Making a website, suggestions wanted

[beatitude]

I'm going to start putting together an English website for my secular institute, as our current web presence is mostly French and is very...basic. After I'd discovered this institute's existence, it took me nearly a year to track down a living member of it whom I could speak to (and the Benedictines think they play hard to get...) and that's going to put people off if they're not already pretty sure that this is likely to be home for them. But I've never made such a website before and I'm unsure what to include. What, as people discerning consecrated life, would you look for in a site about a secular institute? So far I've thought about including a page on our spirituality and founder, a selection of vocation stories/'days in the life', and an explanation of what a secular institute is. Any other ideas?

[Sponsa-Christi]

Based on your story...maybe some easy-to-find vocation contact information?

Edited April 5, 2016 by Sponsa-Christi

[sr.christinaosf]

I'd suggest exploring sites of other institutes or even religious communities.

Also, if you're looking for a host, catholic-church.org provides free hosting and other services, including design help, I believe.  We used to have services through them.

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

squarespace is great! Not too expensive, either.

[Gabriela]

Use Wordpress. It's not just for blogs. There are a ton of YouTube videos about how to build a killer website using Wordpress, and it's easy.

As for content: I think you should distinguish secular institutes from all the other vocations in the Church, cuz if I went on a secular institute's website, I'd be all like, "Why should I do this when there's x, y, and z out there also?" People need to know not just what it is, but how it's different from all the other options and what it can do for them (including opportunities to serve—not just being selfish there  ).

1 hour ago, sr.christinaosf said:

Also, if you're looking for a host, catholic-church.org provides free hosting and other services, including design help, I believe.  We used to have services through them.

We're launching a website at my (Catholic) job. Was catholic-church.org good? Why'd you leave them?

[Klarisse]

The sections listed all make sense. If people often ask certain questions, it would be good to include the answers to them in sections that look like they'd contain the answers. Friends and family will probably want to see the content, so keeping them in mind could help.

One thing to be aware of is that, consciously or not, a website has a tendency to display what those who control it hold most important. My university's administration, for example, felt that attracting donors was paramount, with attracting new students second, while matriculated students were relegated to Google searches and memorized urls for many necessary things. In my vocation search, all too many religious communities talked about the current sisters very prominently on the main page, while the only reference to the Lord was in the name of the institute or its logo (often in the form of a brightly colored, artistic cross.) The apostolate might have been mentioned, but if so, it was missing the Lord and any spiritual connection. At the same time, pictures of sisters who were celebrating their 50th anniversary (or 60th, etc.) were often quite prominent. The impression such sites left was that they and not the Lord were at the center of their lives, so those communities were easy to eliminate from consideration. It's not that the content itself was bad, but that its arrangement, and especially what was lacking, suggested something deeper and much more critical.

 

You're already headed in this direction, but so that you are aware of it: From a design perspective, it's good to list which group(s) would want to use the website, then list what things each group would want to find on it and ensure that those goals can be accomplished in a straightforward manner. Having others do testing in front of you will provide the most valuable feedback about the design. There should be design guides or lists of common pitfalls out there if memory serves, so I'll leave it at that.

Security, however, tends to be overlooked by just about everyone. Becoming a ransomware host can do a lot of damage, even if you don't use any systems that require logging in or entering personal information. For your purpose, a host that will provide all tools needed and keep the software updated themselves is probably best. If you use a standard platform, automate updates if possible, and avoid third-party plug-ins and themes whenever possible. A lot of websites have been getting infected due to insecure plug-ins, themes, and out-of-date software. Wordpress runs such a large proportion of the internet that it's a very juicy target.

[Gabriela]

58 minutes ago, Klarisse said:

One thing to be aware of is that, consciously or not, a website has a tendency to display what those who control it hold most important. My university's administration, for example, felt that attracting donors was paramount, with attracting new students second, while matriculated students were relegated to Google searches and memorized urls for many necessary things. In my vocation search, all too many religious communities talked about the current sisters very prominently on the main page, while the only reference to the Lord was in the name of the institute or its logo (often in the form of a brightly colored, artistic cross.) The apostolate might have been mentioned, but if so, it was missing the Lord and any spiritual connection. At the same time, pictures of sisters who were celebrating their 50th anniversary (or 60th, etc.) were often quite prominent. The impression such sites left was that they and not the Lord were at the center of their lives, so those communities were easy to eliminate from consideration. It's not that the content itself was bad, but that its arrangement, and especially what was lacking, suggested something deeper and much more critical.

