Trends in the USA and internationally see the constant rise in the numbers of nonprofit organization websites. Having a website is now a standard practice for successful nonprofit or organization, just as having a business card is. However Executive Directors and Business Development Managers often struggle with the strategies of how to make the website work for them. If you already have your website - how do you get visitors to come to come there?  This is usually called driving traffic, or increasing hits.

Announce your website: It is important to include your website address (URL) on all the printed and advertising materials that you are currently using: your business card, email signature, printed ads in newspapers, TV and radio spots, invoices, flyers and stationery. Display a sign or banner in your office and where you provide your services "Visit us on our website at yourorganization.com " and encourage your staff, current clients, partners, sponsors, and donors to use the website and to pass on the website address to their friends and associates.  For printed materials that you already have in hand, order a set of transparent labels with your website address on it and put the label on your existing brochures and cards to save on printing costs.

Internet Marketing: There are several cost effective marketing methods to use to bring traffic to your website. Search engine registration is one - but it is difficult to get listed in the top-level pages unless you register very specific search terms. Pay per click is a cost effective way of paying a specified amount of money for a search term. For example "senior housing Santa Ana" would be a search term that would give you only those people who searched on that phrase - and who clicked on the link to your website. Email Newsletters to your customers and prospects enables you to keep your clients and contacts up to date on your products and services and give them tips and valuable information. A good email management package will let you track the interested people who clicked on links to your website for more information.  Adding your website and profile to different Internet social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIN and Twitter.  Submitting articles and participating in online forums are all good ways of building traffic. Writing and managing a blog on your area of specialization to create new content.

Tracking: It is important to have some means of tracking the number of visitors to the website and also to be able to see what pages they visited and where they came from in their links. There are several useful tracking programs. Check with your webmaster what is available on your web server or use programs such as Index tools, statcounter, Google Analytics or Urchin.

Results: To really see results from your website your website should be well designed so it is easy to use once you get the person to the site. Another important component is the "Call to Action" - this is something that the person will DO when they get to your website - sign up for something, fill out a form, contact you etc.

Future articles will address these topics in more detail.