Digital services

In a word, yes! Today’s stakeholders expect nothing less. And why wouldn’t you want one? A website is a highly cost-effective information service, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If designed well, a website will help you reach your target audience. In turn, this can increase income, engage stakeholders, promote your brand and more.

Websites can help you behind the scenes too — by automating administrative tasks, speeding up internal processes and helping you to gather insight and feedback.

Free or low-cost web solutions are great if security or accessibility isn’t an issue, or your budget is non-existent.

But using experts — like us — is crucial if you want:

• tailored design and structure;

• support on hand, helping you every step of the way;

• the most up-to-date security and hosting features;

• to adhere to the very latest accessibility guidelines;

• to integrate your site with other online offerings (like social media); or

• to customise anything (like contact forms, links with internal systems or automated updates).

This really depends what you want. We’ll make sure you know exactly what the costs are before you agree to anything. We won’t hit you with unexpected bills or any out-of-the-blue invoices.

We’ll deliver the best solution to your needs at a the price that suits. Overall, we want you to be delighted with the results. And because we only work with third sector clients, we make sure our services are great value for money.

Again, it depends on the size of the project. But once we’ve met and agreed the scope of the project, we will let you know. And of course, If you have a specific deadline we always do our very best to deliver.

A responsive website means the design and content of your website fits – and works well – on any desktop computer, tablet, or smartphone. We always include responsive versions of your website in any estimate we give you as part of our quote.

More and more websites are also now accessed through apps on mobile devices, so we believe a responsive website is vital for third sector organisations. Research suggests you’ll lose out on engagement (including donations and enquiries) if your website isn’t responsive.

Here’s an interesting report from Deloitte that tells you more.

There are lots of Content Management System available, and we’ve used them all, but settled on one — WordPress. And we’re experts in it. WordPress is the world’s most popular Content Management System (CMS) — and a breeze to use. It accounts for more websites than all of the other systems put together, and has a huge range of plug-ins that add functionality.

A WordPress website lets you – the owner — edit the content of the website in a straightforward manner. You don’t need to ask a designer to create a news article, add a new page or to change text. This gives you control and you’re not tied into using one website design company, who may charge fees to make any small changes.

At our initial project meeting we will carry out a project scoping exercise. This is where we detail what you want the website to do, who it’s for and what your users will do once they’re on your site. This determines what functionality your website needs.

The more information you can give us at this stage, the better. You may have a really good idea of who your site’s users will be, and exactly what you want the site to do. But we can discuss this in more detail with you. It’s also really useful if you can give us:

• Analytics from your current site (if you have one). This details who’s been visiting your site, and where, when and how they’ve been doing it. This helps us determine the most important aspects of your website. It then helps us work out the website’s architecture.

• Examples of websites you like (and dislike) — and why.

Creating a new website can be a big job. But, with careful planning, we’ll make it happen with the minimum of fuss. We’ll make the process stress-free, clear and straightforward. And we’re always on hand to help.

You’ll use our straightforward online project management system. This lets everyone stay in touch, exchange information and files easily and stay up to date on progress.

Here’s a typical example of the steps:

1: Project scoping

We find out the aim of your website and analyse your organisation’s and your audience’s needs. We agree the schedule and the cost and give you a written estimate for you to sign off before we progress any further.

2: Information architecture

We work closely with you to determine the structure — or ‘information architecture’ — of your new site. We organise the content so it’s easy to understand and navigate, and produce a suggested sitemap for you to approve.

3: Visual interface design

We produce a series of visual designs based on your branding and identity. After your feedback, we agree the designs

4 Site build, configuration and styling

We build a ‘development’ site based on everything we’ve agreed, and add the content. (You can provide the content — or we can help with this.) Eventually, the development site will become your live site.

At this point, you can carry out user testing with some of your key, trusted stakeholders. They have a look and feed back any suggestions for improvements, or corrections. We believe this is a vital part of the process.

5: Launch

With the site complete, and all changes made following any user testing, you’re ready for the launch! This is a real PR opportunity and we’ll help you make the most of it. It’s also a good time to think about future updates. Remember, a website is never ‘finished’ – you ideally need to make plans for future updates.

6: User training and documentation

Once the site is launched we make sure you know how to use it, so you can take full control.

The Equality Act 2010 makes organisations responsible for making their sites accessible to people with disabilities, so they can benefit from the same level of service as anyone else.

Accessibility is especially relevant to third sector organisations, particularly where service users have disabilities or conditions affecting their communication needs. Building accessible websites is a specialist and technical task, and we can help.

A fully accessible website will:

• Work on different platforms, like mobile phones, internet-enabled televisions, and screen readers (tools that help sight-impaired people access the web) — so more people can use it.

• Be google-friendly. Search engines like accessible sites and will rank it higher than a non-accessible rival site.

• Be more likely to remain suitable even as technology changes in the future.

We design all our websites in line with WCAG 2.0 guidelines, aiming to meet all level AA checkpoints.

A key aspect of accessibility is also compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) web standards – which ensure websites are easier for assistive technology (like screen readers) to access and interpret websites. All our sites are created to comply with these standards.

