When we say we know higher education web, we mean it. This year we have two members of our management team who will be giving three presentations at HighEdWeb 2010. HighEdWeb is one of the better, and arguably the best, conference for higher education web developers and marketers.
Co-Founder Kyle James will be giving two presentations this year. The first is an updated version of his red stapler winning 2008 presentation on web analytics. The presentation is once again titled, Hello Is Anyone Out There? Using Web Analytics to Understand Your Audience. This presentation will be given Monday October 11th from 1:45-2:45PM.
Presentation Summary: So you have just installed a JavaScript code on every one of your pages to track visitors on your site. Maybe you used Google Analytics or some other service and you’re collecting all this great information. Well what do these terms mean and what metrics should you care about? After a quick explanation of terms, this presentation will dig into how to filter Google Analytics for more exact and effective data. From here we will explore reports that are actually valuable to Higher Education and actionable steps that can be taken from this data. Finally we will talk about best practice techniques and explore analytics beyond your website, monitoring your institutions identity across the web.
The second presentation is titled, SEO Best Practices: The Low Hanging Fruit for Immediate Results and will be given Monday October 11th from 3:00-3:45PM
Presentation Summary: Maybe you don’t even know what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is. Search Engines are the first place that nearly everyone goes to looking for something. Having your site displayed at the top of results for relevant searches is a powerful way to get visitors to your website. In a sense it’s a way to provide free traffic to your site. Also, because when people search they are usually looking for a specific thing and who is able to provide it to them, you are gaining a relevant visitor. Unfortunately, when people think about SEO, immediately those emails of spammers who guarantee #1 results in search engines come to mind. SEO doesn’t have to be black magic, pixie dust, or snake oil. In fact if you think of SEO in terms of the usability and accessibility that the search engines like Google have always intended it to be then it’s a very practical approach to designing your website. College websites already have the authority to rank well in search engines, but are you getting the most exposure and relevant traffic that you could be? This presentation will go through the fundamental and approved methods for on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and implementing these best practices into your marketing efforts going forward. These actionable steps will be practices that you can take home and begin implementing on your site that very week. We will look at methods to track and show improvement to your higher ups over time. Bottom line you will learn best practices about On-Page & Off-Page optimization for search engines. This will be solid advice that individuals can take home and immediately make changes to their site.
Chief Technology Officer Michael Fienen will be presenting on college homepage layout in his presentation titled, Got Centerpiece? So Does Everyone Else. He will be presenting on Tuesday October 12th from 1:30-2:15PM.
Presentation Summary: Higher ed has a problem with its web sites. Many of us are past that first big hump of The Millennial Redesign. We’ve plopped down money on a shiny new CMS. Our design is hip and groovy. But an issue snuck in when we weren’t looking. Centerpieces have become a staple component of the ever important home page. The problem is that they have homogenized us. We’re all doing it, and we’re all doing it the same. This presentation will look at a number of sites and their centerpieces, look at common themes, address why our current trend is a problem, and make suggestions as to where we can go and what we can do to stand out and differentiate ourselves.
Although we specialize in interactive campus maps here at nuCloud our expertise goes beyond this specific niche. This will be the third year that one of our team members has presented at this conference. If you will be at HighEdWeb 2010 please be sure to say hello and we look forward to meeting you in person then.