Website Rebuild and Digital Training for LGBT Advocacy Organisation

Website Rebuild and Digital Training for LGBT Advocacy Organisation 1
Website Rebuild and Digital Training for LGBT Advocacy Organisation 2

LGBT Ireland

lgbt.ie

The Challenge

First established in 2010 by seven local LGBT helplines, LGBT Ireland now stands as Ireland’s largest support service for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well as their families. Today the organisation offers a comprehensive range of services, with awareness training and peer support programmes designed to enhance the support received by the LGBT community.

Whilst the organisation was at an advantage with its dedicated and expert staff, other elements faced our client with significant challenges. Without a secure, functioning website and a stable hosting service, LGBT Ireland were limited in their outreach. Furthermore, a lack of digital training in the organisation opened great opportunities for learning and development for all staff. Continuous difficulties faced our client around web development, hosting and digital training – and that’s where ProfileTree came in.

Our Approach

Inform, Engage and Inspire Users

ProfileTree consulted with LGBT Ireland to design a website for the organisation, with the objective of providing a space to inform, engage and inspire its users. The breadth of services offered by LGBT Ireland required several landing pages for areas such as press releases, training, volunteering and sections around staff profiles and terms and conditions. The website also required a robust blog page, allowing the organisation to disseminate information and updates to its online visitors.

Such a multi-faceted organisation requires a flowing and visually appealing website design. With that in mind, the expert team at ProfileTree constructed the site in a way which lent prominence to the organisation’s own branding and imagery. Included in the site’s development plan was an interactive chatbot, allowing members of staff to communicate with site visitors in real-time. Upon launch, our staff were proud to officially hand over a website which highlighted LGBT Ireland in the way they truly deserved.

However, our journey with LGBT Ireland didn’t end with web design and development. ProfileTree took over website hosting for our client, regularly monitoring the site’s security and taking care of its everyday maintenance and updates. Less technical duties on our client’s plate allowed them to focus more on the running of their organisation.

Results

Bespoke training

A secure, engaging and visually appealing website, engineered to provide a comfortable and simple user experience.

An industry-leading hosting service, allowing our client to run their organisation with full peace of mind around security, usability and performance monitoring.

A bespoke training workshop, equipping staff to deal with future challenges in the digital world.

Rebuilding a website – what to consider? 

Rebuilding a website is a monumental task and not one to be taken lightly. Not only do you have to recreate the website’s design, but you also have to revise the website’s functionality and user-interface, in addition to digitally upskilling your staff with the new website and its features.

Some website developers would say that a website rebuild is a much more difficult task than building a website from scratch, but if your existing website isn’t getting much hits or attracting enough traffic, then a website rebuild is what’s needed. 

Why consider rebuilding a website?

A website is essentially a business’ online store, it is the digital home of your brand, informing visitors about who you are and what it is that you do. A website is one of the best tools at your disposal for selling your products or services, and it needs to appeal to audiences in order for them to want to visit it. 

If your website is confusing, difficult to navigate or doesn’t load properly, then it will only serve to frustrate users.  Without a functioning and appealing website, your potential online sales are going to plummet and your digital reputation could suffer. 

If your current website is in this state, then the only solution is to perform a website rebuild. This not only serves to make a more pleasurable user-experience, but it is also an opportunity to promote the launch of your new website, which hopefully will increase traffic and lead to more sales/conversions. 

How to plan the rebuild of a website? 

A website rebuild is undertaken when other forms of website enhancement haven’t been working. A website rebuild is a complete overhaul of the existing website’s design, development and hosting capabilities, essentially, it is a brand spanking new website. 

If you’re not in the technical know-how of creating, designing and developing a website rebuild, then your best bet is to get in touch with a website design and development agency. They will have the technical capabilities to fix hosting issues, reinvent the website’s appearance and develop a website that is engaging and informative.

Rebuilding a website with web design 

One of the most obvious ways for completing a website rebuild, is to simply change its appearance and design. This is a visual cue that the website has had a complete overhaul and has launched with a brand new look. 

Some of the things you may want to change through website design includes: 

  • The colour scheme
  • The content within the website – text, video, images, etc.
  • Brand logos used 
  • Layout of the website 
  • User – Interface 

When performing a website rebuild, you want to make it obvious to visitors that you have had a website revamp. Don’t be afraid of stepping outside of your comfort zone, trying new styles and creating a website that is totally unique and bespoke for your business.

Check out these case studies of previous clients who have had our website design services: 

Rebuilding a website with SEO

Another function of a website rebuild is to include SEO practises throughout its design. SEO is Search Engine Optimization, meaning that your content is geared towards answering the questions your audiences may have as opposed to just telling them about your business, which is a trap that a lot of websites fall into.

With a website rebuild you can ensure that you are putting your best foot forward by adopting SEO practices. This increases the chances of your website ranking higher on search engine results, which lends itself to more impressions, more traffic and ultimately more sales/conversions. 

Rebuilding a website with web development 

Another major part of a website rebuild is reinventing the website development. Essentially, this is about increasing the satisfaction of the user’s experience, ensuring that they can navigate your website and enjoy interacting with it. 

If your website is currently difficult to navigate, has HTTP errors or there are dead-end pages on the site, then this will only serve to frustrated visitors, causing them to exit your webpage swiftly. If this happens regularly, then your page will fall down the rankings and have little to no impact. 

A fully functioning and enjoyable website is crucial for encouraging visitors to stay on the page and return for a pleasurable viewing and interactive experience. 

What to include when rebuilding a website? 

A website rebuild gives you the opportunity to build neatly presented content. Visitors to your website should be able to easily understand who you are, what it is that you do and why you are different from competitors. 

One way in which this is achieved is by building separate tabs within the website. Some tabs you might want to include are: 

  • Homepage / landing page
  • Services 
  • Training and volunteering 
  • Shop 
  • About us 
  • Blog page
  • Staff profiles
  • Portfolio page
  • Terms and conditions
  • Company updates
  • Contact us 
  • Chatbots – (usually a pop-up as opposed to a separate page) 

Web developers are experts in designing websites with a focus on easy navigation and digestible content. With a website rebuild you can completely reorganise your website and draw attention to the areas that you want to promote. 
Check out this case study for Cathedral Eye Clinic, who had a complete website rebuild with web design, development and content marketing.

Rebuilding a website’s hosting capabilities 

Another purpose of website rebuild is to strengthen its hosting capabilities, which affects the security, performance and server speeds. If your website is attracting lots of visitors per month, then it needs to be able to handle that, this is what we refer to as the bandwidth. 

With a website rebuild we can increase the level of security for your website files and for user data, ensuring that information is encrypted and protected from potential hackers. With our expert hosting capabilities, we are also able to perform the necessary updates and maintenance services to your website. 

Digital training for a website rebuild 

If your website has had a complete rebuild, then the staff that use it are also going to need to be digitally trained in using its new features. They need to become familiarised with the new content, features and functionality. 

In particular, if you have added something like a chatbot, then staff need to know how to use it in order to provide users with the best experience when visiting your website. Digitally upskilling your staff is a worthwhile investment as it will improve performance and efficiency with work related tasks.  

Rebuilding a website with ProfileTree

Here at ProfileTree, we understand the importance of a well functioning and appealing website, it’s what we live and breathe. Our team of web designers and developers can turn any website into an online selling machine, with bespoke functionality and leading performance.

If you are considering rebuilding a website and would like our help, you can do so by getting in touch here.