Which religious websites are you looking at? I had the opposite problem: There was so much mystical, lofty talk of God I couldn't actually find out anything about the community. It was all useless abstractness.

 

58 minutes ago, Klarisse said:

You're already headed in this direction, but so that you are aware of it: From a design perspective, it's good to list which group(s) would want to use the website, then list what things each group would want to find on it and ensure that those goals can be accomplished in a straightforward manner. Having others do testing in front of you will provide the most valuable feedback about the design. There should be design guides or lists of common pitfalls out there if memory serves, so I'll leave it at that.

In communication, we call this "identifying the stakeholders" of the organization. One does that and then creates separate sections to address all their concerns. (Good idea to include info for family members, btw.) Most university websites are organized like that: current students, prospective students, alumni, parents, donors, etc. But I agree some university websites are so huge that they're just terribly organized. Especially the learning management systems that current students use. It's like it doesn't even matter if those are attractive or user-friendly. They're typically horrible.

Usability testing is probably overkill for what beatitude is talking about. I think she just wants a basic, small website.

One basic design guide: Map it out on paper before you design the actual site. I used a huge whiteboard for this. You can use dry erase marker on a large window just as well. It's really helpful to get the big picture of how to organize everything.

[Egeria]

I would echo the Wordpress recommendation - it's definitely not just for blogs and you can do a lot with it. However, unless you're reasonably clued up and experienced with self-hosting and suchlike things, I would strongly recommend using Wordpress.com rather than Wordpress.org. The former is hosted online by Wordpress and you don't have to worry about updates and things, whereas the latter you have to host yourself, and install plugins yourself, and keep updating them, and backing up your site. If you know what you're doing and have the time to invest in it, there are advantages to that as you can do more things, but if you don't it's just a pain.

You can do a lot with Wordpress.com and I've noticed that even some really professional sites use it. It's either totally free, or else you can pay annually for certain upgrades (like your own domain name, not having adverts, and more sophisticated packages), some of which might be worth doing. But the beauty is that you don't have to worry about having it hosted somewhere and all the possible problems that go with that.

One comment regarding content: Don't have a "News" page unless you are reasonably sure that you are going to keep it updated.

[josephine]

Well, whatever you do, make it more userfriendly than this church website

http://www.vatican.va

[sr.christinaosf]

12 hours ago, Gabriela said:

Use Wordpress. It's not just for blogs. There are a ton of YouTube videos about how to build a killer website using Wordpress, and it's easy.

As for content: I think you should distinguish secular institutes from all the other vocations in the Church, cuz if I went on a secular institute's website, I'd be all like, "Why should I do this when there's x, y, and z out there also?" People need to know not just what it is, but how it's different from all the other options and what it can do for them (including opportunities to serve—not just being selfish there  ).

We're launching a website at my (Catholic) job. Was catholic-church.org good? Why'd you leave them?

The tech. support guy was EXCELLENT!  He coached me through the process of setting up.  They did not offer free domain name, so in order to have the domain we wanted, we had to buy it  (found a low price)

We had trouble once and I came across a completely free host and domain plan for non-profits so we switched to that - it was through DreamHost

I use Kompozer (a free web-design program) which I have installed on the computer and upload the files in FileZilla. 

This way, I have more freedom to design it as I like.  

[Sr Mary Catharine OP]

14 hours ago, Gabriela said:

Use Wordpress. It's not just for blogs. There are a ton of YouTube videos about how to build a killer website using Wordpress, and it's easy.

As for content: I think you should distinguish secular institutes from all the other vocations in the Church, cuz if I went on a secular institute's website, I'd be all like, "Why should I do this when there's x, y, and z out there also?" People need to know not just what it is, but how it's different from all the other options and what it can do for them (including opportunities to serve—not just being selfish there  ).

