Tidying up a website reminds me of cleaning my house. I know I won’t have time to clean everything and so I start with the living room. It’s the first thing people see and where they form their first impression. The same goes for a website. Start with the page that gets the most visitors. For most sites, this is the home page.
One of the easiest ways to clean your county's home page is to declutter the feed. The home page feed automatically displays the first paragraph of an article (or multiple paragraphs, if less than 800 characters). When your article begins with a paragraph, the automated feed works really well. Thus, the easiest way to avoid a messy home page is to include a paragraph of text at the top of each article page.
Unfortunately, the automated feed isn’t as smart as a robotic vacuum and sometimes it doesn’t pick up what you want it to pick up. You may end up with content on your home page that looks out of place or distracting—full of long links, blank lines or text that doesn't make sense when read together. When that’s the case, you can enter a “summary” for the article. The article’s summary will display in the feed instead of the automated text.
How to Write a Summary
A summary is similar to an introductory paragraph. It lets the visitor know what the article is about without giving a lot of detail. If you’re not sure what to write, ask yourself the questions who, what, where, when, why and how. Then, use the answers to write your summary.
How to Add an Article Summary
You can add a summary by clicking the “Edit summary” link which is located above the article editor.
► Watch video "Add an Article Summary" (0:43)
★ FEATURED SITE EXAMPLE ★
Below is the summary for Join Cedar County 4-H.
Enrollment for the 2018 4-H program year is now open for members, clover kids and volunteers. New and returning club members, as well as new and returning club leaders must enroll through 4HOnline. Use the new Pick-Your-Project resource guide to aid you in selecting your project areas for the 2018 year.
The summary answers the following questions:
Who: 4-H club members, clover kids and volunteers
What: 4-H Enrollment
Where: online
When: 2018
Why: to enroll and select project areas
How: through 4HOnline with online resource guide
You can view the summary in the home page feed on the Nebraska Extension Cedar County website.
Let the spring cleaning begin!
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Site Bytes is a regular column in Nebraska Extension – Keeping UP that provides quick tips for enhancing your county website. Written by Anne Holz, IANR Media web strategist.