Do a Google internet search for “Best University Geography Website” and you’ll get about 16,700,000 hits. Guess what department pops up as number one on the list? UCSB Geography, of course (and you’ll get virtually the same result if you type in “Top University Geography Website”). Pennsylvania State University appears 4th on the resulting list, followed by the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Washington, the University of Cambridge (UK), and the Ohio State University.
According to Google Webmaster Central, “Sites’ positions in our search results are determined based on a number of factors designed to provide end-users with helpful, accurate search results. These factors are explained in more detail [here]. In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.” Google uses PageRank™ technology which “reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.”
The UCSB Department of Geography website has had a succession of webmasters over the last decade, and each one has made significant changes and improvements. In 2008, Mo Lovegreen, our Executive Officer, mandated “a fresh and original look,” to our website, including content that would be at once more professional, “brand” the Department, and appeal to a wider audience. Dylan Parenti, our Webmaster, was invaluable in terms of conceptualizing the architecture involved and organizing the structure; Natalie Wong, our Senior Artist at the time, did a terrific job of dealing with new graphics and a decidedly modern design layout; Jon Hall, our brilliant Web Programmer and designer, wrote the code; Guylene Gadal, our former Webmaster who is now at spatial@ucsb, facilitated the transition and provided critical advice; and Bill Norrington, the department’s editor/writer, provided textual content in accordance with input from several faculty members, notably Jennifer King, Dan Montello, and our current Chair, Dar Roberts. Today’s synergistic result is that our website is much more than merely the sum of its incremental parts.
Our current site has emerged from an ongoing process of refinement, spurred by changes in our curriculum, advances in computer technology, and our desire to promote both the discipline and our own program – and you can help make it even better! Here’s how:
- Tell us what you think could be improved. Anything. Send your comments, contributions, and, criticisms to the editor.
- If you spot an inaccuracy, typo, or dead link, let us know.
- Contribute. Any “Friend of Geography” is encouraged to submit material relevant to the history, news, and events relating to the discipline in general and to UCSB Geography in particular.
- Most of all, keep tuned in and turned on (and don’t drop out)!