We're launching a website at my (Catholic) job. Was catholic-church.org good? Why'd you leave them?

We had a lot of security issues with Wordpress. We were always getting hacked. So that is why we switched.

12 hours ago, Gabriela said:

Which religious websites are you looking at? I had the opposite problem: There was so much mystical, lofty talk of God I couldn't actually find out anything about the community. It was all useless abstractness.

It's nice to hear this. I think that sometimes we think we have to sound very spiritual!

[Gabriela]

2 hours ago, sr.christinaosf said:

The tech. support guy was EXCELLENT!  He coached me through the process of setting up.  They did not offer free domain name, so in order to have the domain we wanted, we had to buy it  (found a low price)

We had trouble once and I came across a completely free host and domain plan for non-profits so we switched to that - it was through DreamHost

I use Kompozer (a free web-design program) which I have installed on the computer and upload the files in FileZilla. 

This way, I have more freedom to design it as I like.  

Sister, what's your community's URL? I'm interested in seeing what Kompozer can do...

[sr.christinaosf]

The site is actually for St. Anne's Guest Home.  The url is: www.stannesguesthome.org . 

Shame on me...I originally used MS Word to set it up but ran into problems - Word is not meant as a web-design program.

Edited April 6, 2016 by sr.christinaosf

[Sister Leticia]

I've never used them, but I know a couple of people who have produced good websites, with slideshows and some other bells and whistles, using Wix or Weebly.

A few things to consider, on top of all the other excellent suggestions and ideas (you might already know these things, but they could also be useful for someone else):

In marketing terms, what is your unique selling point? - the thing that makes your vocation and your secular institute so distinctive and different to others. Because that needs to be immediately apparent to your visitors.

You want people to find your website, and to return to it again and again. This means you'll need a platform which allows you to have the visuals people find attractive, such as large images, and at least one flash or slideshow. At the same time, the site needs to be easy to navigate around - and regularly updated. This will encourage visitors to return because they believe there will be something new or different to read/look at this time. As Egeria said, though, don't advertise "news" if you can't keep the page up to date.

Search engines also take more notice of websites which are regularly updated - which leads to more visitors - which leads to going higher in the search rankings and so on. As Egeria said, though, don't advertise "news" if you aren't likely to have much and can't keep the page up to date. Other ways to regularly update the website would be to post weekly or monthly quotes from your founder or Rule, for example, and/or short reflections on Church feasts and seasons (especially if it's something written by someone from your institute) - which is also a good way of sharing your spirituality.

Also, add links to related websites, blogs etc - and if possible get them to link back to you. Obviously, if you link to the Vatican website they won't link back to you (!!) but smaller or more local organisations should do, especially the ones which might have a natural affiliation to your institute.

And one final thing (for now!):

Who are the people you hope to reach and "where" in cyberspace might they be? Have you thought about setting up a Facebook page or even a Twitter account? A FB page only takes a short time to create, and you can update it more easily than a website. You don't have to create all the content for the page yourself, as lots of FB pages share links, photos, videos etc from related pages. A Twitter account can be linked to a FB page, so everything you tweet goes directly onto the page. You could create a FB page straightaway, and start using that, while you spend longer creating your website.

Whatever you do, though, good luck, and please let us know how you get on!

[katherineH]

I just wrote my thesis addressing this very topic.  One of the questions I asked participants (women discerning religious life) was what information they looked for on communities' websites.  Their responses were: 

#	Answer		Response	%
1	A description of daily life in the community		71	92%
2	Information for parents		13	17%
3	A description of the values and various ministries (charisms, apostolates) of the community		70	91%
4	A general description of religious life		36	47%
5	Dates for vocation events		52	68%
6	The history of the community		57	74%
7	A blog		19	25%
8	Pictures		59	77%
9	A description of the community's prayer life		52	68%
10	Vocation stories		49	64%
11	Other:		4	5%
12	Forum, discussion board		2	3%
13	Podcasts		5	6%
14	Contact information for discerners to use		59	77%
15	Some kind of news updates of things happening in the community		48	62%

 

hope this helps!