Introduction to Search

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Newcastle University uses a Google Search Appliance (GSA) to search its website.  This  means our search works in a very similar way to ‘big’ Google.

The main difference is that ours is set to focus in on http://www.ncl.ac.uk and the sites that are part of it.

Newcastle University IT (NUIT) Service and Corporate Web Development manage the GSA.  But it’s  your web content that determines where your site appears in  search results.

Search topics

We’re going to use this blog to help you understand how search engines work and how you can improve the ‘findability’ of your website.

There’ll be hints on how to improve your web copy on your site to raise its visibility in search results.

We’ll also look at the popular search terms on our website and see what it tells us about our choice of language online as well as which of our content is most important to our users.

We’ll provide case studies to highlight success stories and share insights into how ‘big’ Google works.

Take a look at the advice on our website (University Login required).

Suggest a topic

If there’s a topic you’d like us to cover – get in touch via the comments or via our website (University Login required).

Introduction to Go Mobile

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The Newcastle University website was designed to be viewed on standard desktop monitors. Yet in 2014 25% of global web traffic comes from mobile devices. Our website analytics show that visits to our site reflect this trend, with 28% of traffic coming from mobile devices.

The Go Mobile programme is an exciting mission to give our users what they need – high quality web content that is mobile responsive.

What we’re doing

We’re making a commitment to improve our web content.

We’re making our sites responsive. Users of tablets, mobiles and desktops see the same website optimised for viewing on their screen.

We’re improving our Content Management System. We have over 20,000 external facing web pages and the systems used to edit and publish them are out of date. We’re moving all our sites into the Terminal 4 Content Management System (T4).

People involved

The Corporate Web Development team are leading this project with the support of the IT Service.

Programme updates on our blog

We’ll be using this blog to provide updates. This could be anything from a key project milestone to a ‘show and tell’ type post on a new responsive feature or design component.

Expect to see blood, sweat, tears and plenty of photos of post it notes as we plan this huge programme of work.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about the project please contact us.

We’ll also be adding project updates to our website (University Login required).

Introduction to Analytics

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We use Google Analytics to evaluate the performance of our website. We’ve been collecting data in this way for over 12 months. Using Google Analytics we can analyse:

  • our audience
  • how visitors get to our site
  • how visitors engage with our content

We give our web editors access to the University’s Google Analytics account. This allows you to access data for your site at any time.

Analytics topics

We’re going to use this blog to help you understand what you can get from analytics and how. We’ll begin with some jargon busting and go on to provide tips for using Google Analytics itself.

There will be a regular feature that showcases how our web editors are already using analytics and how different sections of the site are performing.

In the meantime, you can request access to Google Analytics (University Login required).

Suggest a topic

If there’s a topic you’d like us to cover – get in touch via the comments or via our website (University Login required).

Introduction to Content

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People have different behaviour when reading online. They dedicate less time, are more task-focused and won’t read everything. As a result, writing for the web is different from writing for printed publications. This is particularly important as people are now viewing web content on a variety of mobile devices.

Content topics

We’ll be using this blog to help you improve your content management, so that your web content is more user-focused, task-driven and sustainable.

You’ll find information about planning content. Topics will range from how people read online to determining the purpose and goals of your web content and calls to action.

We’ll cover writing and formatting content, particularly for mobile. This will include topics such as language, voice and tone and making copy scannable.

There’ll also be posts about asset management, including standards for images and file types.

We’ll be sharing tips from industry experts and will let you know about useful editorial apps and websites.

What we currently offer

The Corporate Web Development Team guides and supports the University’s web editors to create and maintain high-quality, relevant web content.

We currently provide editorial support, advice about content management and training.

Visit our website (University Login required) to see our content style guide and read our top 5 tips for writing good web copy.

Suggest a topic

If there’s a topic you’d like us to cover leave a reply or get in touch via our website (University Login required).

Beginning Blogging

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There’s a lot on the horizon for the Corporate Web Development (CWD) team at Newcastle University. Last year we redeveloped our postgraduate website. It has a new responsive design and improved, user-focused content.

Off the back of this we’ve begun a programme of work to make all the University’s external facing sites mobile friendly. It’s even got a catchy name: Go Mobile.

We’ve launched this blog to keep our web editors up to date with our activities. We’ll also provide information, advice and resources to help you solve problems and improve your content.

As well as regular updates from our Go Mobile programme you can expect to see posts on the following topics:

We’ll introduce each of these themes on the blog over the next couple of weeks.

We also hope the blog will help to raise the profile of our team within the University and beyond.

Keep up to date

Subscribe to our RSS feed to keep up to date with activity on the blog.