TOPIC:

Hi folks,

We've used a few of the tips and tricks to update out site and would be interested in any feedback or additional improvements you can suggest. Our web team has two key restrictions to what else we can do:

1. social media sites are not allowed for our club, or at least we cannot have a social media site that includes the TxDOT name
2. we have limited html coding skills

Please take a look and give us your thoughts. Thank you!

txdot.toastmastersclubs.org/

Don Sesler

Don,

Here are my thoughts...

1. Nice group photo on home page.
2. Like the use of the tabs on the home page. The tab content is appropriate, concise, and useful.
3. Meeting info page... Good info, google map, good. One suggestion: Include an exterior photo (one or more) to help people find you... particularly given your following statement: "Enter the building at the visitors' entrance, on the northeast end of the building." Some people are "directionally challenged".
4. Contact Us looks good. If I were to contact you guys using the form, how soon would I get a reply? (just checking) My district actually checks the response time for websites in our website contest each year.
5. Ask your club president to put her photo and bio in her profile... missing from M.O.M. page.
6. I suggest pre-filling some info in the downloadable membership app... e.g., "Club Number"... new members will not know that.
7. Agendas look good... only thing missing is it seems like you are not using keywording askerisks for Toastmaster role.
8. Overall: a little bit more color would help...try site background color. Also, some more supporting content pages would help... e.g. a typical meeting, FAQs page, member login tips, Distinguished Members page or Club Founder page, etc. You can copy content for these from my club website (see below) or from others websites or make up something similar... just need some additional content to flesh out your website a bit.

Bottom Line: A very nice website! A few tweaks might help, but it is already pretty good!

Don,

Let me start by evaluating the site from a visitor standpoint.

• I like the club group picture, much better than a stock TI photo. A very positive immage of your club.
• I like the tabs you have on the home page, but it seems redundant to have both them and the links with much of the same information. Maybe modify the tab titles to be a bit different, like instead of Home, use Our Club, Calendar to Schedule at a Glance, Members to Accomplishments, etc.
• The public downloads content is good, but replace the membership application with the current one, and try to have the club number and as much information filled out as possible. Also, if possible, link to pictures if downloads are not necessary.
• You need color. Play around a bit with the background colors possibly using different colors on different pages.
• If you have social media pages, add the links to the home page.

As a Member:

• It is great that you have agendas on the website in advance.
• You have a lot of great information for members in the member downloads.
• You might want to archive some of the older information.

I may look deeper later, but this will give you something to consider.

Great feedback Roger. Thanks a ton!

Don

Don,

Steve and Roger gave you some great tips - here are some ideas to improve your internet visibility, and do better on Google searches.

First, in general more text is better - the more indexable material you give Google (and Bing and other search engines), the better.
So, I would at least double the amount of text on the home page, mixing in more references to Toastmasters associated with Austin. If your part of town has a commonly used term, add that in too.
I'm not a big fan of those extra tabs in the middle of the home page, because they take away space that could be used to better describe your club to prospects and to Google.

As has already been said, more pages, with more text, is helpful. It is best to have it be immediately readable text, rather than a download. So, for example, you have a nice "what happens at a meeting" section on the Meeting information/Directions page - pull that out, make it an additional page, and expand the text to have more information.
In particular, convert that PDF of the agenda into page text that is directly veiwable. That is faster for visitors, and I think it indexes better in Google.

Every page on your site should include at least one sentence linking Toastmasters with Austin, and any other relevant identifiers.

Example to get you started:
At the bottom of the Directions page, add a sentence like this:

TxDOT Toastmasters is the friendliest club in Austin.

Other pages should have a different sentence that also has Austin and Toastmasters in it.

Regards,
George

Thank you George, we'll see what we can do to incorporate your thoughts!