Georgia Southwestern celebrates one year with new website

AMERICUS, GA (June 2, 2022) – It’s been one year since Georgia Southwestern State University launched an entirely new website created from scratch using Cascade CMS (content management system). Data from the last year has shown the project to be a huge success.

Since launch on May 17, 2021, GSW’s website (gsw.edu) has seen a more than 50 percent increase in impressions, a 15 percent increase in engagement, a 12 percent increase in page time views and a significant reduction of mobile site errors from approximately 500 to 0.

The modern design, fresh content and imagery, and consistent layouts in addition to repaired URLs, clutter removal and mobile responsiveness – all worked together to improve the overall visitor experience.

“The new site is more cohesive and strategic in content placement than it has ever been,” stated Hailey Henderson, website content strategist, who led the five-month project. “The effectiveness of search engine optimization, accessibility, and mobile usability has steadily increased our impressions and page experience over the past year. I am proud to have played a role in this project for GSW, and strive to make the site the best it can be.”

Data is consistently used to create, revise, and update the site to increase web traffic and improve the visitor experience.

With half of all users accessing gsw.edu on cell phones and tablets, a priority for the new site was to be more dynamic and cater to mobile users. Over the course of the last year, new visitors make up 80 percent of total visitors with our top visitor ranging in age from 18-24.

Other changes to the site included a site directory revamp, new high-quality headshots of faculty and staff, refreshed “mega” menus, community events calendar, clickable phone numbers and emails, and much more.

“GSW’s new site is impressive,” said Chelsea Collins, director of marketing and communications. “Over the past year, the refreshed look of gsw.edu has received countless reports of praise from the GSW community stating it is easier to navigate, mobile-friendly and eye-appealing. Hailey was invaluable to this project and, with help from former student-worker Bryce Bass, they hit the ground running and made a great team.”

GSW continues to improve the functionality of the website by adding new features such as Dynamic Forms and myGSW. Currently in progress, all existing forms are being digitized through Dynamic Forms allowing students, faculty and staff to sign and submit on any device through a confidential and secure submission process.

The new myGSW web-based platform has also been created and added online, which allows current students, faculty, and staff a single location to find all Instructional Technology systems and more, signing on with multi-factor authentication only once to access these systems.

New digital media is still being integrated throughout the site with interviews of current students and alumni, virtual tours of campus and residence halls, and more interactive pages.

We encourage everyone to visit www.gsw.edu and let us know your favorite addition at univrel@gsw.edu.