7 Ways To Improve Your Campaign Website

Every political campaign needs a website. It is the central hub where voters can find out information about the candidate or issue.

Many campaigns have websites which is a good first step. But they are not always as effective as they could be.

We created this checklist to help political campaigns make sure that their websites are living up to their full potential.

If your website is managed by a vendor or agency, they can help make all of the changes on this list.

Lead generation forms

Your website should always provide visitors with a way to submit their contact information.

Here are a couple ways lead generation forms can be used on campaign websites:

Email newsletter signup
Petition response
Join the campaign’s volunteer team
Surveys on what issues are most important to voters
SMS opt-in
And more!

You can easily build lead generation forms with one of our tools called Action Pages. It’s free to use for every Anedot user!

Political campaigns use Action Pages to build beautiful lead generation forms. The best part is that it’s all drag and drop, so no code is required!

SSL

Install SSL certificate to improve campaign website

Campaigns websites are often targets for hackers and bad actors.

But there’s a simple, effective way that can stop the hackers dead in tracks.

It’s called SSL. SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. SSL provides a basic defense shield to websites.

Another reason to have SSL installed on your site is for rankings in Google Search. Google typically gives a higher ranking to sites with SSL certificates installed.

There’s a simple way to check if SSL is installed on your site. SSL is installed on your website if your URL begins with “https” (with the ‘s’ at the end of http). You can also check by looking for a lock icon near the URL window.

Donation page

Your supporters want to support you. Make sure you give them a way to do just that.

Offer your supporters a way to give directly to your campaign from your website.

We recommend creating a “DONATE” button in a prominent place on your home page. Then link the donate button to a stand-alone donation page that matches the look and feel of your website.

We’ve found that a stand-alone donation page not only offers more security, but it also increases conversion rates.

If you don’t have a way to collect donations online, consider using Anedot. Our donation pages are easy to customize, and more importantly, easy for your donors to use. We do not have monthly fees or set up fees.

Speedtest check

Speed has a significant effect on visitor behavior. If your website loads slowly, visitors will often give up on trying to access your website.

If they give up on your website, that could mean your campaign is missing out on a new volunteer, a new email subscriber, or even a new donation.

You can use a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights to measure the speed of your website. It will also give you a list of recommendations for improving performance.

Mobile optimization

More than half of the world’s web traffic comes from mobile. It is crucial that your website works well and looks great on mobile devices.

You can use one of Google’s free tools to verify if your site is mobile friendly or not. Just enter in your URL and click “Test URL.”

About page

Remember, many of your website visitors are visiting because they want to know more about the candidate or the issue. Make sure you have an easy-to-navigate page that includes detailed information.

If your website is issue advocacy related, make sure your About page goes over each issue and tells the visitor why they should support your cause.

If your website is about a specific candidate, make sure the About page is personable and tells the story of why the candidate is running.