Modern associations and their communities thrive online. Online events, webinars, forums, blogs, and other digital engagement tools allow members to expand their knowledge and form beneficial relationships with fellow members. A flourishing online community and optimized association website ultimately promote member engagement, retention, and recruitment. 

But how can you ensure your website is as effective as possible for exceeding the expectations of current and prospective members? Let’s explore the top strategies for optimizing and modernizing your association website: 

1. Create an intuitive navigation system

2. Provide an online member portal

3. Offer online engagement opportunities

4. Prioritize accessibility and compliance

5. Elevate your website’s SEO

6. Maintain your website effectively

As you audit your site for improvement opportunities, remember to build it to last. Your site should grow as your membership does, expand its capabilities as your needs require, and serve as a cornerstone of your multichannel marketing approach. Taking the time to optimize your site now and build a solid foundation is critical for the future of your association.

1. Create an intuitive navigation system

When someone lands on your website, you have around seven seconds to capture their attention and provide content that meets their needs. You must tailor your navigation to different user intentions to help visitors find what they’re looking for faster. 

This starts with the way you present your content and organize your page structure. Your navigation system is a visual map of all your association’s online engagements and can significantly impact overall user experience. It encompasses elements such as your homepage call to action (CTA) buttons and links, page navigation, and menu structure.

When designing your navigation, it’s crucial to keep your primary user groups in mind. For associations, these typically include:

• Prospective new members. If someone is interested in joining your association, there’s a good chance the first place they’ll go is your website. Once on your site, they should be able to quickly find the resources they need within your menu or homepage. Visitors might seek content like your association's mission statement, current member testimonials, events calendar, or member registration page. 

• Current members. When existing members visit your website, it’s likely for information relevant to their membership. From your event calendar to your FAQ page, your site naturally serves as the knowledge hub for your association. Your website can also be a place for members to seek details on additional engagement opportunities, like an upcoming conference, a weekly webinar, or connections to your social media platforms. 

Depending on your mission, your organization may have additional primary audiences. For example, a healthcare association website might include resources for members of the public looking for accurate medical information. No matter who your audience is, an organized menu and smart link placement provide all users with a stress-free navigation experience. 

Look at the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) website for an example of a helpful navigation structure. The homepage includes clear CTAs inviting visitors to register for an upcoming conference and join or renew their membership. The header menu makes finding necessary information, such as professional development opportunities and different chapters, easy.

2. Provide an online member portal

64% of association members say they joined for networking opportunities. Virtual engagement opportunities allow association members to engage with like-minded individuals and form personal and professional relationships. 

Specifically, an online portal makes it easy for members to network and make connections remotely between in-person meetings and events. An online portal allows members to: 

• Explore a member directory. Your online directory should hold each member's profile with a photo, personal information, contact details, professional accreditations, certifications, and more. 

• Edit their profiles. Empower your members to edit their profiles if needed to keep your records clean and minimize the risk of errors. This way, members can skip the back-and-forth exchange they would have with a staff member and instead make the necessary changes themselves. It also gives members control over what information they’d like to share. 

• Interact with fellow members via message boards or forums. While talking at events is a great way to meet someone, the discussions between in-person meetings often foster long-lasting relationships. Your member portal can facilitate these connections using message boards, setting a foundation for ongoing community-building.

Your member portal can play a crucial role in your retention strategy, as members feel more inclined to renew when they have meaningful bonds with fellow members. 

3. Offer online engagement opportunities

Along with networking opportunities and the ability to meet others, members join associations to advance in their current field or dive deeper into a particular interest. The unique experiences you offer can encourage members to renew while attracting new ones. 

While in-person conferences, professional talks, and official courses are great learning opportunities, consider offering valuable educational content digitally in addition to your in-person offerings. This content could include: 

• eLearning courses

• Event recaps and resources

• Informational videos

• Leadership training sessions

Spotlight these digital learning opportunities on your website’s blog and event calendar. Make it easy for members to access this content with a simple online registration or login process that doesn’t require visiting a third-party site. Doing so will increase members’ trust that your resources are credible and affiliated with your organization. 

