www.ramblers.org.uk

Walking the Web

Hints and tips for RA Areas and Groups planning to launch their own websites

More and more Ramblers' Areas and Groups are making their presence felt on the Internet by designing and publishing their own websites. This is an exciting development, and potentially very useful, both in building the membership of the Ramblers and in furthering its campaigning aims.

While limited resources prevent Central Office giving as much practical support to these local initiatives as we'd ideally like, we are doing our best to provide advice and guidance. Hopefully this page will provide some useful hints and tips to would-be RA webmasters and help point them in the right direction to find out more. It might perhaps also prove useful to those who already have websites, but are looking for ways to improve them.

The best news is that, though it does require some thought, a little research and more than a little time, building a website is easier than you might think. You don't need to be a computer buff: anyone who has used a computer to produce a group newsletter should easily be able to manage a website.

Please remember that all sites need to include:

 - The RA logo (or the RA Scotland or Wales logos as appropriate) on the home-page which links to the RA's homepage (see logos)
 - A statement that the Group / Area is part of the RA
 - A link to the RA Walks Finder webpage, where a huge number of Group led walks are listed.
 - The RA charity number 1093577
 - A welcome to new users, with a note that new members try do a couple of walks before joining.
 

 

Why build a site?

Arguably the most important stage in building a successful website is deciding on the reasons why you want to have a site in the first place. There are very good reasons for your group or area to have a site, but it's worth taking some time to think about what they are.

Don't plunge into creating a site just because everyone else has one, or because you want to find something to fill the free webspace your internet service provider has given you, or because you want to impress people with your web programming skills and flashy graphics. If you are clear about the aims of the site from the start, everything else will follow logically from them.

Here are some good reasons for launching a site

  • to promote your group/area and help recruit new members
  • to provide information about your activities to the public and to members
  • to help promote the Ramblers' Association as a whole
  • to further the RA's aim of encouraging walking, protecting footpaths and the countryside and securing access to open country

Keeping aims like these in mind will give you ideas about how to design your site, what information to include and how to present it.

A useful regular exercise all the way through the planning, designing and maintenance process is to check out other sites. Visit a wide range of the sites listed on the RA group pages, and other websites too. Look for what you like and don't like about the sites you find. What do you think the aims of these sites are, and how successful do you think they are in furthering those aims? How would you improve on the sites?

Finally, do your best to get other local members involved. Ask them what they would like to see on the site. And get them to provide you with content for it just as they would for a local newsletter: walks details, footpath information, countryside information and so on. 

Planning the site

Start by planning your site in note form. Make notes about what you want on the site. Plan how the content will be laid out on different pages and how these pages will relate to each other.

There are three useful rules to follow when planning the site:

  • Keep it simple
  • Plan to keep it up to date
  • Let the aims of the site dictate the content (see below)

Don't be afraid of simplicity: a simple site that has good, up-to-date content and is easy to navigate will make more of an impact than a flashily-designed site that has little to say for itself. Sites full of big graphics and other features can take ages to download, and most people won't bother to wait.

A simple site will also be much easier to keep up-to-date, and it is very important that you do this. Out-of-date information on your site will deter visitors, who will most likely go away and not come back.

Don't be afraid to split content over different pages. Long pages take a long time to load, and much of the information they contain may not be of interest to your visitor. Shorter pages, sensibly organised, will give the visitor more choice in downloading only the information they want. Splitting the site over a number of smaller pages will also usually make it easier to update. But keep things in proportion: avoid having important information too many mouseclicks away.

By all means link to external sites, but don't overdo it. Too many links makes it more difficult to keep the site up to date, and too prominent links encourage visitors to jump off elsewhere before looking around the site. Don't feel obliged to link to everyone that asks -- a few well-chosen, current links to good quality, relevant sites is better than a huge page.

It's usually better to link to the home page of a site rather than a specific page: this will avoid your link going out of date if the site is redesigned.

