A letter in the August 2015 Radcom highlighted a serious problem with the way amateur radio clubs present themselves online – Outdated, broken, poorly-designed and invisible websites do no favours for clubs, and more importantly, the hobby.
To help give clubs a greater understanding of some of the common problems with online promotion, we’ve added a guide containing some suggestions and food-for-thought. You can find a PDF version on our UK Amateur Radio Resources page.
| Download How to Improve Your Club’s Website (PDF) |
About our guide:
In our guide, we outline why your club’s site could benefit from a refresh, and why it might be losing out. We feel that clubs should strive to make sure their website:
- Encourages new entrants into the hobby
- Makes your club one that people want to join and be a part of
- Highlights the best of what your club does
- Shows amateur radio as an interesting, dynamic and relevant hobby
If you feel your site could be doing better – Here’s a summary of some things to consider:
Sections include:
- Who are you talking to? Identifying your audience…
- Do you welcome newcomers?
- Understanding your web stats
- Keeping things up-to-date
- Site design and why it’s important to move on
- Moving from a static to a dynamic site
- Practical ways to improve your site content and make people come back
If you care about your club’s website and how the hobby is promoted, we hope you’ll take the time to download our guide, and perhaps discuss some of the ideas within your club.
| Download How to Improve Your Club’s Website (PDF) |
More reading
Amateur radio club websites has been the subject of much discussion of late. The following links are worth a read:
- Google Shakeup and Amateur Radio Clubs – Why do so many club websites fail Google’s Mobile friendliness test?
- Better Essex Club Websites – Some ideas on how local clubs could improve their online ranking
We’d appreciate your comments and suggestions on how clubs can make the online world a better place…
Can you check out our Ham Club’s site please? W7SKY.ORG. I am the webmaster and do want people’s feedback. I think it’s made friendly enough. I go on many ham sites for ideas and they all have millions of links. Same old boring links.
Hi Kathy,
I’ve had a quick look. Seems to be up-to-date, and accessible. I’m not seeing any glaring problems. Easy-to-find in Google, and navigation to the main sections is easy.
Only observation is that it may not be friendly for a non-amateur. If someone were to visit the site looking for information about amateur radio, or how to get a licence, where do they go? I suspect the awareness of ham radio is higher in the US than over here in the UK, so it may not be a problem, but a concern for the UK is that clubs don;t tend to “sell” the hobby on their sites, so if a newcomer visits, they may be turned off, go lost, or feel that the club is exclusive. May not be relevant for your group, but thought I’d mention it!
Best regards,
Pete
Kathy, If all could go WRONG, thats what I’m having now.! Computers shot, Radio on order, Broke my ankle
the other day, can’t put up antenna on house, landlord won’r allow it, so when I do get the radio, its going
in the car. Talk about BAD luck.!! Hopefully I’ll have a new note-book computer next month. Thanks!
I thank you so much for your comments on my site. I will absolutely correct that issue of being more user friendly to the non-amateur. We have a much older group, but then I guess that’s probably 3/4 of the Ham Licenses out there. I was trying to make it clear enough to find their way around. I do have several things mentioned on the site for new operators. It’s listed on my “other links” page. I did have it on the front page but it must have got pushed off. Thanks so much Pete for taking the time to let me know your thoughts.
Kathy
K7THY
73’s