Frequently Asked Questions
Drupal Questions
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If you have hired staff or students whose responsibilities will include editing the website, please be aware that anyone requesting permission to edit content on any website needs to have taken the standard accessibility training within the last two years.
Once they have passed the accessibility training, that individual can fill out the Request Editing Permissions form.
One of the web tech staff will grant site editing permissions and let the user know how to log in.
Additionally, WebTech provides on online Beginning Drupal training for new content editors to give them hands-on training for the Drupal platform.
Adding faculty or staff (users) to department websites (or directories) is something that only WebTech staff can do. You can request a user be adding by filling out the Add Faculty/Staff to Directory form. Once a user has been added, anyone with appropriate content editing permissions can edit the user profiles. Additionally, faculty or staff who have been added to a directory typically have editing permissions to edit their own profile. If they are unable to edit their profile, email webhelp@wwu.edu.
Our Case Studies page showcases examples of our work that can help spark imagination and show how particular design and/or content challenges were addressed.
The Drupal Blocks Reference page displays the array of blocks that are available using Drupal's Layout Builder.
Check out this resource on how to add links to your website. Or for a more thorough refresher, review the online Beginning Drupal Training course
Learn step by step how to add images, pdfs or other files to your website by using Drupal's Media Library. Or for a more thorough refresher, review the online Beginning Drupal Training course
Drupal webforms can be a bit tricky to build, but offer a great source of gathering information from users as well as being an accessible way for users to contact you. Learn more about creating webforms, or email webhelp to request that a form be built for you.
Analytics Questions
Request permission to gain access to your website's Google Analytics account by sending a request to webhelp@wwu.edu.
Be sure to include the following:
- Your name.
- Your Western email.
- The URL of the website that you'd like to have Google Analytics permissions to view.
- Your department/college/institution name
We'll grant permissions which will automatically send you a link via email to log in and access Google Analytics as an analyst for the URL you've requested.
Learn more about Analytics at Western.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Questions
Search engine optimization, otherwise referred to as SEO, is the practice of optimizing your web pages to make them rank higher in the results of search engines, like Google, Yahoo or Bing. When a page is search optimized, this means that more people will be more likely to come across your website when they are searching online. SEO focuses on improving your website rankings in the organic (that is, non-paid) search results.
SEO strategy consists of a variety of elements that, if done well, result in the page consistently appearing in search results and enticing a user to click through to the website. Some elements include adding meta tags, using keywords, monitoring your site's technical health and creating high-quality content.
Search results are presented in an ordered list. The closer to the top of that list a site can get, the more traffic the site will tend to receive.
An example of this is when you search for anything on the internet, the number one result often receives 40-60% of the total traffic for that query. The number two and three results receive significantly less traffic. And less than 5% of searchers look beyond the first page of search results to find what they are looking for. What that means is even minor improvements in search engine rankings can result in a website receiving exponentially more traffic.
The goal of SEO is to increase search results so that your website shows up higher on the search engine results page (SERP) than your competitor's website.
Get started with search engine optimization and learn more about how search engines (and users) find and understand your content.