building better websites

Building Better Web Pages

Sonja Fuchs, Web Technology Specialist

Permission accepted to use some content from "Building the Web Backwards” by Mike Vysocka, web developer at North Carolina State University

Baked In

• Accessibility• Security• Branding• Usability• Mobile Friendly• Creative Commons• Contact Information• Search Box• Share Buttons• Uptime

Photo by Dan Parsons on Flickr

Is This Your Website?

What does this mean?

Dig In

Photo: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Hyacinthe_Rigaud

Who is Your Audience?

What Does Your Audience Call It?

Titles: Short and Sweet Relevant

Say Bye to Inverted Pyramid

See Hubspot blogpost about skimmable content examples

Picture, please

Don’t have a photo? Try: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/agcomm/photos-illustrations

Keep Mobile in MindDate Range Visits to Ag

CMS sitesNotes % of all Ag

CMS visitsAug. 2012 – Aug. 2013

53,256 4%

Aug. 2013 – Aug. 2014

103,545 94% increase

11%

Mobile FirstPC Mobile

- For more tips, visit my presentation Mobile Optimization Presentation Spring 2014

- If you don’t have a smartphone, sign up for Mobilizer to preview your website

The Web is Not a NewspaperEasier to digest - skimming

PDF = pretty darn futile

• Must have Adobe Program to open• Data usage on smartphones to download files• Less searchable than a web page• Hard to Share• Can’t measure behavior• Extra clicks

PDFs do not belong on the web, unless you’re CERTAIN people print it

Ag Comm Hard at Work

Redesigning Pubs pages to be web-friendly with the option to download PDF

“Content Audit”

Photo by Roosh Inf3ktion on Flickr

Check every page on your site:

• Delete or update old or irrelevant content

• Add relevant content, as often as possible

• Make sure all links are working (Check My Links add-on in Chrome app store - free)

• Call to action or “for more info” on every page

• Share on social media

• Test on mobile

LinksIf it’s already online, link to it. No need to re-create.

Link to social media

Counties should have pages for these: • 4-H Youth Dev• FCS• Ag & Natural Resources• Community Vitality

If relevant, link to other NDSU ag sites like: • Publications• Crop and Pest Report• Variety Trials• NDAWN• Crops • Livestock• FCS• Community Vitality• Apps • Lawns, Gardens & Trees• Extension social media• Extension News• Nourishing Boomers and Beyond

Fix link text:• Burleigh County Extension, not

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/burleighcountyextension/4-h

• Sonja Fuchs not Sonja.Fuchs@ndsu.edu

Ask local organizations to link to your site

Link to Impact Reports

SuggestionsTell them who you are and what you do • Bottineau does a nice job with Meet the Staff• Burleigh county does a nice “Who we are” page• Are you a courthouse? • Impact Reports • Check out Ag CMS How-To Guide for ideas

• Don’t put everything on the homepage. All your pages are potentially your homepage

Ugly web:

Ask an Expert Widgets (eXtension)

Feeds

Image by RRZEicons (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Share info from other sites on yours using the Feed Mixer Portlet

Events• Create the event• The event portlet will display events and allow you to put the event on your calendar

Events portlet

Outlook calendar

Google Maps

Create your own Google Map

Great way to show events or locations around the state

Organization

• Editorial calendar– Online Content Calendar example

• Build and schedule ahead of time

Questions? Need Help?

Web Technology SpecialistsSonja Fuchs (701) 231-6403Bob Bertsch (701) 231-7381

Ag CMS training & tutorialsWeb Services on FacebookAg CMS How-To’s on YouTube