid or ladder.)

So, the next time someone in your organization pushes for homepage space, ask yourself: Does this content serve one of our homepage's key jobs? If not, it might be better suited for an interior page where interested visitors can find it through well-structured navigation.

Your digital ringmaster,

Laura

Dive Deeper

9 Key Characteristics of Great Nonprofit Websites | GiveForms

Written by a donation product provider, take this article’s mentions of calls to action with a grain of salt. That said, this is some solid advice about the visitor-first approach we should all be taking to our websites… homepage first.

Carousels: No one likes you | Joni Halabi

Carousels on homepages: a favorite of nonprofit staff, a headache for visitors. Carousels are a convenient way to avoid tough choices about content prioritization, but visitors rarely click through them, and they're generally terrible for usability. In almost all cases, it’s better to build a homepage that showcases the 2-3 most important things you're dithering over. It beats a carousel any day.

The Biggest Branding Mistakes Nonprofits Make: 3 Essential Fixes | Nonprofit Tech for Good

Trying to figure out exactly how to make it clear what you do? This article by Lyn Chamberlin has some good considerations to refine how you talk about yourself and your mission.

Free Webinars

Mini-Webinar: Ohio Legal Help’s “Listen to Article” feature

Tues, Sep 24, 12-12:30 EST

Join me and Susan Choe of Ohio Legal Help for a look at their website's new Text-to-Speech feature, which is particularly useful for those trying to reach low literacy audiences. Susan will demo this functionality, which allows users to listen to the text of pages and articles, and share how it's working for them. We'll go over the implementation process, including the scope of the project, any challenges they faced, and advice for others considering similar accessibility features. After this 20-minute or so deep dive, we'll have a bit of time for your questions.

Squarespace vs. WordPress for smaller nonprofit sites: A head-to-head comparison

Wed, October 23rd, 12-1:00 EST

Join me as I host Ed Harris from Blue Hills Digital, an expert in implementing both SquareSpace and WordPress for nonprofits. We'll explore the key differences between these platforms, helping you pick the best fit for your nonprofit's small to mid-sized website. Ed will demo the back-end functionality of each platform, giving you a first-hand look at how they operate. There will be time at the end to address your specific questions. This webinar is perfect for nonprofit staff considering changing platforms, creating a new site, or adding a microsite.