Many nonprofit and small business websites send email. They send automatic emails when someone makes a donation to a charity. They send an email confirmation when a person fills out the contact form. For small businesses that sell things online, they send an email to confirm the order, acknowledge shipping, and communicate promotions and events.

If your website sends automated emails like these, have you noticed any issues lately? If so, you aren’t alone.

We fix these issues regularly, and the problem is an increasing one.

If you’ve heard the terms “DMARC records” or “DKIM” or “email authentication,” it’s OK if you don’t understand the details. There are a few ways that we handle issues with email deliverability. But first, we’ll explain why this is happening so often lately.

Email Delivery Issues from Automated Website Emails

The emails your website sends usually come from your business email address, but they aren’t originating from the same computer server that your own personal emails usually originate from. This makes email programs very suspicious!

It would be like if your cell phone rang, and when you looked at the screen, the incoming call was from yourself! When your website tries to send you an email, your normal email system sees that it’s coming from your business domain (the email ends in your website URL) but your email system knows it’s coming from a different computer server.

Often your email program (usually Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace) simply doesn’t let the email in. You won’t find it in spam or trash. It won’t arrive at all.

This is a big problem if you are a business who fulfills new orders when you receive an email that there is a new order. It’s a big problem if you receive new leads from potential customers from your website’s contact form.

Restoring Email Delivery

At SiteInSight, we have a few tools we can use to get your emails flowing again.

1. We can install DMARC and DKIM records at the account where you purchased your domain. This is a great idea for everyone. We can also create an authentication record in the same area that tells your email account that certain pieces of software, like your website, your CRM, or your email newsletter tool, are allowed to send on your behalf. These are great ideas, but they do require some work on your end. We are happy to add those records for you, but each record is specific to your situation, and often need to be generated by the various pieces of software you are using for your business. If you have a IT company providing managed IT services for you, we can enlist their help. If you are doing it on your own, it might be helpful to move to the second option.
2. We can install a tool (called a plugin, on WordPress sites) that changes the routing. Instead of having your website send its automated emails using the website hosting server, it connects to your actual email account at Microsoft or Google and sends the emails through your email server. This route also takes a little work from you, but we can get on Zoom and do it together. You’ll log into the administrative account that controls your business email (whichever account you use to create new email addresses for new employees) and then we’ll work with you to create a small app that creates secure credentials to allow your website and your email program to talk to each other. Once it’s set up, your emails will send and receive through your business email server. This solution is pretty brilliant and we have seen it work immediately for clients. We’ll work with you to test the email notifications and make sure they are going through.
3. For contact forms, we have an alternate solution. We subscribe to a form builder that is special. Although the form appears on your website and looks like it’s part of your website, it actually lives in a different location and simply displays on your website. The email notifications that let you know someone filled out these forms comes from the form builder itself, not your website. Often this solves the problem of emails not being delivered. These forms also attract a lot less spam.

Email delivery for website notifications is critical for running your organization. Don’t pull out your hair trying to solve this problem. Give us a call or send an email.

Have you ever Googled a celebrity and the first thing that comes up is a set of boxes with their photograph, overview, personal data, et cetera? For example, if you Google “Tom Hanks,” a whole page of information comes up for him, and then a list of his films. These are called Knowledge Graphs.

SiteInSight can help secure one for anyone with enough externally validated success. Have you written a book? Is there a Wikipedia listing for you or your work? Other types of successes include numerous links from government (.gov) websites, academic (.edu) websites et cetera.

We not only help evaluate whether having your own KnowledgeGraph is a realistic goal, but we can increase your chances of getting one in the future. Or, if you already have a Knowledge Graph, we can work with you to claim and optimize it.

A Knowledge Graph has many virtues. You get more control over your web presence and improve the quality of what shows up when someone Googles your name. It allows you to bolster your online reputation. You can further leverage your celebrity with search engine recognizability.

Whatever your goals are, you can have control over online presence. Let SiteInSight claim and improve a Knowledge Graph, if it’s right for you.

When a local nonprofit making waves in the world of poverty and housing was ready to roll out its new name and branding, they didn’t want their website to look mismatched. But they also didn’t want supporters who knew their old name, Move to Prosper, to be disoriented when they arrived at the new homepage.

SiteInSight worked with Families Flourish to create a seamless transition.

Our team created a copy of their website and changed all of the branding to the new Families Flourish logo and colors, and replaced almost every instance of “Move to Prosper” with Families Flourish, the new name. We say “almost” because we led some serious discussions to the nuances of the change. In the end, Families Flourish decided to preserve their old blog posts containing media mentions of their old name. We also sprinkled several references to the name change, including both names.

Our team carefully rerouted pages and double-checked links.

In the end, we launched a new version of the website that proudly announced their new name, while making their existing supporters and clients still feel at home. As an added bonus, we improved the labeling and flow for families seeking support from the organizations programs. We also helped create a password-protected area for board member resources, and integrated their donor database with a giving form that tracks donations.

At SiteInSight, we love to work with nonprofits. Much like small businesses, they have a lot of work to do with limited resources, and they appreciate automations and simplified processes. They also need to have a recognizable brand and coherent website they can edit themselves. Cheers to the great work of Families Flourish!

Advanced Engineering Consultants is an amazing company that makes award-winning buildings functional by designing the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and other systems required for creative construction projects. The company was seeking an updated look and modern content management platform for its current website.

AEC’s website had its current design for a number of years, and their staff managed the website on an aging technology using Dreamweaver to edit the content and design. This increased the time and effort required by their team to add new projects and make routine edits, such as updating the staff page. It also made it easy to introduce errors in the layout, because of the way the older website designs work. We agreed with their team that it was time for a facelift.

We pulled all of AEC’s existing content, which included MANY, MANY case studies and images, into a staging website built in WordPress. We worked together with their team to create a modern design that appropriately displays the company’s amazing work beautifully on desktop and mobile devices. WordPress allows their new design to be locked in place, so their team is free to edit the content without worry.

SiteInSight CEO Alice Foeller is excited to share more about recovering from traumatic grief, and was honored to have been interviewed on two recent podcasts on the topic of resilience as well as tips for supporting friends and family who are recovering from a loss.

Alice began writing a book as a form of therapy, but soon found the narrative was an opportunity to create connection and support others. Her book led to a talk at TEDx New Albany in April of 2024. The talk, which is still awaiting publication on the TEDx YouTube channel, was identified as an Editor’s Pick and will be released later this year alongside special publicity.

Alice’s podcast interviews are details and linked at her personal website, where you can also find links to information about her forthcoming book.

Links to the podcast recordings can be found here.