Your Higher Education Marketing Link of the Week… Carleton College: Rapid Alumni Connections… 26 August 2022

Rapid, easy-to-use alumni connection links at Carleton College

Carleton CollegeCarleton CollegeConnecting with fellow graduates is a top task for most alumni visiting a college or university website.

Carleton College makes that easier than most schools with a link from the home age that leads to an “Alumni Network” entry page. Not new events. Not fund raising. Not a welcome statement.

Carleton wants alumni to “Stay Connected” more than anything else. That’s the main message as the page opens.

Unlike many (most?) alumni pages, Carleton does not start with a request to give money. That is not as likely a top task many people compared to finding information about other alumni or updating their own information.

After that opening search box, alumni can easily scroll through their options:

  • Search the alumni directory
  • Make a connection, including via easy to use class “alumni class websites.”
  • Volunteer… to help future or current students, the career services office, or the annual fund
  • Give… for the annual or several other options.

Yes, Carleton does have a strong link to “Give” to the college. It is the last section on the page, as it should be. Admirable self restraint.

People who do want to make a donation on this visit can use the opening search box to type “make a donation” and get right to info on how to do that. Or perhaps, having first easily connected with a fellow graduate, they’ll be inclined to review gift options before leaving the site.

Speed on mobile… super fast results

Google PageSpeed Insights measures the time to first view on a mobile phone at 2.4 seconds. Time to full interactivity was a rapid at 4.4 seconds. This is the first website we’ve tested that got to full interactive state in less than 5 seconds as Google recommends.

The main change to make things even faster: “Serve images in next-gen formats.”

Website Carbon Calculator…

Thanks to Gerry McGovern and his efforts to reduce “world wide waste” for the referral.

“This web page is dirtier than 51% of web pages tested”

See how your website helps or hurts  the climate. Test your website pages at “Website Carbon Calculator.”

Follow the Link of the Week…

Visit an alumni website entry page that gives priority to connection alumni with one another at Carleton College’s “Alumni Network” page.

Recommend a future Link of the Week

Always eager to get recommendations of websites that dare to be different… or just do something ordinary in a special way. Write a comment with link here or send me the link at bob@bobjohnsonconsulting.com.

Top Tasks Website Content Group on LinkedIn

Join 901 professionals interested in creating top website content on the Top Tasks: Higher Education Website Content group on LinkedIn.https://www.ufv.ca/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *