Best Practices Archives | Page 5 of 5

Choosing a new domain name

February 3, 2019

First things first. When entering the realm of digital marketing, you need a website so people can learn about you and your mission, and that website needs an address. When selecting a domain, there are a few loose rules to abide by, and a couple of things to consider that are specific to charities and nonprofits trying to spread their messages.

Be unique

The first rule may be totally obvious, but your domain name must be unique. That means you need to make sure nobody else has already registered this domain. If it’s already taken, even if there is no website at that address, brainstorm another domain name. Procuring a taken name can be time consuming, and usually very expensive. There are a number of domain look-ups available on the internet. Just enter your desired domain name and find out if it is available.

Avoid approximating your desired URL through tricky or clever means. For instance, instead of charity.org, don’t register charlty.org (with a lowercase ‘L’). That can be confusing to your audience, and may be seen as spammy or untrustworthy.

Stay focused

Second, make sure your domain name accurately describes your organization or mission. It should do so easily without lots of explanation needed. If you have to add “but with two S’s instead of one, and a dash between the first and second word” then it’s not a great domain name. In general, domain names should be all one word, without dashes, and be as short as possible. For example, a charity named Project Inspire should register projectinspire.org. That is easy for others to link to, or share over the phone without a lot of explanation.

Get creative

Last, consider the top level domain (TLD) name. This might be .com, .org … or even .ninja. In general, reserve .com for commercial businesses. For nonprofits, the better designation is .org, as originally intended. Other TLDs like .edu, .gov, or .mil carry firm restrictions. But there are a whole host of new TLDs to choose from, so if it makes perfect sense for your organization you can explore these, or use them to get around the preferred .org being taken. Take an organization called Kids Camp. They could snag kids.camp as their domain. Just prepare to add to the end of every conversation, “Nope, just kids DOT camp, that’s the whole address, no .com on the end.”

In the end, don’t agonize too long over the perfect domain name. It is just one piece of a larger tapestry of digital marketing strategies and even a poor domain name can make it to page 1 of organic results with the right mix of tactics. Need help choosing or registering a new domain? Contact us today!

When to use subdomains

January 20, 2019

There are two main ways to subdivide content – subdomains or subdirectories. I will henceforth refer to “subdirectories” as “folders” to avoid confusion between two similar “sub” terms. Folders are easily understood. They appear as slashed organizational groupings on your domain, just like folders on your PC. If you have several events to share, you might group them all under an events folder.

Content organized by folders

www.mycharity.org/events/food-drive
www.mycharity.org/events/car-wash
www.mycharity.org/events/fund-raiser

Is there ever a time when you wouldn’t want to use folders, but instead a subdomain?

Content organized by subdomains

events.mycharity.org/food-drive
events.mycharity.org/car-wash
events.mycharity.org/fund-raiser

The short answer is: No. I never advocate for the use of subdomains. Subdomains divide your domain in the eyes of Google. You must monitor and maintain the authority for each subdomain separately. Your ranking can suffer as a result. Most small non-profits already struggle to gain authority with limited content and backlinks. Dividing it even further makes no sense.

There are times, however, that require a subdomain. Subdomains are configured easily across different platforms or technologies. That is typically the #1 reason they are used. It usually stems from someone wanting to create a new or different web experience for a particular program or event. They might go out and purchase a dedicated (different) domain. Instead of having a different domain, subdomains can bridge the gap between them while maintain your branding and identity. If WordPress hosts your site, but Squarespace hosts a new event page, placing them side by side on your domain only requires a single DNS setting.

The best thing you can do is anticipate these needs, get in front of rogue web activities, and concentrate all of your content and users onto a single platform and domain. Your audience easily finding your content more than makes up for the small sacrifice in autonomy!

The Importance of Domain Registration Auto-Renew

August 7, 2018

Do you own a branded web domain to represent your organization or small business?

Are you sure?

It happens more often than expected, but domain registrations do expire. There are lots of reasons why your domain wouldn’t automatically renew. First, you might have no set it up to do so. In fact, you may not have set it up at all. If you’ve used a third party service to set up your web presence, and then severed ties, your domain could be at risk of expiring.

