The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist for Non-Profits, Period!

This is a remix of a post that Stoney deGeyter published on Search Engine Guide. It was written back in September of 2008 so it has nothing about Twitter, but according to Guy Kawasaki, “it’s great nonetheless.” I’d have to agree.

Of the 400 items, I found that most also apply to non-profit social media marketing. To save you time, I’ve listed the “must check” items below:

Domain Name & URLs

Short and memorable
Uses Keywords
Multiple versions: .com, .org., .net
Misspellings
Brandnames

Site Logo

Displays company name clearly
Isn’t hidden among clutter
Links to home page

Navigation

Located top or top-left
Consistent throughout site
Links to Home page
Links to Contact Us page
Links to About Us page
Simple to use
Indicates current page
Uses Alt attribute in images
Permalinks

Content

Grabs visitor attention
Exposes need
Demonstrates importance
Ties need to benefits
Justifies and calls to action
Gets to best stuff quickly
Reading level is appropriate
Customer focused
Benefits and features
Targets personas
Provides reassurances
Answers WIIFM
Consistent voice
Web version of PDF docs available

Content Appearance

Short paragraphs
Uses sub-headings
Uses bulleted lists
Calls to action on all pages
Good contrast
Also see “How To Get A 124% Increase In Your Website’s Stickyness“

Links and Buttons

Limit the number of links on a page
Avoid small buttons and tiny text for links
Leave space between links and buttons
Avoid using images as the only link

About Us Page

Adequately describes company
Shows team biographies
Shows mission statement
Up to date information
Note associations, certifications & awards
Links to support pages:
Contact page
Also see my post “27 Ways To Breath Life Into Your About Page“

Download a PDF version of The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist.

As I studied the checklist (over 400 items), I realized that your non-profit would get a valuable education just by going through the list. I know you guys are busy, but this is one task that will yield big returns.

Photo by numstead

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http://www.markettothemoment.com Pamela Weir

Great resource. Tons of great information about building and running an effective website. I think this will be useful to anyone who is interested in running an e-commerce site as well.
Thanks for sharing it.

http://www.johnhaydon.com johnhaydon

Pamela – thanks! The original post by Stoney is intended for any business, and yes, there is a huge e-commerce section in the download.
http://www.johnhaydon.com johnhaydon

Pamela – thanks! The original post by Stoney is intended for any business, and yes, there is a huge e-commerce section in the download.

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http://twitter.com/marketingfails Paul L'Acosta

This is great John. Perfect timing since our company will be meeting with a non-profit later this week and we want to teach them what NOT to do online (you know, to prevent a marketing fail). But like Pamela said, this will apply to many other businesses as well it deserves a special place in my bookmarks. Thanks! –Paul
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AprilTara

Great checklist! One other thing I would recommend, although this specifically applies only to those using Word Press, is the “under the hood” part of the design and not having too many plugins. There have been a lot of times where I've gone in to redesign a client's WP site and they have way too many plugins, some that they don't need and some that do the same thing another plugin does. Having too many just creates more opportunity for errors, especially with WP constantly being upgraded and the plugins not being current when it comes to compatibility.