Squadron Website Strategies & Tactics

[Pylon]

I was curious what different squadrons have undertook for website strategies and tactics. This is NOT a thread to just post links to your unit website. I do want to hear about the what, how, and why of your site.  I think there is substantial benefit in comparing and contrasting both our techniques and our results, to ultimately glean ideas from one another.


Things I'm interested in knowing & think could benefit all of us by sharing about:


SEO:
--What is your strategy for optimizing your site for being found in organic web searches?
--Are you generating an XML sitemap?
--Are you using specific keywords throughout your site?  If so, what attracts the most traffic for you?
--Are you using geographic keywords and denominators to key in your site to your unit's AO?
--Is your squadron's news syndicated by RSS?  Do you have any subscribers?
--Are you using unique metadata for every page?
--Have you run Hubspot's Website Grader on your site?


Content:
--What audiences is your site created for (members only? recruiting only? other?  both?)
--How is your content organized?  Functional-area or by audience?
--Do you separate content for external or internal audiences?
--Are you regularly publishing fresh content?  How does that fare for traffic versus your static content?
--What types of content is generating the most traffic?  A particular subject (ES, Cadets?) or type (Photos? Activity Recaps? Etc.)


Platform:
--What CMS are you using?  What are the pros and cons you've found to your CMS?
--Are you using any plugins or additional tools?  Have you had any custom stuff done that's helped?


Analytics:
--Are you using Google Analytics or another provider?
--What is your typical monthly traffic look like?
--Do you find you have traffic spikes around new content?
--Where's the majority of your traffic coming from: referring links? social media? organic search? paid ads?
--Are your popular pages consistent or do they vary over time?


Social Media:
--Do you have any official squadron presences on social media? Which platforms?
--Are you using these platforms simply to host and syndicate content or are you also engaging w/audiences?
--Are you seeing action on your posts (click-throughs, replies, re-shares, etc.)?
--Are you using any link tracking services like bit.ly?
--Are you using any social media management tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck, Hubspot, etc.?
--Have any of you found a social media presence to get more traffic/participation than your website?


There's a lot to share here.  Feel free to share just parts and pieces, or the whole strategy behind your online public affairs efforts.  I'll put together responses for our squadron website and share my responses, too.  I just hope I'm not the only one who will share!   

[Pylon]

So hopefully others won't be shy, let me be the first to share some responses in the hopes of inspiring others to share what's working or not working for their units.


For reference, our site that I'm talking about here is: http://www.OswegoCAP.org/ 

SEO:
--What is your strategy for optimizing your site for being found in organic web searches?
We're using a lot of generic terms for Cadet Programs ('after-school', 'leadership', 'youth', 'teens', etc.) on the recruiting site of content along with repeated uses of our geographic areas served (including in the domain, title, and H1 tags which carry more SEO weight) to try and target people looking for activities for teens and volunteer opportunities in our area.  It seems to work.  We come up as the #1 Google search result for things like "Teen Activities in Oswego County" which nets us good organic traffic to our Cadet Programs recruiting pages.

--Are you generating an XML sitemap?
Yes, we're using a WP Plugin to auto-generate this and auto-ping Google and Bing for reindexing when we post new content.  I think it's working because our new content gets indexed very quickly.
--Are you using specific keywords throughout your site?  If so, what attracts the most traffic for you?
Again, as above: lots of generic, non-CAP-jargon keywords throughout the site closely matched with geographical terms for our AO.
--Is your squadron's news syndicated by RSS?  Do you have any subscribers?
We do have an RSS feed, but I do not believe anybody subscribes via an RSS reader. This may help passively with SEO though; I don't know.
--Are you using unique metadata for every page?
Yes, even though depricated in SEO value, I have unique meta descriptions and meta-tags for each page within the site, and keyword-rich ALT tags for all images.  Actually because of the ALT tags, I've noticed us getting Google Image search traffic for people looking for generic CAP images.  Probably not beneficial traffic to the squadron, but interesting effect.
--Have you run Hubspot's Website Grader on your site?
Yes: 72/99.

Content:
--What audiences is your site created for (members only? recruiting only? other?  both?)
We identified important audiences as (in rough descending order of priority):  potential cadets, parents of potential cadets, potential SM volunteers, members, potential donors, and potential users of CAP's operational assets.  Ancillary audiences include civic/public officials, educators, and the general public.
--How is your content organized?  Functional-area or by audience?
By audience.  In other words, Cadet Programs pages for potential cadets and parents of potential cadets are on separate pages, in a separate section of the website than pages for current cadets, parents of current cadets, and current SMs.  Since content for these two audiences is not the same, it helps keep potential members from being confused, distracted, or overwhelmed by content not relevant to them.
--Do you separate content for external or internal audiences?
Yes; above.
--Are you regularly publishing fresh content?  How does that fare for traffic versus your static content?
Not as much as I'd like to see.  We're averaging one post per month.  We see spikes of traffic around that new content and I'd like to push out more.  I'm finding the limiting factors though are time to write good content and the time needed to pull it together (photos, quotes, fact checking, etc.).  There's no shortage of material, but more a shortage of public affairs foot-work time.  An area I think can be improved upon for us.
--What types of content is generating the most traffic?  A particular subject (ES, Cadets?) or type (Photos? Activity Recaps? Etc.)
Right now, whatever new content we publish is the most popular page on the site for that immediate time period followed closely behind by our static page for potential cadets.


Platform:
--What CMS are you using?  What are the pros and cons you've found to your CMS?
WordPress.  I've found it's easy to publish new content, it's free, it's constantly being updated for both features & vulnerabilities, and it makes collaborating/sharing responsibilities easier.
--Are you using any plugins or additional tools?  Have you had any custom stuff done that's helped?
Yes, many plugins and widgets.  Integrated sidebar Twitter feeds, Facebook API Likebox, XML Sitemap generator, some SEO optimizing plugins, Feedburner, etc.


Analytics:
--Are you using Google Analytics or another provider?
Google Analytics plus Google Webmaster Tools.
--What is your typical monthly traffic look like?
150-200 unique (cookie-tracked) non-robot visitors per month.
--Do you find you have traffic spikes around new content?
Yep.  You can spot new content pushes on our traffic line charts.
--Where's the majority of your traffic coming from: referring links? social media? organic search? paid ads?
Last Month for us:
37% Organic Search Engine Traffic
34% Referrals (Links from other sites or Social Media)
28% Direct Links (bookmarks, typing in our URL, etc.)
Seems like its fairly balanced to me.
--Are your popular pages consistent or do they vary over time?
Of the static pages, It's fairly consistent.  The Cadet Programs for Teens (potential cadets) and Parents (potential parents) are almost always our top traffic pages.  Our "Leadership" (staff listing) page is oddly, generally #3 in popularity. I'd rather see other content take that #3 spot personally.


Social Media:
--Do you have any official squadron presences on social media? Which platforms?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CAPNY408
Twitter: http://twitter.com/OswegoCAP
--Are you using these platforms simply to host and syndicate content or are you also engaging w/audiences?
We're engaging and posting content on Facebook, but really using Twitter just to syndicate and linkshare.  I think there's potential to engage audiences more on both, but that would take some time to identify the audiences we want to target, where they're spending time, and then developing & implementing meaningful ways to draw them in.  I don't know if we have the man-power to up our engagement levels there right now.  Anybody else successfully getting lots of social media engagement?
--Are you seeing action on your posts (click-throughs, replies, re-shares, etc.)?
We get a fair amount of click-throughs when we share posts and new content (20+ clicks per instance), but less interaction and few replies. 
--Are you using any link tracking services like bit.ly?
Bit.ly for all links shared on our Twitter and Facebook page.
--Are you using any social media management tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck, Hubspot, etc.?
Not yet.  I think this falls under the time issue. Anybody else?
--Have any of you found a social media presence to get more traffic/participation than your website?
I've found our Facebook page is very popular amongst current members and their friends and family where the squadron website is most popular with outside audiences (but of course there's crossover).



Okay.  I've shared our ideas.  What do you all have?

[rjacobs]

For referance, the squadron website that I maintain is www.mustangcadetsquadron.org.

SEO:
--What is your strategy for optimizing your site for being found in organic web searches?
I have not made an effort at any SEO for our squadron website. Our site generally shows up in the first or second result when searching for it by name or location.
--Are you generating an XML sitemap?
I wasn't until I saw what you (Pylon) were doing for this. Adding a WordPress plugin was easy, so I went ahead and added it.
--Are you using specific keywords throughout your site?  If so, what attracts the most traffic for you?
No.
--Are you using geographic keywords and denominators to key in your site to your unit's AO?
No.
--Is your squadron's news syndicated by RSS?  Do you have any subscribers?
Yes, but I have no idea if anyone uses it. I know a few member subscribe to our calendar RSS feed.
--Are you using unique metadata for every page?
No.
--Have you run Hubspot's Website Grader on your site?
No.

Content:
--What audiences is your site created for (members only? recruiting only? other?  both?)
Primarily squadron members, with recruiting a secondary focus.
--How is your content organized?  Functional-area or by audience?
Audience where the audience is divided into members and public.
--Do you separate content for external or internal audiences?
Yes.
--Are you regularly publishing fresh content?  How does that fare for traffic versus your static content?
Somewhat. Promotions and 90%+ test scores are published each month. Other items as time permits. I don't track the analytics regularly.
--What types of content is generating the most traffic?  A particular subject (ES, Cadets?) or type (Photos? Activity Recaps? Etc.)
As above, I don't track the analytics regularly.

Platform:
--What CMS are you using?  What are the pros and cons you've found to your CMS?
WordPress. I wanted a blog style for news posts, so chose WordPress over something like Joomla.
--Are you using any plugins or additional tools?  Have you had any custom stuff done that's helped?
I use quite a few plugins, but I'm also constantly looking to eliminate any that aren't really required or providing value.  I customized the site template for a wider layout. I also tweaked the footer to show the appropriate disclaimer for logged in vs logged out users.

Analytics:
--Are you using Google Analytics or another provider?
The hosting company provides 'analog' and I also have a plugin that provides analytic info.
--What is your typical monthly traffic look like?
Unfortunately, analog only give data on requests and pages, not actual visitors.  The plugin gives visitor data, but hasn't been running long enough for useful monthly data.
--Do you find you have traffic spikes around new content?
I don't check stats often enough to have noticed.
--Where's the majority of your traffic coming from: referring links? social media? organic search? paid ads?
Members bookmarks, then search results, and a few referring links (wing website).
--Are your popular pages consistent or do they vary over time?
I have some static pages that are fairly consistent, but I haven't checked to see if they are 'popular'.

Social Media:
--Do you have any official squadron presences on social media? Which platforms?
Yes, Facebook and Twitter.
--Are you using these platforms simply to host and syndicate content or are you also engaging w/audiences?
I can push posts from the website to Facebook. Facebook has a few additional photos and some historical info, but it isn't a primary source. Almost all 'likes' are from squadron members. Twitter isn't really used and no squadron members follow it.  The account is primarily so that I can run a list and display the tweets of groups the squadron account follows (sort of RSS-like).
--Are you seeing action on your posts (click-throughs, replies, re-shares, etc.)?
Not really.
--Are you using any link tracking services like bit.ly?
No.
--Are you using any social media management tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck, Hubspot, etc.?
No.
--Have any of you found a social media presence to get more traffic/participation than your website?
Not really.

I used to really pay attention to analytics, etc when I hand coded the whole site, but not so much now that the sites on WordPress.  The main purpose of the site as a resource for squadron members is being met, so I have not put a lot of time into things like SEO.  I do ask prospectives if they've visited the site and many do, for the meeting time and location if nothing else.

[Garibaldi]

 

[Extremepredjudice]

Let me get this straight, you PUBLISH cadet's test scores? On your website?

[SarDragon]

Let me get this straight, you PUBLISH cadet's test scores? On your website?

What's wrong with recognizing superior performance, especially when (presumably) phrased as, "Cadet Schmuckatelli scored 95% or better on her Goddard Achievement test."?

[Extremepredjudice]

Those are private. Not for public viewing.

[SarDragon]

Those are private. Not for public viewing.

Three Qs here:

Why not for public acknowledgement?

Where does it say this isn't allowed?

What's the harm?

[rjacobs]

Yes, cadet test scores are published monthly as a members only post under a heading of "Cadets achieving 90% or greater:".  Promotions are published as a public post.

[Pylon]

Those are private. Not for public viewing.

You won't find any regulatory support for that assertion.  That's just an opinion.

Thanks for sharing about your site, rjacobs.  Hopefully others will follow suit.  I'd be interested in hearing what plugins you've been testing out.

[♠SARKID♠]

I co-maintain our squadron website, http://www.timmermancap.org


SEO:
--What is your strategy for optimizing your site for being found in organic web searches?
Make it exist, and increase the publicly accessible page count.  Our old website ran on an old version of Joomla and had little content accessible to the public (two or three pages).  Our new site is larger with more indexable pages.
--Are you generating an XML sitemap?
No, but I'm gonna look into it.
--Are you using specific keywords throughout your site?  If so, what attracts the most traffic for you?
Just general stuff: Civil Air Patrol, Milwaukee, Timmerman, etc
--Are you using geographic keywords and denominators to key in your site to your unit's AO?
Yes.  Use of the terms Milwaukee and Timmerman, as well as our address, has us just below the wing website when googling "Milwaukee Civil Air Patrol".  Also, I have a pending request to add our squadron to google maps.
--Is your squadron's news syndicated by RSS?  Do you have any subscribers?
Yes.  Don't know.
--Are you using unique metadata for every page?
Unknown.
--Have you run Hubspot's Website Grader on your site?
Yes.  We rate at a 63.


Content:
--What audiences is your site created for (members only? recruiting only? other?  both?)
Both, but mostly for recruiting.  The site does have a password protected area where I use a google docs account/spreadsheet combo to host our squadron forms, OIs, ES training stuffs, etc
--Do you separate content for external or internal audiences?
Yes, see above.
--Are you regularly publishing fresh content?  How does that fare for traffic versus your static content?
We need to get more squadron news articles onto the site more regularly, but we do update the news about once a month.  A lack of a steady PAO has hindered that.
--What types of content is generating the most traffic?  A particular subject (ES, Cadets?) or type (Photos? Activity Recaps? Etc.)
The visibility of the site has been the big difference.


Platform:
--What CMS are you using?  What are the pros and cons you've found to your CMS?
Wordpress.  Its nice because it looks good.  I don't like it because of how finicky, IMHO, it is about formatting.  Its easy to break, its seems.
--Are you using any plugins or additional tools?  Have you had any custom stuff done that's helped?
Google Calendar, Google Placemarks for in-page mapping, Gravity Forms for a contact generator.  I was using List Yo' Files for file hosting but then I found the glory that is Google Docs.


Analytics:
--Are you using Google Analytics or another provider?
We are now 
--What is your typical monthly traffic look like?
Anywhere from 20-40 visits per month.
--Do you find you have traffic spikes around new content?
Unknown
--Where's the majority of your traffic coming from: referring links? social media? organic search? paid ads?
Unknown
--Are your popular pages consistent or do they vary over time?
Unknown


Social Media:
--Do you have any official squadron presences on social media? Which platforms?
We have a Facebook page that is regularly maintained.
--Are you using these platforms simply to host and syndicate content or are you also engaging w/audiences?
We do get some contact through FB that has led to visits from the public.
--Are you seeing action on your posts (click-throughs, replies, re-shares, etc.)?
Yes, but usually within CAP folks
--Are you using any link tracking services like bit.ly?
No.
--Are you using any social media management tools like HootSuite, TweetDeck, Hubspot, etc.?
No.
--Have any of you found a social media presence to get more traffic/participation than your website?
We have no metric to measure with.


The website has done us wonders.  We use to struggle to get people through our door, now we have new people showing up every freaking week!  It is the only thing that we have changed in our recruiting strategy as of late.

[rjacobs]

Thanks for sharing about your site, rjacobs.  Hopefully others will follow suit.  I'd be interested in hearing what plugins you've been testing out.

I'm not actively testing any at the moment, but I search for new event sign-up plugins every other month or so.  Everything out there seems to be ticket oriented with Paypal integration, etc.  All I want is something that will let cadets sign up (or cancel) for events and activities and have the plug in automatically add (or remove) their name to the roster.  Custom fields for the sign-up form would be needed too.  I'm currently using cformsII for the sign-up form which will email me.  I have to manually maintain the roster though.

Of the plugins I use, Role Scoper and Register Plus Redux are probably the most important.  Role Scoper allows me to setup a Member role and then restrict pages and post to that role.  It's what keeps the member only content private.  Register Plus Redux allows me to approve all new users before the accounts are activated.  This plugin has some XSS issues and is not currently available.  I've reviewed the issues and the plugin is more valuable to me than the XSS risk.  The plugin author is working on a fix, but it's slow going.