Frequently Asked Questions - Website Design

  1. How will having a website benefit our Chapter?
  2. What costs are associated with building a website?
  3. Does Audubon provide Chapter website templates or training on web design/management?
  4. What type of software will I need to build our website?
  5. Do you have any tips on website design or content authoring?
  6. What are some characteristics of good web page design?
  7. What considerations do we need to make for vision-impaired Web visitors?
  8. How can I find a list of other Chapter websites?
  9. Can we use Audubon's logo on our website?
  10. How do we get photos and graphics for our website?
  11. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and how do I do it to our website?
  12. What other resources are there for web design?
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.
Learn more about websites.

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

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:

  1. You will need to purchase a domain name (URL) for the website, such as [www.birdieaudubon.org], unless you will only be 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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. If you plan to purchase software, and you are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, get registered with techsoup.org and search for discounted software on their website.
  5. 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.
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.

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:

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.

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 mostly 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.

How can I find a list of other Chapter 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.

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, though it is not incorporated into the Chapter logo or website banner. The Audubon logo may only 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 do we get photos and graphics for our website?

You may find copyright-free photos and illustrations online for free (e.g., Bird Graphics, Wildlife Photos) or purchase them through companies such as Clipart.com or iStockPhoto.com.

Image considerations: 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.

What other resources are there for web design?