Tips and suggestions to keep your website up-to-date:
- Don’t create more content than you can realistically maintain. The site will start to look outdated and possibly abandoned. When possible, use “evergreen” content that does not need frequent updating.
- Remember, users don’t read, they scan. Keep sentences short and be concise; bulleted lists can help. Check out best practices for writing for the web.
- Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Can you quickly find relevant information and calls-to-action? Is anything missing?
- Highlight points of pride. Think about your department or program’s noteworthy features, such as award-winning faculty or students, cutting-edge equipment, outcomes, community involvement, etc.
- Consider updating your imagery on a regular basis or rotating schedule (see Campus Photos). High quality photos of students and faculty actively engaged in an interesting task help to highlight the experience and culture of the department.
- Don't be afraid to use widgets. Use a highlight box to feature an upcoming event, recent news story, video, faculty or student accomplishment, or other exciting happenings within your area. Have an important deadline you need to make sure your audience knows about? Put it in a timely box. Have content to share but not sure which widget would be best? Send a ticket to cmshelp@wpi.edu and our team can advise.
- Helpful hint: If you are highlighting content that is time sensitive (e.g. a deadline), put a note in your calendar to go back into the site the next day to remove it so your site does not appear outdated.
- Make sure all of your events and announcements are tagged to display on your page.
- Have faculty or colleagues in your department been features in a WPI news story? Add the News widget to your site. If the specific story does not appear, send a ticket to cmshelp@wpi.edu.
- WPI Today can be a source of other events, news, or stories outside of your area or discipline that may be of interest to your audience and highlighted on your site.