As Joe says below, reputation is key, and that applies to both the press and public's view of us.

Clearly the web is an important part of building and maintaining that reputation these days and I hope I am preaching to the converted when I say that having a website is crucial. Not having one is like not having a phone number or not being listed in the charity commission as a registered charity.

But of course people need to be able to find it. It is critical that your web address (URL) is recognisably yours, whether you are known as your long name, initials or an acronym people must be able to find you by what they think you are called.

Finding you in a search engine is also key, and it is not difficult to make sure your site has the right description, title and keywords to get your site listed by how the public might search for you. Meta Tags may sound techie but they aren't, and if you haven't got them the best site in the world will not get listed.

But once people have found your site it is critical that they aren't immediately put off by out of date copy and old news. If you don't have the resources to update your site on a regular basis don't put time sensitive information on the homepage.

If nothing else gets done make sure you remove out of date events; there is nothing worse than visiting a site and seeing an event listed that ended months ago... it looks like a vacant shop, unused and unloved, and will cause huge damage to your reputation.

If you don't have lots of press releases and don't generate much news, don't put it on the homepage. We think it's a great idea to have, but if it isn't regularly refreshed it doesn't help make you look like the vibrant organisation you want to be seen as.

"Cut your cloth to fit your budget" was a phrase I grew up with, and in the case of the web it is better to build a site you have the time and resources to maintain than to spend budget on a flashy site which quickly looks out of date.

Sue Fidler, Director of Sue Fidler Ltd, providing e-consultancy for Charities.