90 likes | 109 Views
Improving Your County CMS Homepage & News Pages. Jeanne Wiebke Extension Information Technology November 28, 2006. Nothing will drive visitors away more than a Web site with links that don’t work, outdated information, and the “same old, same old” on page one. Homepage – Welcome Statement Tips.
E N D
Improving Your County CMS Homepage & News Pages Jeanne WiebkeExtension Information TechnologyNovember 28, 2006
Nothing will drive visitors away more than a Web site with links that don’t work, outdated information, and the “same old, same old” on page one
Homepage – Welcome Statement Tips • Clients scan information • Omit needless words (reduce “noise”) • Avoid “happy talk” • Web is open 24/7 – no need to mention it • Short to the point is important • Our function? • Change welcome information at least every six weeks.
Homepage – Welcome Statement (cont’d) • Fonts, alignment and text size should be consistent. • 50% of County/Area welcome statement areas are too long • Good examples of short, appropriate welcome statements • Allamakee County • Decatur County
News Articles • Ideas to keep homepage news current • You can edit an article and remove it from the homepage but leave it on the news and topics pages. • Change the publishing date on news articles used for monthly newsletters (this brings the article to the top of the news and makes it look current)
Creating News Articles • Use of graphics • NO Animation (detracts from your message) • Resize graphics appropriately • Teaser • Make sure it is proportional to graphic • You don’t want a graphic with all white space beside it (find a balance) • Some good examples of balance can be found at • Cass County • Harrison County
Creating an Article • Create article with text • Do not create an article with only text is a link to a URL • Do not underline (only links are underlined) • Use words and link them (instead of using the URL as a link) • ISU Extension (as the link) rather than http://www.extension.iastate.edu as the text for the link
Deleting & Expiring Articles • If you have something that looks like • Posted on 11/22/2006- • Changing the publishing date to expire articles • To move expired articles from the Expired Channel back to News refer to the article “Expired News Articles” located at https://www.extension.iastate.edu/Comp/Training/Web_Design/
More Information • CMS handouts located at https://www.extension.iastate.edu/Comp/Training/Web_Design