Author: Megan Ross

Boxed Sections (Columns/Borders) Snippet

This snippet creates a two- to five-column layout with the columns being evenly spaced in the available area or a two-column layout with one column being 2/3 of the space and the other 1/3. Text, images, videos, snippets, and assets can be added to each column. It can also be used to add a border around content.

This snippet should not be used to put bulleted lists or buttons into multiple columns. Instead, use the List Unordered Classes Snippet to split bulleted items into two or three columns or the Buttons in a Row Snippet to have up to five buttons next to each other horizontally.

2 even column boxed section example with border on second column.

2/3 1/3 boxed section example.

Department News Blog Tips

Department blogs are a great way to push out your department-specific news to your website and keep your website fresh.

A number of departments routinely repost Tech Today announcements and that is great. Because Tech Today is meant for internal traffic only, we welcome users to repost that content without any reference or link to Tech Today. This will better serve our users by keeping them on external-facing websites and will save them a click. You should avoid using “from Tech Today” or “Read More at Tech Today.” Since Tech Today is internal, you don’t need to link back to it to avoid plagiarism.

Also, you are encouraged to remember these tips when creating blog posts:

Calendar EventReach Score

If you are a Michigan Tech Event Calendar admin you may have noticed the EventReach score when you are adding events to the system. What do that score and all the checklist items mean?

EventReach Score window

According to the system vendor, “EventReach is a way to measure the expected ‘reach,’ or audience awareness, an event has.” They have discovered that including certain information in your event listing has a huge impact on increasing awareness and attendance at events. EventReach is the tool they developed to quantify those pieces. This “reach” comes from Google/Search Engine Optimization (SEO), within the Michigan Tech Event Calendar, and through post-event engagement.

Best Practices: Search Engine Optimization and Usability

Do you have pages with a lot of text and wonder if that is OK? Are your pages user-friendly? Do you want to increase your search engine rankings? Learn more about what search engine optimization is, along with some tips to make your website better for your users and increase your visibility in searches. Search engine optimization is driven by on-page content and technical SEO.

Content-Rich Page Examples

The What is Biomedical Engineering page shows good use of headings in a page that has a lot of content. The sections don’t drag on because the headings break up the content. They also make the content more scannable for both users and search engines. Using the images to break up the large amount of text rather than placing them at the top or side of the page is another way to make the page more user-friendly.