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Best web sites Suzanne Kart, CeP, M.A. Associate Vice President LERN #lern13 @suzannekart

Best web sites

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Page 1: Best web sites

Best web sites

Suzanne Kart, CeP, M.A.

Associate Vice President

LERN

#lern13 @suzannekart

Page 2: Best web sites

Challenges of web design

• Seldom do we have complete control over what it will look like.

– May have to conform to style of an umbrella site

• Don’t always have access to a professional web designer

• Time is at a premium

#lern13 @suzannekart

Page 3: Best web sites

BEST SITES SHARE COMMON ELEMENTS

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Page 4: Best web sites

Original, Fresh Content

• Content is king.

• People visit for the primary purpose of finding information – make sure you deliver.

• Your content should be:

– Up to date

– Unique

– Fresh – fresh content will keep visitors (and search engines) coming back

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Page 5: Best web sites

Austin Community College

• They’re telling us what’s happening right now

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Page 6: Best web sites

City of Mountain Home (Idaho)

Parks and Recreation Department

• What’s working here is that they are updating their content every couple of days, resulting in higher SEO

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Page 7: Best web sites

Target Audience

• A good website will have headlines and text that speak to the target audience’s needs and wants.

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Page 8: Best web sites

Bucks County Community College

“Whoever you are and wherever you are in your career/life, learning will always be a step that leads to growth. Training which results in certificates and credentials can lead to great success in many fields. Bucks County Community College provides various areas of training to individuals seeking to improve, and propel themselves into tomorrow’s jobs.”

#lern13 @suzannekart

Page 9: Best web sites

The Learning Oasis

• Career resources for women

• Very clear how they can help you

• They have a great blog with lots of inspirational and useful information for women

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Page 10: Best web sites

Simple layout

• Pages read straight forward from top to bottom

• Less eye skipping

• Solid browsing experience

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Page 11: Best web sites

Okanagan College

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Page 12: Best web sites

Milwaukee School of Engineering

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Page 13: Best web sites

User-friendly Navigation

• A good website has content that’s easy to find.

• Navigation should be consistent from page to page.

• Make sure all your links are working.

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Page 14: Best web sites

Castro Valley Adult & Career Education

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Page 15: Best web sites

Autry Technology Center

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Page 16: Best web sites

Design the content, not the page

• Don’t decorate, communicate

• Softer, receding page “furniture” (permanent elements)

• Strong color and 3D effects that draw attention to the content itself

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Page 17: Best web sites

Alaska Bar Association

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Page 18: Best web sites

Icons, used sparingly

• Icons can convey a message quickly

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Page 19: Best web sites

College of Southern Idaho

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Page 20: Best web sites

Nice big text

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Page 21: Best web sites

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Page 22: Best web sites

North Berwyn Park District

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Page 23: Best web sites

Your print catalog still generates 75% of

registrations

• DO NOT ELIMINATE THE PRINT CATALOG

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Page 24: Best web sites

Mobile optimization

• Over 34% of all mobile users have gone online from their phone. They do so at least once a week.

• 85% of people between 18 and 26 go online regularly from mobiles, with that number being as high as 91% in Asia.

• 40 to 50 year olds are just as likely to go online as people aged 30 to 40.

• 29.80% of mobile shoppers abandon poor mobile sites before completing purchase or research

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Page 25: Best web sites

Drake University

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Page 26: Best web sites

Canadian Marketing Association

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Page 27: Best web sites

eMarketing strategies that work

Brochure/Web Mix

• Picture of brochure on Home Page

• URL on cover and back cover of your brochure

• Encourage people to go to your web site

• Sign up for mailing list on your web site

• Encourage people to register online

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Page 28: Best web sites

Hawaii Community College

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Page 29: Best web sites

Web site strategies that work

• Multimedia and interactive features enhance interest

• Video clips, audio, color, pictures, animation, photographs, all generate more interest

• Polls, blogs, social networks and other interactive features get people involved, which leads to more registrations

• Live Person and other ways to communicate all help

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Page 30: Best web sites

Orange Community Education & Recreation

When you hover over these local pictures, they take you to different pages like “snowboarding”

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Page 31: Best web sites

YouTube

• 70% of Americans use YouTube

• Allows your customers to actually see something about your program

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Page 32: Best web sites

Schoolcraft Community College

TinyURL.com/SCVideoExample

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Page 33: Best web sites

Some other great web site techniques

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Page 34: Best web sites

Promote online registration

• Online registration is more cost effective

• It allows you to respond better and faster

• It creates more services and benefits for learners

• It will lower staff time

• It is the way people purchase in the 21st century

• Eventually 90% of registrations will be online

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Page 35: Best web sites

University of Wisconsin Parkside

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Page 36: Best web sites

Search pages

• Recommend at least four ways to search: – Location

– Category

– Course number

– Key word search

• The more ways to search, the better.

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Page 37: Best web sites

University of New Mexico

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Page 38: Best web sites

Ways past participants can help improve your web site.

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Page 39: Best web sites

Post past participant work on your web site

• It shows potential participants what others have done.

• The message is “you too!” can do this.

• It is peer-to-peer marketing.

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Page 40: Best web sites

Langara College

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Page 41: Best web sites

Have your customers create content – that’s web 2.0!

Think -

– Surveys

– Feedback

– Preferences

– Learner projects

– Comments

– Pictures

– Video clips

#lern13 @suzannekart

Page 42: Best web sites

Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service

• Video

• Pictures

• Social Media

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Page 43: Best web sites

Thank you!

• Suzanne Kart

[email protected]

• Connect with via social media at suzannekart.com

#lern13 @suzannekart