Are You Measuring These Metrics On Your Campaign Website?
Knowing what your campaign website traffic does when it arrives at your site can help you tailor your web content for maximum effectiveness.
Google Analytics provides valuable information that allows you to find out where your web site visitors are coming from, what pages they are viewing, and what they do on your site. Here are three metrics to keep an eye on no matter what analytics program you are using.
Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits where the visitor left your site from the entrance (or landing) page. Traffic sent to (donation or issue) landing pages, home page, and other internal pages will have different bounce rates.
Look at the pages with very high bounce rates. Is there are reason why people are not sticking around? Is there a call to action on the page? Is there enough content? Does the content match the traffic source? For example, if you are running a PPC campaign, are the ads pointing to the most relevant page on your site?
Average Page Views Per Visit
Your visitor’s overall engagement can be measured by how deep into your site they will go. The average page views per visit gives you an indication of how much interest your site holds for your visitors. When people find content that resonates, they will read more and tend to share that content with others. This ties into what content visitors see. If you find particular content is popular (such as issue pages), then you may want to create additional, similar content.
Average Time
This ties in with the other metrics. Are you reaching your visitors, and are your visitors spending time on your site? For example, you have a video on a page that is three minutes long, you’ll want to see that your audience has remained on the page for at least that long. Typically a high bounce rate will correlate with a low average time on the site, but not always.
Take a good look at your content when looking at your analytics. Try to see it through your visitor’s eyes, as if it’s the first page they see. Even better, have a neutral third party give you feedback on your site and page content.
Examining metrics on the page level will give you an idea of what content is most engaging to your audience and give you areas where you may want to change your content. Knowing what your visitors do is critical to understanding the effectiveness of your site and overall marketing strategy.
Analytics code can be easily be added to your Online Candidate website through the Site Setup. For more articles, information and tool about analytics and online campaigning, visit OnlineCandidateResources.com.
Political Messaging, Campaign Mission Statements, And Groupthink
There’s an old expression, “Too many cooks spoil the broth”. If you’ve ever written a campaign mission statement or campaign plan with a group of people, you know how a simple idea can become tweaked, pulled apart, and reassembled into a Frankenstein-like mess of vague goals, squishy feelings and half-baked ideas.
The same thing goes for campaign issue and advertising plans for local political campaigns: Over-analysis by a group can take simple idea can turn into on overreaching and broad goal that will only serve to confuse the voting public.
How to Write a Mission Statement That Doesn’t Suck [Video]
The average length of a political mission statement is less than 10 words. Is your campaign plan simple, effective and engaging? Can you tighten it up further and make it catchy tagline?
Is it concise like the mission statements and platforms of the major US political parties?
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Critical Elements of a Campaign Website Header
Web users make snap decisions about the quality of a web page, so a nice design is critical for making an initial positive impression. The first part of a website that typically attracts the eye is the site header. Below are the most common features of successful politicalwebsite header images.
Candidate Photo: A candidate head shot is the most common feature in a campaign site header. Must be the nature of candidates, but there are few politicians who did not want their photo front and center. The best shots to work with are those with the subject in front of a solid color that contrasts with their clothing. This makes it much easier to crop and edit the image.
Colors and Fonts: The colors of the header and website should be consistent with the color scheme of any other campaign material that will be use. Consistency builds familiarity.
Location: This one gets missed sometimes, particularly the location. It’s great that the site is about ‘Smith for Mayor’, but mayor of where? Never assume that a visitor knows where you are located. Your municipality should be included the header. For SEO purposes, you should also include both the municipality and state somewhere in the body text of your pages.
Sample Website Header Designs
See our political website design examples.
Slogan or Quote: This is optional, but if you have a great campaign slogan, why hide it? Incorporate it into the header image.
Landmarks: Readily identifiable natural or man-made landmarks make a great addition to a header, particularly when used as a background. State flags or seals also make for good backgrounds, but if you plan to use them, make sure you can do so.
The size of header, particularly its height, can vary from site to site. When we started creating Online Candidate back in 2004, most of our sites were quite narrow, perhaps a hundred pixels tall. Today we tend to make them as least twice as tall, and a candidate head shot now usually includes the shoulders and chest. Part of this is simply keeping up with online design trends, and also the fact that the average screen resolution is higher than it used to be.
Learn more about our Campaign Website Packages to create an effective, professional web presence that helps win elections. Our Regular and Enhanced Website Packages include custom design!
Creating an Online Political Press Kit
Online political press kits are helpful in that basic campaign information can be kept in one place, and the information is easily accessible. Press kit material can be added to its own section on your campaign website or incorporated into your contact page.
Traditionally, digital press kits are built into a series web pages where the goal is to advertise the site. Using that format on a campaign website is a little redundant, since you are not looking for advertisers, and the point of the site is to sell the candidate. Instead, a campaign press kit is designed to create digestible information that can be easily downloaded by voter and reporters and incorporated into media coverage about your campaign.
So what goes into a political online press kit? It depends, really. Unlike a physical press packet, an online press kit can be broken up to be downloaded in part or in whole. PDFs work well as a common file format for documents.
You can save your files as PDFs through Word, or you can convert them through a free tool like PrimoPDF. Images can be grouped together and compressed into ZIP files. WinZip is a popular compression program, but there are free alternatives available such as jzip.
A political campaign press kit includes:
- A cover letter describing the candidate and campaign.
- A candidate biography. Don’t forget to add a photo and related web links.
- Press releases from the organization.
- Digital copies of logos, brochures, flyers, etc.
- Photographs of the candidate and events from the campaign trail. Offer several versions for download. Low-res files can be used for web, but print requires larger images with higher resolution.
- Newspaper or other media excerpts. Rather than reprinting the material outright, you could create a document or PDF file with links.
- A Question and Answer sheet covering the major issues. This should include standard platform information and cover basic questions.
Avoid fluff about how great the candidate is. Keep the press material professional and up to date. You don’t need to necessarily link to your files. You can keep them private and only provide direct download links when necessary.
A PR kit can also be created for events. Again, this is packet of information meant to inform the media about a fundraiser, meeting or public debate. This may contain much of the same content as your regular kit, but tailored with additional background or press release information about the event.
To quickly get your material into the hands of the media, reach out early. Find out what reporters cover your area and send them a quick introduction and contact information, letting them know where they can find up-to-date information about your campaign. Remind reporters of your online press kit following candidate interviews or when you are submitting press releases. Anything you can do to make a journalist’s job easier is helpful and, if you’re lucky, may lead to better media coverage.
Download our brochure templates to add a professional edge to your campaign literature – or view all of our Digital Products.
Sign of the Times for Political Candidates – Best of Posts
No matter the changes or trends in politics, yard signs were and still remain a mainstay of political campaigning. We’ve written about signage several times over the years. For newer readers who may have missed some posts, you’ll find them all here in once place!
Common Campaign Sign Questions
Here are some common questions and answers about political yard signs. Learn about the sizes, types and more…
Campaign Yard Sign Design Tips
Over time, a single campaign sign can be seen by hundreds or even thousands of people. Multiply that effect by the total number of yard signs promoting a campaign, and you have a powerful way to build candidate name recognition.
Leveraging Campaign Yard Signs Online
In a tight race, you are always trying to get the edge over your opponent. One way to stand out is to combine offline campaign tactics with online ones. When field and the campaign’s web team are working together, great things happen. Campaigns can even leverage the humble yard sign to connect with voters.
Great Uses For Old Campaign Signs
Once the election is over, the campaign signs remain. Here are some creative ways to get rid of your signs without throwing them out.
10% Off on Super Cheap Signs. Use Code: ONLCAN10
.Com or .Org for Political Campaigns? How to Choose Your Domain Name
When it comes to choosing a domain name for your political campaign website, your choice matters more than you might think. One of the first decisions your campaign must make is which domain name and extension to use. Get it wrong, and you risk confusing voters, losing traffic – or worse, sending supporters to the wrong site.
