Transcript PowerPoint Tips from session

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that don’t work, outdated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
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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