Webmaster's Blog

Department News Blog Tips

Published October 21, 2016

Blogs

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:

Event Widget Builder

Published October 18, 2016

By Megan Ross

Calendar

Calendar Admins can use the Widget Builder to generate a URL to use in a CMS RSS Module or to generate embed code to put the widget on a website.

Avoid Duplicating Meta Descriptions

Published September 30, 2016

By Joel Vertin

What is a Meta Description?

When looking at your content in the CMS, the meta description is populated from the “Description” field towards the top of the Properties > Parameters screen for the page. Between the “Title” and “Keywords” fields. The description provides Google and other search engines with a short, relevant summary of your webpage. When someone searches on Google, they see a list of the top results. In the results, there is the title of the webpage, the URL, and the description. Having a good description will help the user decide if they want to click on YOUR page, versus the other options.

Blog User Roles and Access

Published September 14, 2016

By Megan Ross

Blogs

When a user is given access to a blog there are a number of roles to choose from. You should give the user the lowest level role for the functions they need to carry out. The following information will help define what the capabilities are for each role.

Calendar EventReach Score

Published September 14, 2016

By Megan Ross

Calendar

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?

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.

Adding Multiple Dates to an Event

Published August 29, 2016

By Megan Ross

Calendar

If you have identical events that happen on multiple dates and times, but don’t recur exactly every day, week, or month you can still easily add multiple dates. This will only work if all other information, including location is the same.

External Links and Beware of the ‘Link Trolls’

Published May 20, 2016

By Joel Vertin

As a web manager, you have a lot of responsibility. You have to keep your content “fresh” and accurate. It is a lot of work when you have 50+ webpages to manage along with various other job responsibilities. Making CMS updates typically falls under “and other duties assigned”—making things particularly difficult.

The ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of External Linking

We link to a lot of external websites—ones that Michigan Tech does not own or control. We link to resources about the local community and lodging, responsible research practices, and the products that our university uses. We link to information about disabilities. To our corporate partners’ websites. To sponsors, writing tips, and career advice.

Flexibility/Usability Tradeoff

Published May 10, 2016

By Joel Vertin

As the flexibility of a system increases, its usability decreases. It sounds simple, but yet is so difficult to understand. Flexibility has costs. I would argue this holds true in general, but for now let’s focus on the web.

Making it ‘Foolproof’

Murphy’s Law claims, in part, that “nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.” In basic terms, you cannot plan for everything. Rather, you should design and code for the critical mass of users needed to make your website successful. When you go overboard on flexibility, you decrease efficiency, added complexity, increase time, and spend more money for development. You may deliver a user experience that is worse than what you started with.

Hick’s Law: Content Overload

Published May 2, 2016

By Joel Vertin

Hick’s Law explains: The time it takes to make a decision increases as the number of alternatives increases.

It is important to keep this in mind when you are deciding to add another tab to your navigation, another link under a tab, another paragraph to a webpage, or another link in a sidebar.

The Hierarchy of (Web) Needs

Published April 15, 2016

By Joel Vertin

Being a web professional at a university can be difficult. Department chairs say things like “I want a website that looks different from everyone else.” A liaison says “I want the newest, craziest, most different website that you can make.” Everyone wants ‘cutting edge,’ although they don’t know what that means or why they are asking for it.

Those who don’t work in the web profession get lost in flashy designs, zany animations, and sparkles. They rarely analyze how many clicks it takes to get to the real information, how accessible a website is to those with disabilities, or how user-friendly a website is on an iPhone. They just want to be ‘wowed.’ Does their audience really want to be wowed, though?