Have you heard the expression: "the first impression is what counts"? Department websites are likely to be the first department contact of top prospective students and the main source of information for current students. Websites can also be an instrumental tool to keep contact with former students and increase the interconnectedness of the department. Also, having an appealing, informative and easy-to-navigate website is critical to gain recognition and academic reputation ranking. Advisors perform key roles in many of these activities and they can significantly contribute to the attractiveness of the department website. This talk is directed to advisors and administrators with minimal or no experience on website design. I will talk about my own journey on creating and maintaining my department website (https://genetics.tamu.edu/) and provide you with practical tips on how you can become more involved in the content and design of yours. I will also discuss multiple ways to create department social media presence and engaging content. After the talk, the audience will have multiple suggestions to recruit top quality students and provide current students access to career resources through developing content, design, branding/style, structure and language on their department websites. Presenter: Dr. Carol Vargas-Bautista

1. Supporting a Magnetic
Website
Carol Vargas-Bautista, PhD
Program Administrator
Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics

2. https://genetics.tamu.edu/

3. Amateur?

4. Why?
Identify your audience!

5. My goal today
Provide you with tips to contribute to a powerful,
beautiful and effective website for your
department!

6. My goal today
Technicalities
Ideas in action!

7. Basic website jargon (from a non-
expert website developer!)
• Domain
“Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. For
example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP
addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web
pages. For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html,
the domain name is pcwebopedia.com (…) The domain name should be
simple, preferably without hyphens or numbers, and easy to spell.
Registering a domain name is never free, but it is low cost and worth it”.
Technicalities

8. Basic website jargon (from a non-
expert website developer!)
• Website host
“The activity or business of providing storage space and access for
websites”
“Virtual location and server where your website is stored and managed.
Some of the domain registration companies also offer hosting”.
Technicalities

9. Exploring website design
• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
Technicalities
• CMS (Content Management System)
– storing content in some type of database. This allows
it to be reused, re-purposed, and published whenever
needed
• WordPress
• Theme Avada

10. Identifying who is part of your team
• IT person
• Website developer
• Photographer/ image edition
• Content
• Faculty
• Students
• Staff
• Design and content
• With branding requirements!
Technicalities

11. Attracting top applicants
Take action!

12. Providing resources to your
audience
Take action!

13. Engaging with social media!
• Add value – analysis, information, assistance,
entertainment, shareable
• Be consistent
• My journey with facebook and twitter experience
Take action!

14. Getting feedback

15. Thanks!
carolvargasb@tamu.edu