The Latvian Diabetes Federation answers its phone on Wednesdays from 11:00 to 14:00. That is three hours a week. The rest of the time, someone who has just learned that they or a family member has diabetes has to find answers on their own, and the first place they look is the internet. That was our starting point for the new diabets.lv: the website has to be the federation’s duty officer for every other hour of the week.
The situation
The Latvian Diabetes Federation is a non-profit that brings together regional diabetes societies from Dobele to Rēzekne. It is a member of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), publishes the „Saule” magazine and speaks for patients in talks with the Ministry of Health and the National Health Service about reimbursed medicines, insulin delivery devices and glucose monitoring systems. The federation is led by its president, Dr. med. Indra Štelmane.
Over the years the federation had collected a lot of valuable material: articles on diet and everyday life with diabetes, magazine issues, event photos. The new website had to give all of it a place where it can be found in a couple of clicks. The federation’s site had always been on Wix, and the team was used to publishing news themselves. So we built the new site on Wix Studio: the admin stays familiar, while the structure, design and SEO are new.
Who comes to the website
Visitors to diabets.lv are very different, and each arrives with their own question. We built the structure around three of them.
Someone with a new diagnosis, or a family member
They need calm language and a clear next step. The FAQ answers the question of what to do if diabetes has just been diagnosed. The first screen of the homepage shows the free information line 8000 1234 about state-funded healthcare, and the materials section has a diabetes diary to download for recording measurements.
A society member in the regions
Often an older reader who opens the site on a phone. They look for their society’s phone number, the latest issue of „Saule” or photos from the last event. On the members page each society has its own card with address, phone and email, and the magazine opens as a PDF that can also be printed.
A partner, journalist or public institution
They need to see that the federation is a serious counterpart. The homepage carries the mission, the president’s address and partner logos, the news section shows the federation’s position on World Diabetes Day and patient interests, and the contacts page has the official details and a contact form.
What we built
- Homepage
- The headline “Health starts with knowledge”, two buttons and the free information line on the same screen. Below: partner offers, the federation’s mission with the president’s name, the latest news, the FAQ and partner logos.
- News
- More than 190 articles sorted into six topics: federation news, diabetes basics, for parents and children, food and activity, life with diabetes, and other articles. Each topic has its own address that can be shared.
- „Saule” magazine
- The last 12 issues on one page with their covers. Each opens as a PDF, so it can be read on a phone or printed for those who prefer paper.
- Members
- 11 diabetes societies from Riga to Ludza, each with its own card showing address, phone and email. The contacts are text, not images, so on a phone you can tap the number and call straight away.
- Galleries and materials
- 25 event galleries, from World Diabetes Day to an experience exchange in Limbaži. The materials section has posters, information brochures and a diabetes diary to download.
- FAQ
- 10 questions and answers about the federation, the societies, state funding for medicines and the first steps after a diagnosis. The same answers also appear on the homepage and the materials page.
Found by Google and AI assistants
The federation’s content answers questions people ask search engines and, more and more often, ChatGPT or Gemini: where the diabetes society in Kuldīga is, what the „Saule” magazine is, how to become a member. For diabets.lv to be the answer rather than a random page, every section has its own SEO title and description, for example “Diabēta biedrības Latvijā | Latvijas Diabēta federācija” (Diabetes societies in Latvia).
The page code includes structured data. It describes the federation as a non-profit with its legal name, registration number, president, Wednesday contact hours and membership of the International Diabetes Federation. The FAQ page has FAQPage data with all ten questions, the news and galleries have CollectionPage data and breadcrumbs. The sitemap lists every article and gallery separately.
Why Wix Studio
For new websites we now recommend WordPress more often, because with AI we build it faster. Here a different factor decided it: the federation team has published news on Wix for years. When a site will be run by people who are not developers, a familiar admin is worth more than a few weeks of faster development. Wix Studio let us build a new design with a separate mobile layout without changing how the team works. We compare the two platforms in more detail in WordPress or Wix Studio.
What we learned
Admin habits are part of the project
In a non-profit, the website is often updated by volunteers or by one person alongside other duties. If a new system means learning everything from scratch, news stops appearing and the site ages within the first year. Choosing the platform here is a decision about whether the site will stay alive.
Contacts as text, not images
A list of societies posted as an image or a PDF is hard to read on a phone, and search engines cannot see it. Text with an address and phone number works for everyone: a person on a phone, Google, and an AI assistant looking for the nearest society.
An archive is only valuable if it can be found
Hundreds of articles and dozens of magazine issues are the federation’s knowledge base. It only works if each article sits in the right topic, each issue shows its cover and number, and each gallery has a clear name. This work does not look like design, but it decides whether a reader finds the answer.
How it works day to day
The federation team publishes news, adds new „Saule” issues and event galleries on its own. A new article immediately appears in its topic, in the homepage news and in the sitemap for search engines. Cookies are managed by a consent banner where visitors can reject everything the site does not need to work.
What you can repeat
- Write down who comes to your website and with what question, and organise the menu around that
- Put the most important phone number or link on the first screen
- Publish contacts and addresses as text, not as an image
- Sort articles into topics, each with its own address
- Give PDF materials a cover, a number and a short description
- Choose a platform your team can update on its own
Check for yourself
Everything you've read about is live. Open diabets.lv and explore these sections yourself.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a website for a non-profit or foundation cost?
A simple website starts from €600 + VAT. A site with an article archive, PDF materials, galleries and a member list is a bigger project, and we price it based on the specification. Tell us what you have now and we will reply with a sitemap and a quote.
Can the organisation publish news itself?
Yes. The website is built so the organisation’s own team adds articles, magazine issues and galleries, without a developer.
Wix Studio or WordPress: which is better for a non-profit?
If the team already knows Wix, Wix Studio keeps the familiar admin. If the site starts from scratch or needs more complex features, we usually recommend WordPress. What decides it is who will update the site after launch.
Can articles from the old website be moved to the new one?
Yes. Before the quote we check how many articles, files and images the old site has and plan how they fit into the new structure, so existing search rankings are not lost.
