How do we make our website easier to understand?

Website confusion often starts inside the organisation

Charities and CICs can be complicated organisations. You may have several services, programmes, teams, partnerships and audiences, all of which need a place on the website. Over time, the way the organisation works internally can start to shape how the website is organised. Visitors have much simpler questions. Can you help me? Is this for me? How do I access it? What happens next? They shouldn’t need to know which team runs a service, understand an internal programme name or work out how different parts of the organisation fit together before they can find an answer. Organise your website around what visitors need to know and do, rather than expecting them to understand how your organisation works.

Make the order of importance obvious

Some services genuinely need detailed information. Clarity comes from giving that detail an understandable order. A visitor should be able to recognise what the page is about, what they need to know first, what they may need next, which information provides additional detail, and what action is relevant to them. Headings, content order and visual design should reinforce those priorities. UKRI guidance on writing effective web content recommends designing content around users, giving information a logical place within the website and using clear, descriptive headings. Headings also play an important role in accessibility. WebAIM’s latest screen reader user survey found that navigating through headings was the most common first method respondents used to explore content on a long page. The page should make the order of importance visible, so the visitor does not have to create that order themselves.

Translate the language your organisation has stopped noticing

Internal language becomes difficult to spot because it feels completely normal to the people who use it every day. A project name may immediately mean something to your team. An acronym may be familiar to a commissioner. A phrase inherited from a funding application may have become part of everyday language. A first-time visitor may have no context for any of it. Programme names and specialist terminology can still have a place. Give people enough explanation to understand what those terms mean and why they are relevant. Alongside ‘Is this terminology correct?’ ask ‘Would somebody new to our organisation understand what this means?’ The closer you are to the work, the easier it is to forget which knowledge other people do not have.

Give people fewer competing priorities

A purpose-led website can have several legitimate audiences. A homepage may need to serve people looking for support, referrers, volunteers, donors, funders, partners and commissioners. That creates pressure to give everything prominence. When every audience, service and campaign competes equally, the visitor has to decide what deserves attention. The same problem appears within individual pages. Several buttons, multiple calls to action and different routes all competing at once. Good prioritisation helps people move forward. At the right moment, the website should be able to communicate ‘This is probably what you need next.’ Secondary routes can remain available without demanding equal attention.

Test whether people can actually use it

Your familiarity with the website can hide its problems. You know what the services are called. You know where the referral form lives. You understand which programme sits beneath which heading. So asking someone whether they like the website tells you relatively little about whether they can use it. Give somebody unfamiliar with the organisation a real task instead. Find the service that could help you. Work out whether you are eligible. Find out how to make a referral. Find the information you need before volunteering. Then watch where they hesitate. Which label sends them in the wrong direction? What do they misunderstand? Where do they expect to click? When do they become unsure what to do next? Those moments show where the website is relying on knowledge the visitor does not have.

Remove the need for inside knowledge

A first-time visitor should be able to understand where they are, find the information they need and know what to do next. They shouldn’t need to understand your organisation, recognise internal terminology or know where information is likely to be hidden. If people are struggling, review how your content is organised, labelled and prioritised. The information they need may already be there, it just needs to be easier to find and understand.