TOPIC:

As the current VP PR for Dining Out Toastmasters (#9951); I've made several changes to ensure our website is appealing to guests and members.  Please assess if I'm accomplishing that goal.  BTW, I've been charged to recognize our members as much as possible.  I've tried to list our main menu topics in alpha order; but I haven't figured out how to do it (the instructions state to reset the menu to alphabetical ordering but it doesn't seem to work).  

Thanks for any suggestions you may have...

Regards,
Zenia 
VP PR
Dining Out Toastmasters - 9951

It’s obvious that a lot of work has been done on your site.  Congrats on that. Thank you for making the font large.  Those of us of a certain age appreciate that.

Meet Our Members – this is the second most important page on your site.  Visitors want to see who’s in this club and if they look like a normal person.  Yours is very nice.  Many of the bios are Toast-a-monials and the photos add a personal touch.

Calendar Page – this is the third most important page on your site.  Yours is slim. Visitors want to see if this is a sleepy club or a vivacious group.  If you use meeting themes, consider adding your theme and your meeting link to the calendar page.  If you have regular executive committee meetings, add them here.  When your members achieve an educational award, post a “Congrats” on the calendar.  It demonstrates your members are involved.  Include district events that members/guests may be interested in with those URLs for event registration.

Home Page: By far this is THE most important page. You must consider it as prime real estate.  I appreciate the color – it really pops.  I’m wondering if it’s not too much.  With so much popping it’s difficult to draw attention to any one thing.A note about website design in general:  IMHO, each page is like a speech.  It should have one purpose and a clear/concise message.  Trying to put too much info on a page is a distraction.  If your mission for the home page is to entice guests to the next meeting then info about previous meetings, club history and other stuff should drift to another page.

If it were me, I would remove the word “Club” from your title.  It serves no purpose and will help to reduce clutter.  I would move the district/division/area info to the bottom of this page.  This location is prime real estate – consider using it to reinforce your meeting date/time with a Guest Welcomed type message. 

As far as layout, right now all your info is in one column.  It’s very eye pleasing to mix it up with one column, followed by a section having two columns then one column. You can control formatting by inserting a table and pasting content into specific table cells.

Meeting Info/Directions Page:  I’m always curious about clubs that don’t make it easy for guests to visit.  Why not post the meeting URL on the website?  We are all adults. If someone attempts to be foolish they can be removed with one click in 1.5 seconds.  You would not screen in-person guests in this way.  Go ahead and post the meeting link.  I would also add the physical location of your club if it is open to the public. Also use a photo of the venue so that guest know when they’ve arrived at the right building and a google map to help out-of-town-ers.

I notice that you do not use the club emails.  This greatly reduces the workload to keep the site up to date as well it keeps the site clean looking.  Don’t publish the email, simply add the club email link to the name of your VPE. Normally on this page I would expect to see what a meeting experience at your club is like, you might add a bit about that.  Using page variables, you could even add the name of your Toastmaster for the next meeting. This keeps the page fresh.

Overall you have a great deal of info on your site that people are interested in and that is good.  Make sure to use the keywords that people are likely to search for so that your club appears early in searches.

Thanks for sharing and providing us all with incentive to refresh out sites.  If you need more info on anything I said here, let me know. I'm happy to help.

Arlynn, webmistress 
midwaytm.toastmastersclubs.org/

Thanks, Arlynn, for your candid feedback...you've given me valuable information.

Regards,
Zenia