Furthering the aims of the site

When designing the content, always ask yourself how it furthers the aims of the site.

Below are some ideas about how this might work in practice. Of course there's no reason for every site to include all of them: we've simply given examples of how a site might further some of the aims mentioned above.

And don't be afraid to get other people involved. Publicity officers, walks leaders and programmers, access, countryside and footpath workers should all be able to provide material and make suggestions for how the site should be used.

Promoting Your Group

  • Make your group look welcoming and active, and appealing to non-members.
  • Talk about all the exciting things your group is doing right now, before discussing its history.
  • Avoid jargon and acronyms that people new to walking and the Ramblers won't understand, like 'definitive map' and 'EC', especially without explaining what they mean.
  • Point people in the direction of membership information, either on your site (but keep it up to date!) or on the main RA website.
  • Give an email contact for further information -- visitors are much more likely to email you than phone or write.
  • Aim to deal with email enquiries promptly.
  • Let people know about your walks programme, or at least give an idea of the area where you walk, how long and how demanding your walks are, whether or not dogs are welcome, if you have walks especially suitable for families, 'easy' walkers and so on, with a contact for further information. The main RA website now has a national walks finder and all new sites should be integrated with this (see note below).

Promoting the Ramblers' Association

  • Include our logo, some text about the organisation and its aims and activities (both available from Central Office), and a prominent link to the main website. You can also find text about the RA nationally on the main site: see About Us on the main menu or click here.
  • Include a logo and link to Ramblers' Holidays, who raise considerable sums of money for the RA by providing great walking holidays on a commercial basis.

Encouraging walking

  • Make your area seem an attractive place for walkers.
  • Include good quality information about walking opportunities in your area, not only RA organised walks but, for example, self-guided walks and long distance paths.
  • Remember urban walks and healthy walking.

Protecting footpaths

  • Include rights of way information (point people to the extensive resources on the main site)
  • Provide footpath problem report forms
  • Include news of local footpaths campaigns
  • Think about nominating a 'pick of the path problems' on a regular basis, along the same lines at the RA main site.

Securing access to open country

  • Include up-to-date information on the provisions of the recent Countryside and Rights of Way Act, and link to the Ramblers and the Countryside Agency or Countryside Council for Wales as providers of further information
  • Include details of local access forums, and encourage walkers to join them
  • Keep visitors updated on mapping of local access land, and tell them how they can contribute to the process

Defending the beauty of the countryside

  • Promote sustainable transport: put public transport details on walks listings, and provide links to local transport resources

The RA National Group Walks Finder

We now have an online Group Walks Finder on the national site which should eventually include details of all RA group walks across Great Britain in a single database, easily searchable by visitors: see www.ramblers.org.uk/walksfinder. Please bear this in mind when planning to put walks details on a Group site. The best thing is to upload your programme to the Walks Finder, and then install a link on your site which will retrieve only your own Group's or Area's walks from the database, which will save uploading the details twice. Documentation is available in the members' section of this site at www.ramblers.org.uk/members but you will need a username and password if you do not already have one.

We don't think the Walks Finder detracts at all from the usefulness of a Group website: there are many things you can do with a website besides list your walks, as detailed above.

Building the site

Once you have decided what you want on your site, the next stage is to start to build it. At this point you could go to a professional web designer, but this would most likely cost you a four figure sum, and probably ongoing expenses to maintain the site. Doing it yourself is usually the only option, and you will be surprised at how easy it is, with a little application, to obtain satisfactory results.

First, start to build the site on your own computer to the point where you have a basic working version. To do this you will need to deal with two kinds of files, HTML files and image files.

HTML files

An HTML file is really just a text file, containing the text that will appear on the page, together with "tags" written in a special language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which control the way the text is formatted. HTML tags are enclosed in angle brackets, like this:

<B>This text is in bold type</B>

would appear on the page as

This text is in bold type

The <B> here turns bold text on, and the </B> turns it off. There are similar tags for different fonts, point sizes, italics, bulleted lists and so on.