Anyone can register a top-level .com or .org domain name. While the .com extension is the most familiar, .org is often used for non-profit organizations, including political campaigns. (.net is also available, but it’s not widely used for political campaigns and tends to be less memorable.)
In terms of search engine optimization (SEO), it doesn’t matter much whether you use a .com or a .org extension. Both are treated equally by search engines. But in the minds of voters, .com tends to be the default, and .org may suggest a more cause-based or nonprofit identity.
Tip: You can get a free .com domain with any Online Candidate campaign website package.
Should You Register Both .Com and .Org Domain?
Short answer; you probably don’t need both. But if your campaign organization wants to register a .org name and use that as your primary domain name, then make sure the you also own the .com extension. Many visitors will instinctively type “.com” instead of “.org” when searching for your site. If you only own the .org and not the .com, they could end up on someone else’s site—or no site at all.
By owning both versions, you can redirect one to the other. For example, if someone types in yourwebsite.com, they can automatically be redirected to yourwebsite.org. That way, you won’t lose potential supporters to a mistyped URL.
If the .com domain you want is already taken and you really want it, it might be worth trying to purchase the name. This can get expensive, though. For campaigns on a budget, it may be better to brainstorm a new domain name rather than overpay.
Tips for Choosing a Good Campaign Domain Name
When selecting a domain name for your campaign, keep it short, memorable, and relevant. Ideally, use your full name or the position you’re running for. For example, janedoeformayor.com is clear and specific. Avoid using hyphens, numbers, the year, or complicated words that are hard to spell. Keep in mind how the domain will look on signs, social media, and in print. If possible, register multiple versions or common misspellings to redirect to your main site.
Tip: If you’re running in a local race, consider including your city or district name, like smithforalbany.com, to make it easier for voters to find you in search results.
Watch Out for Domain Squatting
If you delay registering your domain, someone else might grab it – either unintentionally or to resell it at a high price. This practice, called domain squatting, is more common than you’d think—especially during election season. Worse, your opponent could register a similar domain and use it for their own messaging or to confuse voters. That’s why registering early and considering related or alternate domain names is more than just good campaign protection.
Important: Always register your campaign domain name before printing signs, mailers, or publishing social media ads. Nothing looks worse than advertising a domain that doesn’t exist—or one you don’t control.
Protecting your privacy
WHOIS is a public directory that maintains a record of all domain registrations. It includes registrant details such as your name, email, phone number, and mailing address. Once registered, your inbox may fill up with spam offering everything from SEO services to website design.
Why? Because your contact info is publicly visible—unless you opt for domain privacy protection.
Adding ID Protect when registering your domain keeps your personal information hidden from spammers and telemarketers. Without it, your private contact information becomes searchable by anyone.
Keeping your domain after the election
If you think you are going to run for office again in the next election cycle, you may want to keep the domain name, even if your website goes offline. The cost is about $25 a year. And this keeps your domain from lapsing and giving someone else the opportunity to register it for themselves.
Considering .REPUBLICAN or .DEMOCRAT Domains?
Looking for something beyond the typical .com or .org?
.REPUBLICAN and .DEMOCRAT domain names instantly communicate your party affiliation to voters. These politically branded domains can boost your visibility and clearly signal your identity to visitors and search engines alike.
Right now, you can register a .DEMOCRAT or .REPUBLICAN domain with Online Candidate. Just be aware that premium domain names may be priced higher—or unavailable—depending on demand.
Whatever domain you choose, secure yours early before someone else does.
Additional Resources:
- Free Download: Political Website Domains and Hosting – What You Need To Know
- Is Your Campaign Website Domain Really Yours?
Ready to get started? Register your domain, set up hosting and get the tools you need to WIN your election. Check out our affordable Political Website Packages.
Online Candidate makes it easy to launch your political website and build your online presence.
