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When I talk to higher ed marketing communications professionals about how to create a content strategy, it sometimes seems like we’re talking about Excalibur — some exalted, unattainable relic that, if retrieved, could at last bring peace to the kingdom.

Developing and implementing a content strategy can feel overwhelming to many for a wide range of reasons, be they related to budget, time, staffing, executive buy-in, campus politics, or a perceived lack of knowledge.

“Where do I start?” I’ve heard people ask more than once.

Today, organic search is the no. 1 driver of website traffic, particularly in higher education (and healthcare.) Google dominates all search engines, and search is now a critical element of your visitors’ journeys.

Every organization must invest in ways to improve in their organic search health to not only stay competitive, but to ensure that their audiences can access the web content most relevant to them and when they need it most.

At this very moment, thousands of Webmasters around the world are microwaving sad, lonely Hot-Pockets for lunch.

They deserve better.

This year, you could win a chance to celebrate International Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day in style with a $100 Visa Gift Card courtesy of OHO Interactive.

Don’t have a Webmaster? You can use your prize to treat your whole team to lunch, or perhaps even to post a LinkedIn ad to hire a Webmaster to celebrate with in 2019.

Google recently announced a new feature that will significantly impact the user journeys of your website visitors. And with 49% of higher education website traffic coming from organic search this new feature may disrupt what we know to be our prospective student journeys.

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will go into effect on May 25, 2018.

Back in November, Forrester Research predicted that 80% of firms that are impacted by GDPR will not be ready to comply by May 2018. And as of February, only 26% of firms based in Europe said they were compliant.

For many web teams — regardless of the industry — site accessibility remains a reactive issue. Too often, the drive to adjust site content to make it more accessible comes on the heels of ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) complaints filed against the organization.

While that approach does ensure that the web continues to evolve toward a more accessible space for all users, it also ensures that process will be a slow, uphill battle for both users and content creators.

The ideal approach is to evaluate and adjust your own content proactively.

As marketers, our goal is to build trust with our constituents, and through that, develop a two-way, one-to-one relationship based on loyalty. We need to provide value to our constituents, so that they become our loyal advocates. But to do so, we need to know and understand them — with data at the source of this knowledge.

A website redesign can be an invigorating exercise for a college or university — people are excited about a new look, a new direction, and a new strategy.

But it can also be challenging to find the best way to engage internal audiences throughout the process. Common questions include:

Do you ever feel like your website is a mess?

It’s like a cluttered garage that you wish someone else would just clean out–get rid of the trash, sweep it out, and put anything of value back on some nice shiny shelves.

You could turn around, walk away, hire an agency, and tell them — fix it!

But, it’s your job to clean it out.

To help you dive in, we’ve outlined a seven-point action plan — if you follow it, you’ll end up with a good understanding of what’s in your “garage” and some first thoughts on all of the key areas for a new website.

We surveyed marketing and communications professionals at 130 different higher education institutions to better understand the current state of higher education web teams. How are they structured? What skillsets are they adding? Are team sizes growing or shrinking?

We've analyzed the data to determine how higher education web teams are evolving, and what steps you can take to ensure your team is performing to its full potential. By filling out the form below, you'll receive immediate access to a wealth of information including: