NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology

1. Stop the Static: How to Maintain Web Content Stephen Charles, Web Content DeveloperNC A&T State University School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences NC A&T State University Agricultural Communication and Technology

2. Currently, we’re not using a Content Management System to maintain content, so we’re always striving to keep our content fresh and up to date. • Goal: Making the Site “Sticky” • Our Biggest Challenges: • Acquiring Content • Keeping Content Fresh • Making the Site Interactive

3. This is our layout for the entire School of Ag’s website. For Cooperative Extension, our clients wanted another brand identity, one that would distinguish it from the School of Agriculture’s design, citing traffic from visitors outside the University.

4. Use website templates if at all possible. I develop our pages using Macromedia Dreamweaver which supports web templates. Global site changes can be made on the fly, which can save countless hours of maintenance.

5. Acquiring Content • Streamline the content gathering process from the client. Every project starts with an Ag. Communications Check-up form. This gives our clients an opportunity to think about the scope of their message, the intended audience and the desired impact. It also saves time on the development end.

6. Acquiring Content • Use relevant content from journals, newsletters, brochures or other publications. Text, photos, and audio/visual content from other media can be used to reach other audiences through your website.

7. Keeping Content Fresh • Set a maintenance schedule for frequent changes. • Create an archives section for items that have been removed.

8. Keeping Content Fresh • Rotate content from a repository of data.

9. Keeping Content Fresh • External content options. Syndicated news feeds offer another option for frequently updated content on your page. In this example, an RSS feed was created from a search engine string to “North Carolina” and “Agriculture” from Yahoo News. Results may be as broad or as narrow as your search terms in this instance.

10. Interactivity • Interactive pages are sticky. This page on our extension website allows visitors to access the content they need. Hovering over the county gives you the county’s Extension office information and clicking the county takes you to that office’s website.

11. Other considerations • Home grown user testing Cant afford a focus group? Have friends or relatives navigate around your site, to check for usability and clarity.

12. Other considerations • Web Server Statistical Analysis Analysis of the surfing habits of your sites visitors can help inform you of what pages are the most visited, the most sticky and you can tailor your maintenance schedule accordingly.

13. Thanks to my team at Agricultural Communications and Technology. Laurie Gengenbach, Alton Franklin, Cathy Gant Hill, Lalit Rainey, Josh Loftin, Mike Bratcher, James Parker, Robin Adams, and Ron Fisher.

14. Links • NC A&T State University Cooperative Extension • NC A&T School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences • Solutions for North Carolina • svcharles@ncat.edu