Virtually all organizations In today’s digital age need to have a strong online presence and Non-governmental organizations are no exception. Building an effective website for your NGO can greatly enhance your reach and credibility, but doing so is not easy, especially with all the technicalities involved. Do not feel discouraged, cause you have just found the solution you have been looking for to set up an effective NGO website. Even if you have technical knowledge or not, I will guide you through creating an effective NGO website using WordPress.
Before diving into the process of creating your NGO website, there are crucial measures to put in place such as choosing a suitable domain name that reflects your NGO’s mission, and a reliable hosting provider that will provide sufficient resources and excellent uptime. This will ensure your website is secure, accessible to visitors at all time, and have a robust bandwidth. There are many web hosting companies in Nigeria, but not all are reliable enough to offer excellent services. Here are the 6 best web hosting companies in Nigeria according to TechOclock’s research.
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, let’s start the creation process fully.
Creating an Effective NGO Website with WordPress.
After selecting a suitable plan from your hosting provider, the next thing to do is to install and set up your website. I don’t know about other web hosting providers but for WebManager.NG that I and others are used to, we get to install and set up our WordPress site once our hosting and domain names are paid for and activated.
For the purpose of this article, I will use depictions of WebManager.Ng’s interface as an illustration to enable you understand this guide properly. Why I chose to use WebManager.NG is because it’s easy to use and this interface will help you install WordPress using any web hosting provider.
Keep in mind that this is quite the same thing you will see when you subscribe to a different web hosting provider. If you’ve subscribed to a web hosting provider that doesn’t offer any of the features mentioned above, change the hosting provider immediately and see how you can transfer your website to that provider. The same is applicable if you are just starting out look for a web hosting provider who will offer these excellent services to ensure maximum uptime and efficient user experience, or better still, sign in with WebManger.NG.
The pages before the one you will see below are the login page and the package(s) of the user. What comes next is the list of shortcuts to the services your hosting provider offers.
Subsequently, we will head on to WordPress Manager and click on Instal to get started.
If you are done installing the next thing will be to input the details that will be used to set up your website for optimal performance. Below are the steps to do so:
These are the fundamentals for setting up your WordPress website. It’s important you customize the homepage because your NGO WordPress website will be shown in the default blog view. So you’ll need to set up a static home page. To do this, go to settings and choose reading in it you will see something like this, make sure it’s on the static page before you save changes and exit.
Selecting the Appropriate Theme
It’s time to choose a theme that will suit your NGO website. There are hundreds of options, including both free themes and premium options. I recommend you go to envato to see a vast array of NGO themes you can use for your site.
The right theme sets the tone for your website. Choose a WordPress theme that aligns with your NGO’s values and aesthetics. Look for responsiveness, customization options, and a user-friendly interface that allows you to create a visually appealing website.
Create High-Quality Content
Furthermore, create High-quality content for your site. It is essential you create contents that are appealing to your audience and compel new visitors to stay glued to your site. Your content should be clean, well-written, easy to read, and clearly communicates your organization’s mission. Additionally, you need to make sure you optimize your content for search engines.
Upload Images and Videos on your Site
Visual content, such as graphics, videos, and images, should be a focus point for your site. This showcases what your organization does more than words. However, it will represent your brand’s ideology and activities. While visualization might do the trick, It’s important you optimize whatever visualizations you are using before uploading them to ensure that it really does.
Make your NGO Site Mobile-Friendly.
It’s not new these days that most people often use their mobile phones to access the internet more than computers. As a result, make sure you create your site in a way that will not be only suitable for computers but for mobile phones as well. Creating a mobile-friendly website is easy if you follow the steps outlined here.
In addition, using WordPress to create an NGO website offers several features that make it easy for your site to thrive. These features cut across setting up blog widgets to interact and engage with your audience, subscription signup options, and newsletters among other amazing features you will find out when you start your journey building your site with WordPress. By using these steps to create a nonprofit website, you can build your organization’s online presence fast and promote an effective user experience.