Risks of an expired domain

The main problem with an expired domain is that poachers exist that will scoop it up. They monitor and watch for expired domains and grab them as soon as they become available. They figure (rightly so), if anyone has ever used that domain, it is inherently more valuable than any other. Maybe you let it expire by accident and it will be critical to your business to get it back. They can charge exorbitant prices to return your domain to you. Once you’ve let your registration slip and someone else has paid for it, there is little you can do besides paying the “ransom” … or choosing a new domain.

What can you do about it?

The best thing you can do is to set your domain up with an auto-renewal setting. Most domains cost somewhere in the ballpark of $12/year. So, it’s not usually the cost that is a factor, just the set up. If you’ve severed ties with a design agency, ask them to transfer your domain to your own ownership. There are numerous domain registration companies that have step by step instructions on how to transfer domain ownership between entities. Once you own your domain, verify the configuration is set for auto-renewal. Then, rest easy knowing auto-pilot will take care of the $12 annual charge. Ensure any contracts explicitly state your domain ownership. Do this even if an agency bought it on your behalf and maintains your web presence.

Adding GSuite Gmail to your domain

July 28, 2018

Once you’ve purchased a domain to represent your brand, organization, or small business, you’re going to want to associate an email service with it. One of the big benefits of owning your own domain is that you appear more professional by not emailing customers from an address “@gmail.com.” There are many ways to accomplish this, most hosting services or domain providers will try to sell you theirs, but for simplicity, ease of use, and familiarity, nothing beats Gmail.

But how do you get a Gmail address without it being @gmail.com?

Good news: it’s easy! It’s called GSuite from Google and creating your first email address takes only minutes. Check out the pricing and plans available at https://gsuite.google.com/. Pricing is basically $5 per month per user. However, you typically don’t need to start with too many users. You can create a single user with multiple aliases for things like “info,” “sales,” or “support.”

Once you’ve signed up for the service, you need to verify ownership of your domain. This will be done by uploading a text record (TXT) to your DNS server. Whichever domain registration service you used will have an option to add records to your DNS. Google will give you the exact text to paste in, and then will be able to verify your ownership. After that, they’ll give you another record to upload called a mail exchanger record (MX). Again, it’s a cut and paste from Google and within minutes your email is up and working.

You can associate multiple Google accounts on a single mobile device, switching seamlessly between them on your Gmail mobile app. GSuite also comes with a host of other benefits like file storage/sharing, contacts, and calendars that can be shared across users. As your business or organization grows, you can add new users ad hoc.

Even though the process is simple, it can be intimidating if you’ve never worked with DNS before. Contact us to help you get your email up and running so you can connect with new contacts in a professional and polished manner, through your very own branded email account!

PayPal for Charitable Donations

April 25, 2018

There are two ways that PayPal can be used to accept charitable donations for your non-profit. Note that both will require you to verify your non-profit status and show a linked bank account in order to use the “donation” button and accept charitable contributions.

The first is to integrate Donate buttons into your web interface. You will need to have an account set up and verified, and then can use the “Make a PayPal Button” option. You can use one button throughout the website, or create dedicated buttons for use on specific programs. That way you can identify where the donations came from (which page or program) and allocate funds appropriately. The buttons won’t look any different but will contain a code that aligns with your account to tag the incoming funds for a specific program.

https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/paypal-payments-standard/integration-guide/donate_step_1/

The other is PayPal.me. This is a simple link that anybody can use to share their payment page with others. You can add a dollar amount to the end of the url: paypal.me/mycharity/25 for example to make a suggested contribution appear. Or you can simply provide the link. This may be easier and faster to get set up but allows for less configuration on incoming funds.

In both cases, users will leave your website and arrive on a branded PayPal site. Today, that should not concern too many donors as this is a fairly standard process. PayPal is a great low-cost way to integrate charitable contributions into your website. For confirmed charity accounts, current rates are 2.2% for online transactions and 2.7% on card readers, flat rate. Need help? Contact us today!