Hi, Drupalites!
Spring semester is nearly over - and we’ve resolved many of the issues related to the Drupal 9 transition! Thank you for your patience during this process. Please continue to submit issues you need help resolving to FreshService via the Submit a Ticket button at www.kent.edu/websupport.
Coronavirus Website to Sunset: Remove Web References and Links; Other Link Updates Are Also Necessary
As stewards of content on and its websites, you need to be aware of upcoming changes and make adjustments, as they impact content on many of your websites:
- Remove links to the coronavirus website from your website now. Although that website is currently live, it will be unpublished at the end of May. COVID-19 management now falls under the umbrella of the DeWeese Health Center.
- Reset emergency resources link. The Emergency Resources page on the student affairs website now has a new link. It should be reset to: /studentaffairs/dean/emergency-resources.
- Update University Health Services links. Those links are only working right now by way of a redirect. That link and department/unit name are no longer in use. Please scan your site and update any remaining links and language to: DeWeese Health Center (www.kent.edu/deweese).
Mental Health Page - Please Rework Any Mental Health Copy and Reset Links
As the need for information related to mental health and wellness continues, it became important to create a central hub for the university’s many mental health resources. Many of your websites include listings of mental health resources and providers across our campuses. In order to provide our university community members with consistent messaging related to the full listing of services, we are asking you to review the information you currently have on your site.
As you review, please be sure to incorporate the new Mental Health website on your page: www.kent.edu/mentalhealth. If possible, this is the best website to list on your page. However, we understand some departments will prefer to list out one or more particular resource(s) due to the work they do. Either way, we ask that the new Mental Health website is prominent on pages where you discuss mental health.
If you need copy to incorporate with the website, you can list: The Mental Health website provides information on mental health and well-being services that support the 91ֿ community across our campus system and abroad. This site will help you identify resources for yourself or others and provides information on educational resources to enhance learning around mental health and well-being.
Academic Department Webmasters - Academic Program Page Initiative Coming This Summer
Academic department webmasters, please watch for upcoming emails around the academic department program page initiative, which is coming this summer. The project, endorsed by the provost, has been shared with deans, directors and chairs, and they are aware of the work we will collaborate on with you this summer. The project will be a win-win for our prospective students, our current students and our webmasters - all while helping us meet state and federal mandates. It will impact all academic department websites, which we’ll explain in an upcoming series of presentations and workshops.
Creating UTM URLs in GA4
As your department implements marketing plans and utilizes email to drive traffic to your website, it’s important to glean the best analytics and insights possible to inform future efforts and evaluate ROI.
For Those Using UTM URLs
If you are using UTM URLs, please coordinate your efforts with UCM so that your analytics and reporting are as clean and powerful as possible. Standardized nomenclature around case treatment in your URLs is helpful in producing more streamlined reports. As a result, it’s important to model your UTM URLs to match the standards in use by UCM.
Whether you have or have not been working with UCM, and as you begin to do so, remember that when Google Analytics 4 replaces Google Universal Analytics at the end of June, you’ll need to use a different UTM url builder and/or formula sheet, which UCM can provide.
For Those Unfamiliar with UTM URLs
If you’ve not heard of UTM URLs but use URLs in marketing efforts or emails to drive traffic to your website, please contact Lin Danes for a slide deck that explains the value of UTM URLs. As you prepare your creative ads, publications and emails, applying these expanded URLs is pretty similar to the steps you take now. However, extra information is appended to the URL to help you better track what emails or ads are driving traffic to your website.
Tip for Current Users:
- With GA4, you will need to use two new terms in your UTM links; utm_id and utm_source_platform.
- utm_id - Your Campaign ID. Used to identify a specific campaign or promotion. This is a required key for GA4 data import. Use the same IDs that you use when uploading campaign cost data.
- utm_source_platform - The platform responsible for directing traffic to a given Analytics property (such as a buying platform that sets budgets and targeting criteria or a platform that manages organic traffic data). For example: Search Ads 360 or Display & Video 360.
New GA4 Formula Sheets Available
As the university lead on transitioning our analytics from Google’s Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4, UCM’s web team is also spearheading the development of new GA4 formula sheets to ensure the university marketing and outreach community is in step with standards resulting in the best analytics possible. To request a GA formula sheet, please submit a ticket from this webpage www.kent.edu/websupport or email Lin Danes at ldanes@kent.edu.
Catalog Enhancements to Search Functionality and Layout Coming May 23, Verify Keywords
Based on usability findings and research conducted by UCM, as well as feedback from the university community, Curriculum Services has introduced a new layout to the catalog and improved searchability. Program admission requirements and graduate application deadlines are now more prominent, and some headers have changed to provide more clarity on various topics. Additionally, the keyword search on the Search Majors and Degrees site has been improved. As a result, we encourage you to review your program’s listing when the new 2023-2024 catalog launches on May 23. If you find that your program’s keywords need to be adjusted, please contact Jennifer Kellogg, assistant director of curriculum services, at jkellog7@kent.edu.
D9 Tip #1 - Can’t Find Your Old Images? Try a Naming Convention
If your department's editors have difficulty finding previously uploaded media library images, we have a tip for you. Before you upload the image, change the filename of your image to include a specific acronym for your department to improve searchability.
Example: An image for the University Communications and Marketing site could include “UCM” in the filename.Thus, the image “KSU_Kickoff2.jpg” becomes “UCM_KSU_Kickoff2.jpg.”
When the need arises to use “oh, uhh, that one image, what was it called?” again, searching “UCM” will significantly shorten the list of images you’ll need to dig through to find it.
D9 Tip #2 - How to Add Content Around an Image If It’s the Only Thing on a Page
When you’ve added an image as the first and only element in a WYSIWYG text editor, it can be difficult to add text before or after the image.
To do so, follow these steps:
- Click on the image. (A blue outline should appear on the image, showing it’s selected.)
- Hover your mouse over the top or bottom of the image; a red dashed line will appear. (The screenshot below shows the line at the top, but the bottom works too.)
- Click the small red box with the white arrow that appears at the right of the red dashed line; a new line will appear.
- Type or add additional content in the new space.
Please email ldanes@kent.edu with any questions. Your inquiry will be triaged and addressed by the webbie most “in the know” on your particular question.
Thank you for your continued contributions to your Drupal website,
Web Team
Amy Balsinger, Application Developer
Jared Boehm, Senior Manager, Digital Enterprise Solutions
Lin Danes, Director of Web Services
Rob DiVincenzo, Senior Applications Developer
Tyrone Fontaine, Web Designer
Alex Herbers, Web Designer
Eddie Lampert, Student Web Support Specialist
Tim Priester, Web Designer & Services Lead
Michael Selinksy, Student Web Support Specialist