Southeastern Louisiana University officially launched its new website recently after an extensive migration process involving reassessing the university’s online presence from the ground up.
Southeastern Director of Web Strategy Sarah Schoonmaker said the university elected to launch an entirely new site on a fresh hosting platform in order to most quickly modernize the look and functionality of the site.
“This change, while visible from the user’s perspective, is even more about the back-end functionality being brought into a more up-to-date scheme. After the initial change, users should find it easy to navigate and the search functionality much more responsive,” she said. “We refreshed the design to align with our ‘Get There’ brand positioning, developed new modern features that allow for content distribution in a more automatic manner, and designed the site for a mobile experience first, as 55 percent of current traffic comes from mobile users.
In addition to being mobile-friendly, the new site was designed to increase SEO (search engine optimization) presence.
“The new site should help us show up higher in relevant search results on Google and other search engines. As we continue to offer new programs and online learning options, search becomes more important,” Schoonmaker said.
Additionally, the new site is more ADA-friendly (Americans with Disabilities Act). An example is providing alternate text for non-text content, such as images, videos and audio files, which helps screen readers describe the content to visually impaired users. Since some users may not be able to use a mouse, ensuring that all website functions can be performed using a keyboard alone is also a method of accessibility. In terms of web design, maintaining a sufficient contrast between text and background colors to ensure readability for users with visual impairments is another form of accessibility.
“Innovative digital presence is paramount in advancing access and opportunity to today’s higher education market,” said Southeastern President William S. Wainwright. “The new website design positions Southeastern to adapt on an ongoing basis to new developments in higher education technologies, web usage and online learning. We are very excited about its possibilities.”
Southeastern’s website is www.southeastern.edu.
