Information Technology Services has been working closely with our vendor partner FFW to dynamically incorporate news from CSI Today and events from the CUNY Event Calendar into the CSI Website. This project has required several months of work, along with consultation from the Web Governance Committee and Cabinet, and we are now ready to go live with the improvements on Thursday, Apr. 9. You will see many changes that will enhance navigation, improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and reduce clutter on the homepage.
The following enhancements were completed:
- Dynamically added news from CSI Today and events from the CUNY Event calendar to the homepage. This will be a major improvement for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This was accomplished by adding three new columns to display news, events, and announcements. This new announcement feature provides the College with more opportunities to advertise items on the homepage aside from only being able to use the large sliders. We moved the news and events much higher on the page as well.
- The “middle” slider image was also moved to the top of the page. This too will help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO); the slider is now clickable.
- We also shrunk the size of the slider image and added a message strip to the bottom of the image.
- Navigation through the slider images was improved by adding < 00000 > to indicate that there are additional images and allow for the user to easily navigate through them.
- We created a new mobile version.
- We re-oriented some content to streamline the homepage experience, which has been incorporated elsewhere on the page.
- Also, news and events items were added dynamically to the Division and Academic department pages. Based upon tagging, news or event items related to specific areas will automatically display on the page.
Thank you for your continued support, and as always, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
By Patricia Kahn, PhD
