First steps towards a successful local history website

Published: 10th February 2021

Paul Carter
BALH Digital Manager
digitalmanager@balh.org.uk
@pac404

Paul Carter is founder and Managing Director of Beachshore, a web development agency working with a number of organisations in the local and family history world. He is also the creator of Name & Place, a dedicated software solution local history projects including one-name (surname) studies, one-place studies and house histories, which is used by both individual researchers and societies. He is also the BALH Digital Manager, responsible for the Digital Team and coordinating our online output.

One of the very few ‘good’ things to come out of the pandemic has been an acceleration of digital content, putting me in a position of thinking, if not saying, “why didn’t we do this years ago?”.

First steps towards a successful local history website

"Paul is uniquely placed to advise and support family and local historians in how to improve their web presence". That last sentence of my biography brings a wry smile to my face. I have been producing websites for professional genealogists and family history societies for over ten years now, all the time giving one-to-one advice and talks to groups. But in the past year the level of interest in having a website, or a better website, has increased exponentially.

In my role with BALH, and indeed with much of my professional life, I am on the ‘front line’, which offers a good barometer for how good or bad the situation is. It’s heart-warming to see societies adapt (BALH included), offering fascinating talks, to potentially global audiences, with a large pool of speakers now no longer needing to travel and with ticket prices free or very reasonably priced. In early January, I gave an online talk to over 160 local historians on setting up a website, and we’ve had so many requests for more that we’re repeating this event in April.

While we all yearn for some form of ‘normality’ once more, the genie is out of the bottle and I cannot see anything but such digital content growing and improving. A year ago, I travelled 5,000 miles to Salt Lake City, to launch my software Name & Place at the RootsTech family history show. Later this month, I will be sitting at home, ‘present’ in my virtual stand, talking to attendees from all over the globe. The technology supporting this event, and others my company are involved in, wouldn’t even have been considered a year ago.

There are some forward-thinking organisations I have been working with for years who already anticipated a need to adapt to survive, recognising that they needed to fight against dwindling membership and attendance at their meetings. Those societies were quickly out of the starting gate last year and I have spent a lot of time with them looking for new ways to improve their digital output, to attract a new, online, membership with a potentially global reach. I worry more for the other organisations. Those who have stood still (and I know of many), either unwilling to adapt or simply not having any idea what to do.

I was taught very early in my career – I came out of university a highly-trained computer scientist, with little idea in the ways of business – to speak in plain-English to the non-technical. This in an industry which is still notorious for the use of technical jargon and talking down to those not in the know. I still adhere to those early lessons 30+ years later, and while working professionally with many businesses and organisations, I always try to demystify this technology and empower people to try it for themselves. This is easier said than done, as there’s so many facets to web software. I suggest therefore one approach; what I consider the best option for those wishing to try to help themselves.

Web hosts or web servers are computers connected to each other via the internet and are used to 'host' websites

First some clarification of terms:

A web page is a document available via an address on the World Wide Web.
A website is a collection of one or more web pages, linked together
To be accessible to the online world, the website needs to reside on a web server, a computer or network of computers designed specifically for this task, although in practice their specification often resembles a desktop PC. This service is called web hosting, and you can rent web server space from dedicated companies. See the links below for some recommendations.
Why does your phone ring? This isn’t a philosophical question; the answer is more straightforward than that! It’s because someone has dialled your number. The caller dials your number (or more likely selects you from the contacts of their mobile), but that process of a series of numbers makes your phone ring. Phone numbers are unique, otherwise how would the telephone system know where to route the call? The concept is no different to accessing a website. Websites have unique addresses, actually they are a series of numbers too, but we don’t have to worry about those as we have friendly names to remember. These are known as domain names and they are now part of our everyday life, used in websites:
- google.co.uk
- balh.org.uk
- nationalarchives.org.uk
- twitter.com
The same domain names also appear in email format, the section to the right of the ‘@’, such as:
- info@balh.org.uk
- yourname@gmail.com
- yourname@btinternet.com

The ‘.uk’ names are country-specific (there are equivalents for most countries in the world), while .com, .org and .net are what known as ‘top-level domains’ which originate in the United States. While it makes sense for UK websites to have a .uk domain, they don’t have to. Each were designed for a specific purpose, but the lines have been blurred, especially when trying to find a unique domain name available to use. The .com / .co.uk names are designated for commercial enterprises, .org / .org.uk for organisations (local history societies are in this category) and .net stands for ‘network’. The shorter .uk domain name was added in 2014 to offer more choice and many other variants have been added since.

You only rent a domain name, never own it outright, often for a period of two years (although this can be longer). Just as it would be highly disruptive to lose your phone number, you want to closely protect your domain name. They are registered through domain registrars (often the same companies as those providing web hosting), but do remember to renew them!

Domain names must be unique but the registrant websites allow you to search for options

My number one tip is to ensure your domain name is registered correctly. The ‘owner’ of the domain name is known as the registrant. Societies should register their domain in the society name, not an individual. I have lost count of the number of times over the years I have had to try to track down or recover domain names for customers, where the original registrant has resigned, moved or worse still, deceased.

The combination of web hosting and a domain name give you the ‘real estate’ for your website. There are countless options for building the structure and content of your website, with many companies offering software to make this as easy as writing a Word document. But many such solutions do have a downside, most notably locking you in to their software. If you wish to move your website elsewhere, you will have to start building again from scratch.

I believe the best approach for the DIYer is to use WordPress. There’s a number of reasons for this but what I like the most is you can try it for free (and at the simplest level, keep using it for free), while is can be extended to manage quite advanced processes. A WordPress website can also be relocated, so if you wish to move its location to another web host later, you can. Many professional web designers do use WordPress and it accounts for around 35% of the websites online.

There’s two versions of WordPress: WordPress.com is the ‘hosted’ variant, meaning you set up an account and start building your website. Everything else is done for you, even a free domain name (yourname.wordpress.com). This is the best option for beginners wishing to start out. WordPress.org is the more advanced ‘self-hosted’ variant, where you need to have a separate web hosting account and a domain name. There’s no restriction to starting with a free account at WordPress.com and upgrading to the self-hosted variant later.

WordPress's scalability is one reason why it's ideal for the beginner

When planning the structure and scope of your website, keep it simple. I hear often of grandiose plans for everything a society wants to do online. This is great, but don’t run before you can walk. This isn’t just a technical issue but a human one too. I find websites are more likely to fail because of a lack of time given to them than anything else. Do not underestimate the amount of time it requires to keep a website up to date. The beauty of web design is it’s modular and flexible. Start with a few pages, even one page, and build up as required later. A one-page ‘online business card’ is far better than a multi-page website listing news and events last updated in 2017.

A demo website produced using a free WordPress.com account. Keep the structure simple to start with. You can always add to it later.

Take time with your content. Beyond the obvious of trying to avoid grammar and spelling mistakes, use good quality images, which are bright and sharp and engaging. I liken websites to a shop window. Are you more likely to go into the shop with dirty windows, poor lighting, sun-faded stock and no price tags, or a clean, bright shop with clear pricing on items in the window and a sense that it’s thriving? Keep that concept in mind while building your website.

Good luck. I hope this helps encourage you to give it a try and will be delighted to hear if it does. I would love to help everyone individually, but the volume of enquiries outweighs the number of hours I have in the day! If you would like to know more, my April webinar will be describing these concepts in more detail. This webinar is one of a series BALH are running, with others covering using social media, setting up online meetings, self-publishing and more.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the British Association for Local History (BALH). Any content provided by our contributors is of their own opinion and is not intended to malign any individual, group, organisation, or entity.