Your Online Presence

By Lasa Information Systems Team

Having a presence online can be a valuable communication tool for organisations of all sizes - even the smallest organisations can benefit from a web presence. Websites can also help organisations deliver their services in different ways. This article walks through some of the resources available on the knowledgebase to help you get started.

Getting or Upgrading a Website?

Getting a website need not be expensive but does require some thought and human resource.

Whether you have a website already, or are thinking about getting one, it’s important to think about why you want a website, and develop a website strategy. Your strategy needn’t be a long document but should include what the goals of your website are.  

The series of Knowledgebase articles beginning with Getting a Website - Introduction is a good place to start if you are thinking about getting a website (or redeveloping an existing site). Whether you plan to build a website yourself or get someone else to build it for you, it’s worth Writing a Brief for a Website.

Before your website is available for the world to see you’ll need to think about a suitable domain name (e.g. www.yourorganisationname.org.uk) and arrange for the site to be “hosted” by a suitable company. See the Knowledgebase articles What’s in a Domain Name and Choosing a Website Host for more information.

Even if you already have a website it’s still important to think about its future development from what you want to communicate to ensuring your website will be found by the people you want to see it . Other articles in the Knowledgebase section Website Strategy and Development provide some useful information including:

• Never Say ‘Stick it on the Website’
• Get Your Website Noticed

Accessibility

It is very important to consider website accessibility issues to ensure that your organisation’s website is and remains accessible and usable by all.

See the knowledgebase section Accessible Websites  for articles on this issue including:

• Web Accessibility and the Law
• Make Your Website Accessible to Visually Impaired People

Managing your content

If your website starts to get very big or content needs to change frequently, articles in the Knowledgebase section Managing Content discuss some of you options including:

• Managing Your Website Content on a Tight Budget
• Everyone’s Going to the Blogs
• Web Content Management Systems

Delivering services

As well as communicating information about your organisation, your web presence can be used to deliver services such as discussion forums, newsletters, audio content, etc. For ideas and information, see the knowledgebase section Delivering Services Through Your Website including:

• Using Message Boards to Build Community
• Why Do Email Newsletters?
• Harnessing the Power of Web Audio Content

Whether you just want to tell the world about who you are and what you do, or whether you want to do something more ambitious, with a bit of thought and planning a website can be a useful tool.

Are you ready?

Of course, just because you can have a website, doesn’t mean you should. After you’ve been through the process of thinking about why you want a website, you may decide having your own website is not practical. This is fine. For example you may not have the resources to build or maintain your own site, or it might just not be appropriate for your organisation or group.

Before you give up on the idea completely, it’s worth considering whether you might be able to use tools available on other websites, often called a “web portals”, to create your own web pages, put up basic information about your organisation, or contribute in other ways.

Examples of sites that let you do some or all of these things include:

• Casweb.org set up by 5 London boroughs allows advice organisations and community groups in their boroughs to have a free website on the Casweb web “portal”.
• Martlesham Community Web Portal which allows clubs or society in the Martlesham area can have a set of web pages on the site completely free
• Essexinfo.net - allows parish & town councils, community and voluntary groups in Essex to have a FREE website – an easy way of getting your organisation on-line

Although sites such as these make it relatively easy for you to have a web presence, you still need to think about things like keeping your information up to date and your strategy for the future. For example these types of site don’t usually let you use your own domain name (e.g. www.yourorganisationname.org.uk).

As well as the Knowledgebase articles on websites, there is the Your Online Presence Knowledgebase Discussion – this is a useful place to share knowledge, experiences, and ask questions.

For help getting started in other areas of ICT, see our index of Starting Out articles.