A charity website usually serves several audiences at once: people seeking help, donors, volunteers, funders, partners and the public. Problems arise when those journeys compete with each other or when visitors cannot tell what to do next.
1. One generic call to action for everyone
A person looking for support should not be pushed into the same journey as a donor. Make the main routes clear: get help, donate, volunteer, attend, partner or learn more.
2. Donation and form friction
- forms asking for unnecessary information;
- poor mobile usability;
- unclear recurring versus one-off giving options;
- no clear explanation of what happens after a service or volunteer enquiry;
- weak error handling or inaccessible form controls.
3. Weak trust and impact evidence
Use verifiable impact, governance information and genuine programme evidence. Do not publish invented case studies, unsupported percentages or beneficiary stories without the organisation’s appropriate consent and safeguarding process.
4. Accessibility treated as an afterthought
Clear language, readable contrast, keyboard-friendly navigation, descriptive labels and accessible content matter especially where people may be seeking essential information.
5. No outcome tracking
Track donations, service enquiries, volunteer applications, event registrations and partnership enquiries separately. A traffic increase is not enough if the organisation cannot see which journeys are working.
Use our charity SEO checklist for the search and content side of the audit.