There are also tags for "hyperlinks" which turn a particular length of text into links.

<A HREF="http://www.ramblers.org.uk/">This text is a link to the Ramblers' website</A>

would appear on the page as

This text is a link to the Ramblers' website

Increasingly, HTML files also include various programs and "scripts" to make them more interactive, but you can create an attractive and useful site without worrying about these "advanced" features.

If you want to see more examples of what HTML files look like, simply go to any web page, including this one, and then select "View Source" on your browser. The HTML file itself will be displayed. As your web writing skills develop, this is a good way of finding out how a feature you like on someone else's website has been encoded.

Image files

These are files that a computer can display as a graphic or photo. Graphic files on the web have to be compressed otherwise they would take too much time to download, and the two standard compressed formats used are JPEG/JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) and GIF (Graphics Interchange Format). Image files are inserted into HTML pages as image tags, for example:

<IMG SRC="logonew.jpg">

would appear as

The web itself is a source of graphics and illustrations: it's easy to download copies of graphic files from other pages by simply right-clicking on the graphic in your browser and selecting 'Save Picture As'. Remember, though, that unless stated to the contrary, the content of other websites is copyright and should not be re-used without permission.

If you want to include original photographs and graphics on your site, you will need a scanner or a digital camera. Either of these would include basic photo-editing software that would allow you to edit your pictures or create your own images, and save them in the appropriate format.

Web editors

Though it's possible to build a website using nothing more sophisticated than a basic text editor like Windows Notepad, most people find it's easier to use one of the many WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Web-editing programs that are available. These programs work in a similar way to desktop publishing (DTP) programs, shielding you to a greater or lesser extent from the HTML coding that they create. WYSIWYG programs usually come with a large selection of images such as buttons and borders for use on your pages.

There is a wide range of Web-creation software, varying in sophistication, ease of use, and price from basic HTML editors like Arachnophilia (a free download from the web) to professional products like Dreamweaver (about ?250). Some Internet Service Providers, for example AOL, include their own simple website-building software.

According to magazine reviews, the best WYSIWYG program currently available is Microsoft?s FrontPage (about ?100). A cut-down version, FrontPage Express, comes free of charge with Internet Explorer.

Some word processors and desk top publishing (DTP) packages will also produce HTML. For example, the DTP program Microsoft Publisher (about ?75) is very easy to use and you don?t have to know anything about HTML. It lacks some of the more esoteric features of the dedicated Web editors, but you don?t need them to create a simple site.

Don't just rely on what the file you are working on looks like when displayed in the editor: load it into your web browser, which will give you a better idea of how it will actually appear to your visitors. Don't forget to refresh the browser each time you make changes.

Writing your own HTML

As mentioned above, you can write your own HTML files in a simple text editor such as Notepad, though you would have to know something of how the language works, and write in all the tags yourself by hand.

If you're interested in learning HTML, a good place to start is the web itself. The web directory, Yahoo, for example (www.yahoo.com), has a good selection of links to "beginners guide to HTML" websites in its Computers and Internet section, and many of these are excellent sites. Computer and internet magazines also frequently carry HTML courses, hints and tips and clinics, and there are a number of easy-to-understand textbooks, though as is the way with computer textbooks these tend to be weighty and expensive.

Publishing the site

Once you have got the basic site working on your own computer, you will want to make it more widely available. Unless you have your own permanent connection to the internet, this means finding space on a webserver, a computer that is permanently connected to the net. Uploading your site onto a webserver is known as "publishing" the site.

Web hosting

The organisation who owns the webserver where your site is stored is known as the web host. Though this is often the same organisation that provides your connection to the Internet -- your Internet Service Provider (ISP) -- this does not have to be the case. As soon as you have a connection to the internet, you can upload your site to any computer that you're authorised to use for this purpose.

