Notre Dame home page highlights series of top stories
Many university home pages include a section, usually near the bottom of the page, with links to a few stories about the university. None that I’ve seen before make stories about the school the dominant content on the entire home page.
No brand claims. No content that scores high in the top tasks for potential students. Maybe at a school with the brand strength of Notre Dame you can deviate from the norm with no marketing penalties.
We have a nice array of topics, including:
- Helping a university in Afghanistan
- Research
- Faith & Service
- Global Scholarship
Scroll to the end of the page to find “Notre Dame in Motion,” a listing of four February events with a link to “view all events” in a complete calendar.
Visitors who want to move quickly to “Admissions” can do that from a link in the top navigation bar.
Marketing research note…
Content like this gives a special opportunity to use analytics learn what story topics attract the most attention. Editorial planning will benefit if the goal is to match the interests of as many people as possible. Curiosity point: how many new visitors leave the home page via the top navigation links without traveling to any of the stories?
On Mobile… an “excellent” 3 seconds to download
Google Test My Site gives the Notre Dame home page an “excellent” 3 second “fair” rating for mobile download speed. At that speed, there’s no estimted visitor loss given.
Follow the Link of the Week…
Review the story series that introduces visitos to the university when you visit the University of Notre Dame home page.
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