Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Stale Web pages leave a poor impression
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By Ed Scharf, Web developer What ever happened to Deloris McAdams? According to her faculty Web page, Ms. McAdams was a celebrated professor at her Midwestern university in 2001. Her department's home page claims she won teaching awards and had an article written about her. The trouble is the content on the Web site hasn't been updated since June of 2002, so we have no idea what's become of Ms. McAdams. Did she quit at the top of her game, or has she just been lazy since 2002? Did she inspire her colleagues to similar accomplishments or is the department resting on the laurels of one five-year-old award? And why is there still a link to a syllabus for the spring of '01? And why is her picture in black and white? According to a Stamats 2004 TeensTALK survey, "nearly one-third of college-bound high school students delve into your site and start looking for majors. This means your department sections and majors listings must represent the very best of your marketing content." If those pages supply stale information and broken links, chances are prospective students won't come back. Old information = useless information Students expect to do everything online, whether it's pay bills, access assignments, or add money to a meal plan. They also access important dates and deadlines. The end of a semester brings change. People move on, student workers graduate, job responsibilities change. Regular updates help avoid misdirected online requests. A Bad Reflection For those searching for a progressive institution, outdated Web pages send a terrible message. They suggest stagnation, lack of vision, and a disregard for technology. Studies have shown prospective students spend between seven and 20 seconds browsing a Web page before they decide to stay. That's precious little time to make a good impression. Let's look at Ms. McAdams again. Do prospective students care that she was Teacher of the Year in 2001? Not in 2006 they don't. In fact, old pages like hers are a detriment. Instead of celebrating a significant achievement they convey a drought of noteworthy accomplishments. Simple Steps to Staying Current One of the magical things about the Internet is its timeliness. Find a typo in an address? No need to reprint entire publications or print supplements. As information changes, Web sites can reflect those changes. Of course, a university is not a newsroom. A certain percentage of the information on the university's Web pages is static and while it may not need daily supervision, it does require consistent review. Most importantly, check the most popular pages. (Web Services can help you locate them.) Look for expired deadlines, old dates, and out-of-date contact information. If you list news or have a newsletter, make sure it's current. It's called "news" for a reason. Secondly, read the copy. If you start scanning before you get to the end of a paragraph, it’s time to edit. Break the content up into smaller paragraphs. Bullet list items and bold important information (please do not get overzealous with bolding or changing the color of fonts to highlight text. It can be overwhelming, disorienting, and defeat the purpose). Third, check your links, both internal and external. You can run a report in FrontPage or Dreamweaver that shows broken links, but it's also good to surf your site and start clicking. Also check your Web folder and reevaluate the need for pages and graphics that are orphans (not linked at all). Some of these may be seasonal, but most you'll find are simply old and worthless. |
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