It sounds easier than it is.

     At least twice a year I recommend a review of your website to insure that you are still being faithfull to its purpose. It sounds like a no brainer, but here are a few examples of what I found on a recent survey of Pro-Life websites.

     The first website that came up was a news oriented website. At least 70% of the first page were links to current news articles that are of interest to pro-life activists. This site is a good example of how a site should be. It came up on my search for Pro-Life news and was chock full of current articles and links to other good news sites.

     Site number 2 was not so faithfull. Although it was self-identified as a pro-life website, the majority of the content was related to marriage. Agreed that marriage issues cross pro-life issues, but the majority of this site was general marital concerns, not a focus on pro-life issues in marriage.

     Site number 3 is a website that looks to be an activist training site. Its stated purpose is to assist groups in organizing to perform a single task. But the owners of the site chose to put a very strong statement about the evils about abortion on the front page. Going deeper we find that much of the content is very dated. I would have expected to see a large amount of content on how I was going to get my people organized. We are already pro-life and did not come here for the information that was presented. If the website owner wanted to address moral and philosophical issues it may be more appropriate to have it take 2nd place to its stated training mission. If the website owners want to make a very large statement on the evils of abortion dedicating a separate website to that information may be more appropriate.

      The problems here are not major but important. We want visitors that are directed to our site to find the content that they are looking for. If we are looking for information on Marriage and we self-identify as a pro-life site we may lose the visitors that we are targeting our site to. By the same token if I am looking for pro-life information finding a site focused on marriage issues could be very disappointing. The purpose of the site should be well understood by the owners and developers and the site should overwhelmingly express that purpose.

     It sounds simple but all too often when praparing to do a website the question "Who are you?" prompts a blank stare. As the questions drill down it becomes obvious that the purpose of the website is not clear, just a vague idea that everyone should have one. This is pretty normal, it just takes some time and effort to discern how we hope to help the cause. Here are a couple of suggestions out of the ToolBox:

• Review your website on a regular basis to make sure that the site is faithfull to its purpose. If the purpose of the site has changed, make appropriate changes to reflect its new purpose.
• Keep the content relavent and current. The most successfull commercial sites claim to change 100% every six months. That may not be appropriate for your site, but they do highlight how important it is to keep current.
• Review your website statistics on a regular basis. If there are pages that are rarely or never visited, consider replacing them with different content that may be of more interest. Also, pages that are visited often may indicate a desire among visitors to have more content of that type.
• Linking to other websites of similar purpose may increase the number of visitors that you receive, particularly if they link back to you. Consider mutual linking agreements with other pro-life sites. Having your site linked to by others should also help you move up a few places in the search engines.
• To help you identify the effectiveness of your site consider imagining that you are reading and presenting your site to a single individual. Is it easy to present and are you getting the desired point across?
• Send us a link to your website if you would like us to do a purpose/relavance review for your site. Email the link to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  

Wishing you great success;

Bob Shelby

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