Creating & Maintaining A Public Safety Internet Site
How you can promote your department on the World Wide Web
By Dave J. Iannone
| Dave J. Iannone is the Fire Marshal for the Hyattsville VFD and webmaster for their highly-rated website, with 10 years experience in the fire service. A journalist and photographer whose stories and photos have appeared in the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun and Firehouse Magazine, David is also the owner of CoolWriter Publications Inc., a Maryland-based company that performs Internet web site design and management. |
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| Photograph: (select thumbnail to view detail image) |
 Expanded from a simple text-based web site in 1986, the Hyattsville (MD) Volunteer Fire Department now hosts an award-winning web site full of department news, photos, and eye-capturing graphics. David Ianonne |
This article can be found on
page 32 of the Jan/Feb 1998
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
Getting your public safety organization online can be one of the most important decisions you make as the next century approaches.
This incredible public relations and information vehicle can give you a worldwide, professional image that can't be beat. While it may seem like an overwhelming task, following a few basic steps make getting online easy and enjoyable.
While the article focuses on a fire department site, it can be used for
just about any public safety-related organization or company.
Our Beginnings
Here's a brief overview of how the Hyattsville VFD (www.hyattsvillevfd.org) got online and developed into a popular, complete fire service site.
Our Web site began simply in April 1996 when we placed our community newsletter, "Hyattsville Volunteers," under a student Internet account at the University of Maryland. It was about as basic as you can get.
The page soon evolved into a typical fire department web site with an overview of the department, news and apparatus information all linked from one main index page.
As the site expanded and the campus account became quite slow for access, the department's board of directors approved the move of the site to a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) in July 1996.
At that time, there were only a few hundred related sites. Now there are thousands, with more cropping up every day, giving the emergency services a seemingly unending web presence.
A year later we get hundreds of visitors to our site daily from around
the world. You can do the same.
Building Your Site
It doesn't take a computer science degree to build your organization's site - and it doesn't need to take money. In just over a year, I've taught myself essentials of Web design. Take your time and learn from mistakes.
For those just starting out, there are a few sites - such as the Fire-EMS Network (www.fire-ems.net) - that offer fire departments a free home page including apparatus, personnel listings, and news.
It's a good start, but the downside is that every department's page looks exactly the same.
Two of the largest free site providers that let users design their own pages are Geocities (www.geocities.com) and Tripod (homepager.tripod.com). These give you 2 megabytes of space, templates and tips on getting your page started. Also, if someone in your organization has an educational internet account or a commercial provider such as America Online they may have space available to get your site online.
A well-rounded public safety site can expect to use about 5-megabytes or less of disk space from your ISP.
For a dedicated connection contact your local ISP. Ask if they will donate or discount space and assistance. Try asking local businesses to sponsor your site as a donation. For example, a limousine company pays us a small fee to advertise on our site.
To give you an idea of cost, we pay Erol's Internet, a large East Coast ISP, about $500 for space and access each year.
Adding your own domain (such as "www.hyattsvillevfd.org") adds to the professional net image that you want to create as well as making it easier for personnel and visitors to tell others how to find you.
When it comes to constructing your Web site, all it takes is some time on your part, learning basic HTML coding. There are many places on the net that offer in-depth instructions on starting your web site (do an Internet search for "HTML" or "building a Web site." Additionally, there are numerous books and magazine articles that offer easy-to-learn overviews for creating a Web page. Our first web page used backgrounds we found on free places on the Internet and a few basic HTML codes. (you can visit that site at http://www.hyattsvillevfd.org/volunteers.html)
For a near-perfect Web page without ANY coding on your part, there are dozens of site design programs. After typing in the content, these "what you see is what you get" programs, such as Microsoft FrontPage, do all the rest.
For hardware, you'll need a photo scanner - or find a friend or local copy store that has one - to get your photos online. A basic graphic design program can build "buttons" or other custom icons. Several of these programs can be downloaded for free from various sites on the net.
Obviously, the more advanced programs that you have - such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator - the more professional your site will look. But often times, a well-designed easy-to-navigate Web site will give visitors more than enough to keep their attention.
For larger organizations that can afford it, a professional web designer may charge anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand to design and maintain your site.
When you design your own site, avoid cluttering pages with too much text or high-resolution graphics. Let your site stand out from the rest, but don't go overboard on the front page. Direct visitors to the various parts of your site and tell them what you're about. Consider your site a magazine and make the main page an attention-getting cover, but don't overdo the graphics.
Oftentimes you'll find a web page that looks incredible but takes minutes to download because of intense graphics and complicated layout. In your image program, get pictures and graphics to a minimum file size without impeding the quality.
As a general rule, your site shouldn't take longer than 15 to 30 seconds to upload on a 28.8 modem, or your visitors will leave before they arrive.
It's a good idea to double check your site's layout with different Web browsers to ensure that visitors see the Web page as you intended.
The HVFD has a sample fire department Web site that can be used as an example for others to follow if you're just starting out. Visit: http://www.hyattsvillevfd.org/sample.html
Start your site off with the basics: a department overview, apparatus
and unit capsules, personnel listing, statistics summary and a news and
events page. See how it goes and expand from there.
Keys to Success
Promote your site and keep it updated!
The best way to get visitors is to let people know it's there.
Add your site to every fire/rescue Web link directory that you can find. These include 10-75.com (www.10-75.com), The Fire-EMS Network (www.fire-ems.net) and the Fire/Rescue WWW Directory (www.hyattsvillevfd.org/links).
There are literally dozens of sites that you can easily find whose main purpose is to provide a directory of Internet sites related to the emergency services. By spending a few hours visiting those sites you can dramatically increase the number of visitors to your site.
The more someone sees your site listed, the better chance they'll stop by. Ask your ISP if they provide access statistics or simply add a counter to your main page to get an idea how many visitors you're getting.
Finally, submit your Web site and the main pages within to all major search engines. AOL's Webcrawler (www.webcrawler.com), Lycos (www.lycos.com) and Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com) are just a few of the directories that list every site on the Internet.
We receive many visitors who tell us they found us by typing "fire department" or "rescue" into a search engine. It sounds basic, but it really is the easiest way for people to find you.
More importantly, keep the site updated - often. Continually adding features and content to your site will encourage visitors to return frequently and tell others about it. Nothing turns visitors away faster than seeing information that is obviously outdated.
On our site, we update news weekly. We've also added sounds, a chat room and an extensive link section. And lots of pictures. I've found that our apparatus, people and especially incident photos continue to be the most-viewed part of the site.
As you continue to expand your Web knowledge, experiment with interactive features such as Shockwave and RealAudio.
Add a guestbook to your site and request feedback. The best way to know what people do and don't like about your Web presence is to ask them. Think about what they say when you upgrade the site.
Every couple of months alter the look of the site. A change as simple as using a different background color or reversing where your menu is placed can give your site a brand new look without spending hours doing a complete redesign.
Developing and maintaining a site on the World Wide Web can give any public safety organization worldwide attention, regardless of size.
"The site has significantly enhanced the stature of this department in the community and within the fire service," said Hyattsville Fire Chief Donald B. Moltrup. "My biggest problem is making sure that the department stands up to the high standards the web site has set."
