Best Practices
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It is a best practice to link your web site to:
The Diocese - www.dioceseofcleveland.org
The Newsletter - http://lb.bcentral.com/ex/manage/
subscriberprefs.aspx?customerid=9351
The Calendar - http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/
officialcalendar/
Parish Listing -http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/parishes/parishes.pdf
Schools - http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/
education/oce/schools/index.htm
TV Mass Schedule - http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/communications/tvmass_schedule.asp
The UB - http://www.catholicuniversebulletin.org/
Vibrant Parish Life - http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/
vibrantparishlife/
Catholic Charities - http://www.clevelandcatholiccharities.org/
The Foundation - http://www.cdcf.org/
Parish Life Secretariat Resources - http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/parishlife/
The Vocations Office - http://www.churchvocations.com/
The Vatican - http://www.vatican.va/phome_en.htm
and others in the diocese as you see fit - or just copy the portal section of our web site - the left hand column of links - and paste it onto a page at your parish or school web site.
Design Tips
Be Readable
People get their reading habits from newspapers so a design should be consistent with what they already intuitively understand and are comfortable with:
- use newspaper width columns,
- 10 -12 point san serif font (serif works better in print at this size, san serif works better on web pages),
- black type on a white background (or at least dark text on a light background), and
- enough white space (leading) between items to break up the page in a pleasing way.
Study Yahoo, the New York Times on line, and the Wall Street Journal on line to see how creative you can be within these guidelines and which font’s are the most readable.
Be Content Rich
The most commonly visited web sites, those that account for almost 3/4s of the internet visitors have lots of information ABOVE THE FOLD where people can’t miss it:
- Yahoo has 120 pieces of information above the fold in an alternating 2 and 4 column format
- MSN has 104 pieces of info above the fold in 5 columns
- the NY times has 69 in 4 columns
Pack as much in at the top of your site as you can.
Be Internet Consistent
People get their web surfing habits from the big search engine and portal web sites (e.g., Yahoo, AOL, MSN, etc.). So don't try and reinvent the wheel and force your visitor to learn a new navigation scheme. Remember:
- Blue underlined text means a link
- Short tightly written paragraphs are good
- Scrolling down is ok, but scrolling across isn't, except when really necessary
- The site should be designed for the most common screen resolution (over 1/2 of all PCs are set to 800 x 600 while a little less than 1/3 are set to 1024x768 - all other settings account for the remainder)
- The site should be built to meet the needs of the most common browser(s) (almost 1/2 of all browsers are IE 6, about 1/4 IE 5.5 and about 1/5 IE 5)
- Certain information is EXPECTED to be at the bottom of the front page (i.e., contact, terms and conditions, company information, web master contact, suggestion box, etc.) so don't waste space putting this 'above the fold'
- Less clicks are better - key functions, such as search, can be made part of a page, there generally should not be intermediate clicks to get to functions
Use Titles and Captions With Pictures
Research shows people first look at the picture, then they read the title, and then they read the caption of the picture. More people read the title and caption of a picture than read the article text associated with the picture! So put extra thought into the title and caption of each picture and put your message where people will read it. Also:
- The picture must have a story of it’s own (remember the Marlboro man). The picture must interest people into reading – it can’t bore people into reading.
- The picture should restate your promise. (If I were selling airplane trips, my pictures would show happy people at fascinating destinations – not airplanes).
Click Percentage
The higher the percentage of links on your front page, the more visitors will click deeper into your web site. Link, link, link. The New York Times, Yahoo, Microsoft Network are all over 50% - and approaching 80% clickable content on the front page. This helps in two ways:
- No space is wasted with buttons or other links
- It is consistent with the way the people use web sites today and therefore intuitively obvious and easy for them to participate
Write So You Are Search Engine Friendly
60% - 90% of visitors to a web site come from search engines. So make it easy for search engines to work you into their database.
- Repeat your key words as often as you can and as high on the page as you can so search engines know which words are important and which words to index.
- Use text. Search engines can't read graphics.
- Use proper meta tags for key words and descriptions.
- Use proper punctuation - some search engines look for periods at the end of sentences. These sentences become the descriptions used by those search engines.
- Format headings as title text to help search engines understand what is important and how to index you.
- Use your key words in headings.
Make a Human Connection
Anything that gets the visitor to interact with you is good. So get the visitor to connect with you through email by:
- giving something away (such as a white paper or bulletin)
- by offering to answer a question (make a recommendation for a common problem)
- by offering to solve a problem
You will learn from your interactions with the site’s visitors about what is important to your neighborbhood.
Have a 2 Second Solution
When someone visits your site you have maybe 2-6 seconds to penetrate their mind and get them to linger. If you miss this chance, you lose them. Get them to look a little harder by:
- Talking about THEM. Your visitor needs a solution. He doesn't want to hear "Thanks for your interest in our site" because he isn't interested in your site. She doesn't want to read "Welcome to the internet home of XYZ Parish" - she knows where she is! She wants a solution to HER problem!
- Using Tag Lines. People read and remember tag lines like "All the news that's fit to print" and "Where you want to go today". Help them understand you with a tag line.
Ask for Action
Don't be shy. People want things from you. They need things from you. They came to your site for things. Even a church has something to sell - a seminar, a speaker, mass times, something. So sell 'em something. Don't force them to read 100 words to figure out what you have to offer. Put something important the asks for action top dead center.
Copy Gets Results
Well written copy gets results. Pictures, graphics, logos, flash introductions and everything else is baloney. So put your time and energy into writing that gets people involved.