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States, Centers, & Chapters > Chapter Resources
Website Building FAQ
We use language in this document that contains many terms specific to the Web world. You may wish to refer to this Glossary
of Web site Building Terms.
You may also want to read Tips for Designing (or Redesigning) a Nonprofit Web Site by Chris Peters from TechSoup.org.
- How will having a website
benefit our Chapter?
More and more often, people turn
to the Web as their primary resource for information.
Potential members may want to know how to contact a Chapter,
read about Chapter accomplishments, view the field trip
schedule, or find out how to become a member. The Chapter
can be found more easily by potential supporters through
a website, blog, forum or other Web presence.
- What costs are associated
with building a website?
The cost of having a website can
range from free—if using a free website authoring/hosting
interface and a public library with Internet access—to
thousands of dollars, depending on what type of website
is desired and what kind of budget looks like. Here are
the potential costs:
- You will need to purchase a domain
name (URL) for the website, such as www.birdieaudubon.org,
unless you are creating a site through free web software
such as Geocities.com,
or if you are using free blogging or social networking
services. Domain names expire after a year or so, depending
on your contract, and must be renewed to retain the
website. One or more domain names are often supplied
for free by the hosting service (see below), but may
also be purchased separately from a domain name registrar.
- A website hosting
service provides servers (very beefy computers) that
store your website files and make them accessible around-the-clock
via the Internet. Some free website hosting services
are available, such as Geocities.com or a free blogging
service. Often, the hosting company will offer one or
more free domain names (see above) with their service.
The host may also offer a variety of other services,
such as email accounts, databases, statistical analyses
of page visits, and more. Examples of hosting services
include Bluehost.com
and GoDaddy.com.
- You’ll need an Internet
connection if you plan to author the website
yourself. A dial-up connection is the least expensive
option, but can be somewhat cumbersome for uploading
large files to the server. A Cable Modem or DSL (Digital
Subscriber Line) is much faster.
- If you plan to build the website
yourself, you may need to purchase website authoring
software, such as Adobe
Dreamweaver, if you are not going to use a free,
open-source program, such as KompoZer
(see #9 for more software programs).
- If you plan to seek expertise
outside of your Chapter for website authoring, you’ll
call on a Web Designer and possibly
a Web Developer. A Web Designer focuses
on the look and feel of the website, whereas a Web Developer,
or Programmer, builds the functionality that allows
for a more complex, interactive website (such as one
that involves a database, or requires programming, e.g.,
for a “join now” membership form). If you are planning
for a static website (one that provides information
only and no user interactivity), then a Web Designer
is all you need.
- Do you have any tips on website
design or content authoring?
Think carefully about the purpose
of your website and your target audience. Is your purpose
to draw in new members? To provide information? To show
off beautiful photos of birds or your Chapter’s conservation
projects? To sell products? Or all of the above? What
demographic are you trying to attract? What is your budget
for building and managing the website? Who will build
and manage the site? All of these questions will help
you focus in on appropriate design and content.
If your Chapter has no funds and
no internal expertise in website-building, you may consider
a free online blog, forum, wiki, or a “nearly free” web
hosting service that has a user-friendly interface for
website authoring (A WYSIWYG—What You See Is What You
Get—interface, as opposed to writing HTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript
or other coding language). If you want all the bells and
whistles, go with a Content Management System (CMS) such
as Drupal, WordPress, or Joomla, which can offer backend
management (you get a username and password and can log
in from any computer to edit the content of your website
without special software), visitor interactivity through
blogs and discussion boards, and databases for storing
many files.
- Does Audubon provide Chapter website templates or training on web design/management?
Not at present. There are many free website templates currently
available online, such as through http://www.freecsstemplates.org.
As Chapters are incorporated entities separate from the
National Audubon Society, their websites cannot mimic the
design of the National
Audubon Society website nor be hosted on the national
website. Techsoup.org
sometimes has free Webinars for non-profits on social networking
services, website authoring, and more.
- Can we use Audubon’s logo on our website?
According to Audubon’s Logo
Use Guidelines—Chapters may use Audubon’s logo on
their Chapter websites, as long as it is not incorporated
into the Chapter logo or website banner. The Audubon logo
may be linked to www.audubon.org
and must be accompanied by the text “YOUR CHAPTER NAME
Audubon Society is a Chapter of the National Audubon Society”.
- How can I find a list of other Chapter’s websites?
You may gather ideas for your site
by browsing other Chapter websites through the Chapter Locator. Select a state
to view from the dropdown menu and click on the underlined
links on Chapter names, which will take you to their websites.
You may use the websites to get ideas about what sorts of
content the various Chapters post, but do not copy the Chapter’s
website design or content, as copyright laws apply.
- What are some characteristics
of good web page design?
Keep your home page simple, attractive
and easy to navigate. Visitors will decide in less than
1 second whether to stay on your site or not, so keep
the number and size of images to a minimum (each image
should be optimized to 72ppi and have a size no greater
than 10KB, except maybe for your banner image or feature
image on a page), make the navigation menus and buttons
easy to find (usually horizontally near the top or vertically
near the top right or left of each page).
Each page on your site should have
a similar design theme. For example, use the same colors
and place the navigation menu in the same spot. Give your
potential customers/members the feeling they are still
on your site when they visit different pages, yet be sure
to identify each page with an appropriate title (e.g.,
instead of a general title tag for every page, such as
“Birdie Audubon Society”, tailor the title to the content
of the page, as in “Audubon Birding Field Trips in Pocatello,
Idaho”). Colors and patterns should be pleasing to the
eye—not busy or distracting.
To keep visitors from having to
scroll horizontally on your pages, build your design at
no greater than 750 pixels wide, or create a flexible
design that can expand for those with higher-resolution
monitors. When possible, use text instead of images for
links (especially for the navigation menu).
Flash intro pages may annoy repeat
visitors, cannot be viewed by vision-impaired people (see
below), and do not help to boost your Search Engine Ranking
(see below).
For more information on website
design, search online for “web design tips”.
- What considerations do we
need to make for vision-impaired Web visitors?
Be mindful of visitors with vision
impairment, including color-blindness. Black or dark text
on a white background is the most easily read. Stay away
from busy backgrounds behind text. Sans-serif fonts, such
as Arial and Verdana are the easiest to read on screen,
and the font size should be no smaller than about 10 point.
Vision-impaired Internet users may use an electronic screen
reader that reads the text aloud to them. Therefore, building
a website mostly or entirely using images would be very
inaccessible to this subset of users. Be sure that all
links are actual text (not images), limit the use of PDF
documents (e.g., provide an HTML newsletter version if
possible), and provide “alt tags” (HTML tags used to describe
an image) for all images. See http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/Overview.html
if you would like to delve further into website accessibility.
- What type of software will
I need to build our website?
Depending on what type of website
you want, you may not need any special software at all.
You’ll need to do a bit of research on your own to see
what is available for your needs, but here is a sampling:
Website hosting and/or Website authoring:
Image manipulation:
- How do we get photos and
graphics for our website?
You may find copyright-free photos
and illustrations online for free (e.g., Wetlands Clip Art,
Clip
Art & Copyright Free Photos) or purchase them
through companies such as Clipart.com
or iStockPhoto.com.
Do any special considerations
apply when uploading images?
When using photos and other graphics
on the Web, be sure that they are optimized. That means
saving photos in .jpg format and illustrations/clip art
as .gif at 72ppi (pixels per inch) resolution and a small
file size (generally 10KB or less, unless the image will
be used for a banner or other large, feature image). Be
sure to get the permission of the photographer or artist
and always credit them appropriately. Be wary of using
photos of people, especially children, unless you know
the individuals or parents have signed releases that give
permission to use the photos for public posting on the
Web.
What is Search Engine Optimization
(SEO), and how do I do it to our website?
Just because you have a website
doesn’t mean that people will automatically be able to
find it when they search various keywords and phrases
(such as “Missoula Audubon”, or “birding group Missoula”).
There are literally hundreds, or even thousands, of techniques
for Search Engine Optimization you may use to try to boost
your Search Engine Ranking, although there is no guaranteed
formula. Type “search engine optimization” into your favorite
search engine (e.g., Google, Yahoo, etc.) and browse the
many (SEO) techniques. See http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/
for a wealth of ideas.
- Suggested readings for further
information:
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