4. Prioritize accessibility and compliance

A fully accessible website means that anyone can use your site regardless of location, device, language, or ability. 

Your website needs to maintain regulatory compliance to ensure accessibility. This means your site complies with all relevant laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Here are a few standard ways you can tweak your website to ensure full accessibility and compliance: 

• Ensure that all non-text content (image, video, audio) has alternative text.

• Avoid using purely sensory characteristics (like sound and visuals) to convey important information.

• Provide clear page titles and ensure all entry fields have written labels or instructions.

• Use sufficient color contrast between the foreground text and background—the WCAG recommends a contrast of at least 4.5:1 or 3:1 for large-scale text.

• Optimize your website for mobile use. 

These changes are a good starting point, but we recommend reading the WCAG closely to ensure compliance. Or, work with a professional web designer who is well-versed in accessibility guidelines and can bring your website up to regulatory standards. 

5. Elevate your website’s SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a strategy your association can use to reach a wider audience online. SEO is the process of enhancing your website by adding technical elements and content that increase the chances of your website appearing higher in search results. 

Experts recommend that associations use SEO to digitally promote content like: 

• Training courses and certification opportunities

• Membership opportunities

• Employment resources like job boards

• Recurring/annual events

To bring greater visibility to these pages and opportunities via search results, leverage SEO strategies like: 

• Optimizing your website’s content for relevant keywords. You can use resources like Moz or Ahrefs to discover popular keywords related to your association’s offerings. For example, if you want to drive traffic to your education conference registration page, you could optimize the page for the keyword “education conferences 2024.” Include the keyword in the page’s title and meta description, and incorporate it naturally into the content to help search engines understand its main topic. 

• Offer high-value educational content. Beyond optimizing your content for keywords, any content you publish on your website should provide valuable information. Search engines like Google prioritize content that shares authoritative, rich educational information. Your content should also be relevant to your association’s area of expertise. For instance, medical associations should adopt comprehensive healthcare content marketing strategies and share credible information from real health experts. 

• Engage in cross-blogging opportunities with other organizations. Search engines also pay attention to the number of quality backlinks your website receives to determine your site’s relative authority in your topic area. The more links your website receives from credible sources, the greater credibility your site will have. Therefore, we recommend partnering with other established associations or similar organizations to participate in guest blogging opportunities. This process doesn’t have to be overly complicated—educational blog posts with a few links to your SEO-optimized content will do the job. 

Ultimately, improving your website’s SEO hinges on your ability to design a user-friendly, authoritative, comprehensive website. When you prioritize the user experience, you can quickly boost your SEO results. 

6. Maintain your website effectively over time

Optimizing your association’s website shouldn’t be viewed as a one-time process. By continually maintaining your site over time, you can increase its lifespan and ensure it remains a valuable resource for members long-term. 

Kanopi’s WordPress maintenance guide offers a few helpful tips that can apply to websites built using any CMS: 

• Update your website’s core whenever new versions are available. Speedy updates ensure you can take advantage of new security patches and features as soon as they’re released. 

• Conduct performance enhancements. Use tools like PageSpeed Insights to test your site’s speed and performance. Implement recommendations to improve performance and continually test your site, including forms, navigation, and links, to ensure everything runs smoothly. 

• Run security and malware scans. In addition to keeping up with core updates, running security and malware scans with the help of an experienced developer helps keep your site safe from potential threats.  

We recommend conducting these checks about once a month to catch and correct any issues before they become larger problems. These maintenance strategies will also help prevent your site from becoming outdated or potentially insecure. 

Taking the time to optimize your association’s website is worth it when the end product is a reliable, comprehensive resource that effectively serves your audience. A modern, accessible, engaging website facilitates a better member experience, ultimately helping to increase your organization’s retention rate. 

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