Showcase website
What it contains
Five pages are most often enough: home, mission, actions, team, contact. A blog or news section shows that the association is alive. The legal notice and privacy policy complete the whole. What makes the quality of a showcase website is not the number of pages, it is the answer to the three questions a visitor asks in ten seconds: who are you, what do you do, what can I do with you.
For an association each public has its question: the beneficiary wants to know where and when, the volunteer how to help, the funder what you achieved, the journalist whom to contact. A good showcase website highlights these answers rather than the organisation's history.
What it is not
A showcase website does not sell, does not manage members and does not host internal tools. These needs belong to other tools (a shop, a CRM, an intranet) that the website can link to through a link or a form. As soon as a website asks its visitors for a login, it stops being a showcase website: it is a private area, with its obligations.
The levels of a showcase website
- The single page: present and contact, one to five screens at one address
- The five to ten page website: one page per topic, a form, sometimes a calendar
- The content website: news, a blog, someone who publishes regularly
- The high-content website: several languages, hundreds of pages, a migration to handle with care
The guide Website levels explains what each level changes in days of work and in responsibilities.
In Kern4Good
The cohort website is a complete showcase website: five pages, a blog, the technical base of search visibility, a training, hosting for the first year. Outside a cohort, the ladder of the Pricing page goes from the launch website at 1 200 EUR (one to five pages on the proven Kern4Good base) to the complete website at 8 000 EUR (eight page templates, multilingual, migration). Modules (calendar, membership form, donation button, simple directory) are added from 250 EUR. Every delivered website includes the legal notice and the privacy policy.
Further reading
Are five pages enough?
For most associations, yes. A clear website with five pages kept up to date is worth more than twenty abandoned pages. Pages are added when a public has a lasting question that has no answer yet.
Can pages be added later?
Yes, without limit, from the editor, on an editable website. New page types (a calendar, a directory) are quoted as modules. On a launch website without an editor, changes go through us, on request.
Do we need a blog?
Only if someone will publish. Three news items a year are enough to show that the association is alive; an empty blog does the opposite. The scoping asks the question before planning the page.
Can a showcase website receive donations or registrations?
Yes, through a form or a button linked to a payment or registration tool. The website remains a showcase website as long as it keeps no user accounts: the data goes to the linked tool, not into the website.