How do I Create a Web Site for my Organization?

There are several steps to creating a Web site:

1. Planning
2. Creating
3. Usability
4. Traffic

Planning

Before you hire an HTML consultant or jump into the code yourself, use these resources to think through the steps and priorities for building a Web presence.

• Web Site Planning, ten guidelines for planning a Web site from Making the Net Work, advises nonprofits on the key aspects of Web planning, including defining audience and understanding cost factors.
• Coyote Communications' Web Development and Maintenance Tips for Not-for-Profit & Public Sector Organizations includes content suggestions, writing styles, how to work with a consultant and much more.
• Yale C/AIM Web Style Manual is a guide to help you design an entire site, and what to consider as you plan and review your site. Also available in book form.
• Alert Box: Current Issues in Web Usability features regular articles by Jakob Nielsen on such topics as outsourcing Web design, the cost of user testing and much more. Updates to the site are available by email.
• Writing for the Web is not the same as writing for print. Good Documents lists tips for content providers who write for the Web-- especially content that will be read on the screen.
• Considering writing a Request For Proposals for Web site design/redesign? These two short articles offer helpful suggestions.
  • How to Write a Request for Proposal for a Web Project from Web Developer's Journal.
• Is your organization preparing for a second- or third-generation Web site? Connect For Kids shares the steps it took when giving its Web site a complete overhaul.

Creating Your Web site

Listed below you will find sites that cover the how-to of creating and maintaining Web sites.

• So, you want to make a Web Page! This step-by-step tutorial is easy to follow and use, and sometimes amusing.
• Poor Richard's Web Site, based on the book by Peter Kent, contains a range of free information, including an email newsletter, on building a low-cost Web site. Sample chapters of the book can also be viewed for free. While you're there, visit Poor Richard's 20 Questions to Ask a Web Hosting Company for advice on how to chose the best host for your nonprofit's Web site.
• Jakob Nielsen's Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design focuses on mistakes that make your site difficult to read and navigate. See also Jakob's Top Ten New Mistakes in Web Design.
• For more information on how to create a Web site that is easy to read and navigate visit our list of in Evaluate your Web site.
• Oxygen Communications' Building an Effective Web Site: A Guide for Nonprofit Organizations, is designed to help small to mid-size nonprofits create a Web presence.
• Web Building, from Netscape, helps you stay current on advanced tools such as cascading style sheets, XML and other cutting edge Web developments.
• HotWired: Webmonkey publishes articles and a how-to library on all aspects of Web authorship.
• Wonder why the color you selected looks so lousy on someone else's computer? In the Browser Safe Color Palette, Linda Weinman explains, in easy-to-understand language, the challenges behind and solutions to using color in Web design.
• Does your nonprofit have an online privacy policy? 4 Federal Guidelines Aim to Protect Privacy Online, from Chronicle of Philanthropy, outlines the Federal Trade Commission's recommendations for online privacy policies and why you should post one on your site.

Usability

A good Web site follows a logical structure and is easy to use. Evaluating the usability of your site will help you figure out if it meets the needs of your visitors.

• What is usability and why is it important? Read Usability Matters, a great introductory article by Claire Rowlands.
• Why You Only Need to Test With 5 Users, from Jakob Neilson's Alertbox, explains how effective small-scale usability testing can be.
• Voodoo Usability also from Jakob Neilson's Alertbox, unveils the mysteries of usability testing.
• Everyone knows that images and graphics are the first thing to catch a reader's eye, right? Well, maybe not. According to an eyetracking study conducted by Stanford University and the Poynter Institute, the way people read news online is very different from the way they read in print.
• Several informative, though somewhat advanced, articles on usability and user testing can be found in User Interface Engineering's usability articles and other resources.

Web traffic

In addition to how many people visit your site, Web traffic statistics can tell you who links to your site, how many pages each visitor views, which areas of your site they enter in and which areas they leave from.

• A Web Statistics Primer from C|Net provides an overview of the types of Web site statistics that can (and should) be measured and includes links to tools that can help you analyze them.
• LinkPopularity.com, a free Web-based tool, reports on how many Web sites link to your own as reported through three popular search engines (Altavista, Infoseek and Hotbot). Many search engines, including Google.com will perform a similar function if you enter "link:www.yoururlhere.org" in the search box.