How To Find And Fix Broken Links
One of the most annoying things for website visitors is clicking a link and getting an error message. This is known as a “404 error” and in an ideal world, we would never see it. While you can’t control broken links outside your department pages, you can — and should — eliminate them on your own…
Headings
Part 2 in the series: Making Stuff Better We’ve all used the heading styles in the toolbar editor. But I thought I’d tell you a little more about them so you know how to use them effectively. Headings are great for communicating to the user. Not only do they describe a section of content, but…
Improve Your File Names And Reap Rewards
Why should you care about how you name JPGs, PDFs, and other files used on your web pages? Because doing it the right way helps avoid problems and can actually improve the value of your web pages. Well-Named Files… Improve search results Make identifying files easier Keep urls neat, tidy, and easy to read Proper file naming involves…
Icons – You Know You Want Them
Do you long for icons to adorn your pages when linking to social networks? Well, covet no more. The icons below are available for your use. Benefits of Using These Icons on Liberty.edu Users will get a better overall experience when browsing our site if the icons are standardized across all Liberty.edu department pages. Icons…
Links Matter
I was reading an article this morning by usability expert Jakob Nielsen, which discusses the importance of being careful and intentional about what your links say. You can read the full post (First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye), but I’ll also sum up here: If there is one principle that’s the most…
Search Optimization: Delete Old Documents!
Have you ever done a search on liberty.edu and wondered why what you’re looking for doesn’t show up? While there are multiple reasons this may happen, we’re going to focus first on one variable that is within our control and easy to fix: out-of-date content. Did you know that any document (Word, Excel, PDF, PowerPoint,…
Images and Page Design
At times, flipping through the pages of a magazine and browsing through the pages of a website can seem pretty similar. Both have text punctuated by attention-grabbing images. But the differences between print and web dictate that we must approach the two differently. For example, people read print and web pieces differently, and the wise…
Fonts & Font Woes
The problem: Use of different fonts on the website; different fonts causing unpredictable results. The solution: Always use the “paste as plain text” button to paste text. The explanation: Our website uses one font. It’s readable and it’s consistent, which helps users immensely. We never want our text to be a distraction – we want…
How (and When!) To Use Anchors
You’ve probably noticed the button in WordPress’ editor toolbar that looks like a bookmark – that is the anchor tool. The anchor tool, plus the linking tool, allows you to place anchors in your pages and create links to them. Anchors are used when you want to link to a specific section on a page,…
Links: Open In A New Window Or Not?
When creating links in your webpages in WordPress, by default the new page is set to open in the same window. When the user visits your page and clicks on a link, the view changes from the original page to the new view of the web page the link opened. If the user wishes to…