Thanks to Twitter, we’ve all gotten more creative with how we fit the right message into just 140 characters. But what if you had only two words? Or just one? And what if those few characters had to clearly convey what readers can expect to find on the dozens and dozens of web pages that lie beneath that word on your site? You’d want to be really sure that you had the best possible word, or words, to resonate with the greatest number of your website’s visitors.
Whether you call it labeling, taxonomy, nomenclature, or simply naming, the process of selecting the words that represent the largest ideas, categories, and themes on your website is critically important. It can also be highly contentious. Everyone has an opinion about what terms work best. Ultimately, though, you’re trying to find something that speaks to the majority of your most important audience — prospective students. Because if prospective students can’t figure out a label, it doesn’t matter how much everyone else loves it.
[Tweet “If prospectives can’t figure out a label, it doesn’t matter if everyone else loves it. #mStoner”]
Example: ’The Schwartz School of Business Administration and Management’ vs. ‘School of Business’
Unless you have a school that has widespread name-brand recognition with your target audience (Wharton for graduate business, for example), you should stay away from naming schools at the highest levels of your navigation. Practically speaking, spelling out the whole name can simply take up too much space. That said, this is a politically sensitive area; one possible compromise is to introduce the school’s name as part of the landing page copy that visitors see once they’ve selected the school from the menu.
Example: Bursar vs. Billing
Some everyday terms we use at our institutions make no sense to anyone who isn’t an employee. Rather than using the department name from the organizational chart, use terms that describe what purpose is served or need fulfilled for your audience. Students and parents have no concept of what a bursar does, for example, but label it ‘Billing’ and it becomes much clearer.
Examples: Contacts vs. Contact Us, Application Process vs. Your Application Process
You want your visitors to feel like you are speaking directly to them. Whenever possible, include words that encourage ownership of the relationship you are trying to build and the services you are offering.
Example: Information For vs. Information Tailored For
Example: Email vs. Your Email vs. Email Us
The longer a label is, the more descriptive it can be. The shorter it is, the more space you have for other labels. In a world of small screens, every character is more valuable than ever before. The challenge is to strike the balance between labels that convey exactly what we want while also being as succinct as possible. The word ‘tailored’ in the first example tells what a reader can expect — carefully selected resources for a particular person — but is also eight characters longer. In the second example, ‘Email’ may be shortest, but use a few extra characters to create ‘Your Email’ or ‘Email Us’ and you’ve clearly indicated two very different purposes.