Yes, we manage hosting services for more than 50 organisations. Our servers are located within the UK and are fully compliant with EU legislation.

Our hosting, maintenance and support can cover:

• Hosting the website and database on our web server.

• Regular backups of website files and database.

• Free domain name registration, correctly registered in your organisation’s name and renewed on schedule.

• Domain Name System (DNS) management. This ensures your website, email and other internet services work correctly and securely.

• Software updates to WordPress and plugins. As well as making improvements to the system, it’s essential that your site’s security is as up to date as possible.

We’re open during office hours to fix any technical problems and help with any queries you may have. Our annual support package includes a set amount of phone and email technical support for you and your team, as well as fixing any bugs.

Yes. We’ll quickly help you get to grips with your site through our easy to follow training, delivered on your premises or in a specialised IT Training Suite. Our package includes a three hour session for up to three staff, covering:

• The WordPress content management system

• Specific or specialised features on your website

• Help and support.

We also give you a of range of easy to follow video guides, online help and documentation specific to your website. WordPress’s popularity also means you can find a vast amount of help both online and in print.

Your domain name is your organisation’s identity on the internet. It’s the bit after ‘www.’ in your website address and after the ‘@’ symbol in your email address.

If there’s a problem with your domain registration, it can bring down your website and your email systems. It can also put you and your organisation at risk from fraudsters.

We help you to look after domain registration and make sure that each domain is properly registered in your organisation’s name. We also cover the renewal fees so they don’t expire. We’ve even helped clients regain control of their domains after they’ve expired or been incorrectly registered.

OK, now we’re getting technical. API stands for Application Programming Interface and, very basically, it’s what your website may need to communicate with a third party website’s function. If you’ve been on a website that has a Googlemap embedded in it, that website will have a Googlemaps API key. We’re more than happy to help out with APIs and other similar interfaces and formats.

This is a key area we’re exploring. WordPress became a fully fledged application framework at the end of 2015 with the introduction of the REST API. In plain English, this means we can now build apps using WordPress. This is great news for clients and content management. Watch this space — or get in touch to find out more.

Yes. We can integrate all social media into your website, as well as connecting lots of other services like:

• Email newsletter and marketing tools (like Mailchimp);

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software (like Salesforce and CiviCRM); or

• Recruitment processes (automating job application processes and electronic job application forms)

Your website can do lots of things to help you work faster and streamlining administration can be a massive cost and time-saving benefit.

Writing for the web is different to writing other material. Poorly written copy can make customers switch off or go elsewhere.

Try to think about the copy on your website as soon as possible. If you leave the copy until the last minute, there could be delays – possibly resulting in extra costs – as things have to be moved around to accommodate it.

We can recommend professional copywriters to help with writing your content and the UK Government has some useful guidance. Here are some other tips:

• Keep it short and simple. People read differently online. Make it easy for them. Paragraphs should be no more than four short sentences long.

• Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. As with any good marketing, repetition is key in getting your point across. It’s also vital for search engine listings.

• Think about the layout. Good web copy isn’t just about supplying text. It’s important to understand the site’s layout. Are there enough words — or too many?

• Know your audience and use an appropriate ‘voice’. Formal or conversational? Use the appropriate tone for your subject matter.

• Write about the benefits. Your visitor is already at your website — they don’t want a sales pitch. They want to know what you’re going to do for them.

• Use the pyramid system. Break your key message down to headings and summaries. Then go on to explain further.

• Proof read. It’s very easy to publish content online, so it’s easy to rush things. By the time you notice a mistake, think how many people have seen it. And don’t ever rely solely on a spell checker.

• Keep content fresh and up to date. Visitors will only come back to your site if there’s something new and relevant for them to see.

• Use links. This improves your search engine rankings and increase traffic.

• Focus on the reader. Visitors want you to talk directly to them. Don’t talk at them or over their heads. Keep it conversational.

The right photographs on a website can make a huge difference to its design. It breaks text up and makes the page more memorable and appealing to the eye. It can really help with the user experience.

If your budget allows, we’ll help you get some professional photography done that is unique to your organisation, to create a library of photos that you can use in future. If the cost is prohibitive, we can offer some advice on taking your own photos. We also use good quality stock photography; this is more limited but with careful selection we can make it work well.

In theory, anything. WordPress is highly customisable and we will ensure the Content Management System is perfectly suited to your needs. You’ll probably not want to edit absolutely everything, as your site needs to retain consistency to maintain the quality of your brand and identity.

But, as a rule of thumb, you probably want to create pages (full of wonderful content), move pages around, delete pages you don’t want and edit the main content on a page. We’ll discuss your exact requirements when we scope out your project, but rest assured you can have as much or as little control over the site as you need.

Information architecture (IA) is the structure of your website. It’s important because a website with good IA will help visitors do what they want to do more quickly – and this will encourage them to come back. A website with good IA will always get more visitors than one without.

Good IA will have the visitor at its heart and the customer’s journey will be clearly mapped out. We’ll work closely with you to identify your customer journeys, ensuring their experience is smooth and gets positive results for you and them.