All Internet Service Providers, even the free ones such as Freeserve and Lineone, now provide free webspace for subscribers in quantities that are much more generous than you are likely to need. To find a free ISP, check the listings and comparitive performace tests in internet magazines, or see the following websites:

There are also a number of sites that offer free web hosting, the best known of which is Geocities (www.geocities.com): for a current list, search for free web hosting at www.yahoo.com or a search engine.

The disadvantage of these free services is that many of them do not support more sophisticated features like databases, scripts and FrontPage "extensions". Some of the free web hosts also have pop-up windows featuring advertising which visitors to your site will be shown. If you want to use special features and display your site exactly as you want it, you may have to pay for the privilege, which could cost ?100 or more per year.

Domain names

Another disadvantage with just using a free service is that you will probably end up with a lengthy and cumbersome web address, something like
www.freeisp.co.uk/users/~barsetshireramblers

If you want something more snappy, like www.barsetshireramblers.org.uk, you will have to register a domain name.

Registering a domain name means paying someone to list your chosen name on a computer called a Domain Name Server (DNS), so that when someone types your web address into their browser, the DNS will tell their computer where to look for your site. Domain name registration services vary widely in both facilities and costs. As well as a one-off fee, you will have to pay a regular subscription to keep your name registered.

The internet magazines often publish comparative surveys of domain name services, and you can also use Yahoo again to search for service providers.

When you register a domain name, the best thing is to register it to The Ramblers' Association rather than to an individual or to an Area or Group name. This will make it easier to transfer responsibility for the site at a later date and avoid any "ownership" disputes. It is essential if you also give the charity number and/or company number of the RA, otherwise you will run into problems if the domain name registry checks the details with the Charity Commission or Companies House.

Transferring the files

Your web host will provide you with the information you need to transfer the files to their computer, such as the address, the user name and password. If you are using a web editor, you should be able to set it up to handle the publishing using the details provided by your host. You can also transfer files directly using a system called FTP (File Transfer Protocol): most beginners' guides to web site management give further information about this.

Some web hosts have easy-to-use uploading facilities using web pages: you simply go to a special page, type in your user details, list the files you want to upload on a form, and the host computer does the rest.

We recommend that when you first publish your site, you don't publicise it but instead treat it as a test version. Check yourself that it is working properly, and get other people to have a look at it too, preferably from different machines, since the same web page can appear quite different on different machines and browsers. Only promote the site to the public when you yourself are happy that it is ready.

Publicising the site

Provided that your site conforms to the RA Guidance Notes, we will link it from the Groups pages on the main RA website at the earliest opportunity. Please email us to let us know it is online. And please keep us informed of any subsequent changes of address.

Otherwise, you should take every other opportunity to publicise the site. Don't forget to include it in your publications, letter headings, advertising and promotions, in letters to the local press and so on. Tell the local library, tourist information centre, council information service and anyone else that keeps your contact details on file. If you come across sites that you think should be linking to it, such as other walkers' sites, don't be afraid to write and ask for a link.

Most of the popular search engines use 'crawlers' that automatically follow links to new sites all around the web, so they will find your site for themselves -- eventually. To hurry the process along, most search engines have a registration page where you can nominate yourself for a link. There are also services that automatically register you with a number of search engines to save you the trouble of visiting them all yourself, but they will charge for this.

Finally, do try to keep your site maintained and up-to-date, and deal with any email it generates promptly. Vary the front page occasionally even if nothing on it has gone out of date: you will get regular visitors, but they will stop coming if it seems the site never changes.

Keep in touch

Although we cannot help with day-to-day support for sites, we will gladly give information and advice as best we can, and also provide copies of the Guidance Notes mentioned above. Please contact us at ramblers@ramblers.org.uk  Comments and suggestions on these notes are also very welcome.

Two online members-only discussion groups have also been set up by Ramblers' members and are a useful way of sharing knowledge and opinions:

Thanks to Peter Jones, whose original guidance notes for members setting up websites were a major source of inspiration for this page.