Thursday, July 29, 2010

3 Website Upgrades Your Company Should Look At...

Advanced Search

With the advances in web searchability and navigation systems the patience of web users is at an all-time low. If your organization is using an out-dated keyword search that delivers a long mess of somewhat useless results, here are some affordable upgrades:

Find As You Type - The system populates common search phrases, based upon what the user types (you’ve probably have seen this on Google). We have recently integrated an additional feature to this functionality. In addition to the key word or key phrase hints, the system also tells you how many results your search will return. This is a great feature if you’re performing a general or specific search. See an example at www.waptac.org (search box is in the top right corner).

Taxonomy or Subject Tagging - This is a must-have feature for websites that are very dense in content. Here’s how it works: when you create a web page in the Content Management System, you can assign it subject tags. When a user wants to search for content they simply select the subject (along with any keywords) for a very specific subset of related content. In addition, you can tag any content type – video, audio, documents, web pages, events, news, and job opportunities, etc. See an example at www.waptac.org/searchtags.


Advanced Document Library

Sitemaps are a great way to see the big picture of a website's architecture and web page layout. However, most sitemaps don't show users a directory of documents they can find and view on the website. An advanced document library corrects this problem by providing a sensible, tree-structured sitemap of a website's documents. The value of this functionality can be seen here: www.waptac.org/documentlibrary.aspx


Media Module

We are seeing a major shift in how web users surf for material: studies show that video will soon account for 90% of all Internet traffic. In addition, video and podcasts are great opportunities for Search Engine Optimization. Each video file can be optimized using meta data, title, description, and keywords. Most video platforms are built on the web 2.0 framework, allowing other users to rate, comment, and embed your video on their website. In turn, this offers even more exposure to your organization's content. See an example of our latest Media Module at www.nata.aero/media.aspx

Call 410-750-6499 to learn more about upgrading your current website capabilities.