TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

SFCC Launches Revamped Web Site

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

SFCC Webmaster Richard Merritt shows the college’s revamped Web site.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MANDY SHEETS | Highlands Today

Published: October 3, 2007

AVON PARK — Even with the launch of South Florida Community College's revamped Web site on Thursday, Webmaster Richard Merritt is already making improvements.

"This project has no completion date," Merritt said. "I'm always finding some way to improve the Web site or something new I want to do. Plus there is always new technology and ways to make it better."

The redesign is part of a large-scale project to improve the navigation, timeliness and usability of the college's Web site.

"We are trying to bring our Web site in line with other colleges and universities," Merritt said. "We want to offer more services to our students, faculty and the public."

Visitors to the site can register for classes, purchase tickets to upcoming shows and read SFCC's latest news headlines.

The home page features photos from different programs and change with each visit to the site.

"These pictures link directly to the programs, so any prospective student can click and learn more information about the program and the classes associated with it," Merritt said.

Merritt, a graduate of SFCC and Lake Placid High School, also attended Florida Gulf Coast University, in Fort Myers, before returning to the area to work for his alma mater. He is one of 10 new employees this year who is also a graduate of SFCC.

He started in May as a member of the community relations department.

"Richard is the first full time webmaster," said Debbie Bell, director of community relations. "All the previous webmasters had to balance that in addition to their other jobs. It's really important for the college to get information to our students, employees and public, and this Web site gives us the forum to do that."

The new Web site also exudes the "wow factor," with many bells and whistles the previous one didn't have.

"The Web site really is the face of the college as far as the Internet," Merritt said. "It can be a tremendous marketing tool to get information out about the programs we offer."

He is now in the process of converting the pages from the old template to the revamped one – a lengthy project with more than 500 pages to update. He hopes to have about 90 percent of the Web site converted to the new template by the end of the year.

Merritt has been surprised by the global-access of the Web site. A program that allows him to track traffic shows the site has about 2,827 hits each day by 1,345 visitors.

"We have a good handle of who visits our Web site and how they are directed there," Merritt said. "From that data, we can build the site for our audience."

Most of the Web site's visitors are from Avon Park, but it reaches far beyond as well.

"We have a lot of traffic throughout Florida with quite a few visits in the Orlando area," Merritt said. "We even have some international visits."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT