Many heritage institutions have either no web sites or a poorly managed and out-of-date web site. The time have come for you to take control and to manage this yourself.
The modern approach to web site design and management uses online systems which are relatively easy to use and intuitive following some basic training, and for this course we use WordPress, in which our own web site is developed, and which has become the international standard for building new web sites.
Your web site is the way in which you communicate with your larger audience, a new digital audience who cannot make it to you museum, gallery, archive or library, but who have an interest. Whereas there were previously reservations that if you put yourself into the Web then no-one will visit your institution, it appears that the reverse is actually true – the more you tell the world who you are, then the more that they want to visit!
Thus a web site has a number of roles, including telling people who you are and where to find you; telling the world what you are doing and what events they can participate in; and providing virtual exhibitions about the objects which are in storage and which remain hidden from view during a physical visit.
This workshop takes you through the first step in gaining proficiency in managing your own web site, and for this workshop we offer the following add-on values:
- a free registration of your domain – if you do not already have the domain
- free hosting of the domain for one year – and perhaps longer subject to terms and conditions
- two days of instruction and support in building up your web site
Who should attend
This workshop is ideal for heritage practitioners who are responsible for communications within their institution, or who will need to participate in updating the content on the web site. All you will need is a basic knowledge of computers and some experience with using the web.
It is IMPORTANT that you bring a lot of your own pictures and information to be added to the web site, and a guideline will be sent to all delegates for the prior work which is required to be conducted before the workshop commences. This will help you gain much progress in getting online.
Topics to be covered
- What makes a good web site for heritage institutions
- Building your vision of a completed web site
- Examining WordPress : wordpress.com cs wordpress.org
- Creating a basic WordPress web site
- Exploring the WordPress dashboard
- Pages vs Posts : your essential content
- Using images to enhance your pages – the image gallery
- Creating links
- Identifying the parts of the web site, exploring themes
- Embedding YouTube videos into your web site
- Designing your web site structure and navigation
- Publishing posts
- Creating and publishing pages
- Web Site Administration – adding JetPack
- Changing the apperance : front page, menus and widgets
- Using Categories and Tags
- Managing Users
- Exploring Plugins to enhance the features – such as slide shows
- Adding social media sharing
- Creating a content management plan and allocating responsibilities
- How to make the web site visible to search engines
Outcomes
At the end of the course you will have obtained the following knowledge and practical experience:
- what is WordPress and how to use it
- an institutional web site with some content already established
- how to manage and maintain the web site
- how to extend your web site
Pricing and Booking
Our workshop and course prices are to be found on the Workshop Prices and Booking Process page together with the process for bookings.