UI/UX
Elephant Sanctuary Content Report
Timeline: September 2023
The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is a nonprofit organization focusing on helping retired elephants after their life in entertainment. They raise money to take care of these animals and spread awareness for the struggles the elephant population face.
I analyzed all the content on their website to see what is done well and what could be changed. The research explores the audience of the website, SEO analytics, accessibility, writing, content, and architecture.
Research
Before diving into the analysis, I found out what each of the elements included in content reports meant.
Content analysis in general allows someone to look closely at their websites, find what needs to be changed and come up with a content strategy, make those changes, then monitor the success overtime. This all helps find gaps in the strategy and becomes a continuous process. The analysis looks at everything from the amount of traffic a site is getting to the ranking in search engines.
Here is a breakdown of the important terms used in the content report.
Search engine optimization (SEO): How high up on a search engine a website appears based on a number of factors including page titles, meta descriptions, headlines, and accessibility.
Page titles: The title of a webpage that is shown in the search engine.
Meta descriptions: The description of a webpage that is shown in the search engine.
Meta tags: The short body of text that describes a page’s content but is not shown on the site at all. It is only included in the code.
Headlines: The titles or subtitles that are displayed on a webpage.
Web accessibility: Websites should be accessible for people with disabilities. Accessibility standards help this happen by adding features into the code that allow everyone to understand what is on a webpage.
Alt tags: The words that describe an image that are read to people with visual impairments.
Contrast: The difference between colors used in a web page. If there is little or no contrast, the elements can be difficult to see.
Architecture: The navigation and difference in looks of a site depending on the device it is seen on.
The Process
To start the content report, I looked at every page and element shown on the Elephant Sanctuary website. I answered questions like what services and benefits does the site offer, who is the audience, and what is the need to better understand what can be done to improve it.
I then ran the website through Screaming Frog SEO Spider to analyze each element of the site. Here you can see all the elements I looked at.
To start the report, I gave an overview of the organization and its target audience. I then went into detail about all the existing SEO analytics and what could be improved. This included the level of accessibility as well, which needed extensive work to improve the site.
The writing and content analysis were next, which looked at what is already on the site for text and visuals.
Another element of the report is content distribution, which includes what the organization is doing to promote themselves on social media.
Finally, I analyzed the architecture and what happens when the website is viewed on different devices.
The end of the report recaps what the organization has done successfully and what they can do to fully improve their website and incorporate all the essential elements of SEO. That includes some of the positive elements:
Professional images and videos
Live feeds
Appropriate writing
Strong social media presence
Mobile-friendly
Easy navigation
It also includes the negative elements:
Missing alt tags and attributes limited accessibility
One meta description used for every page on the site
No search function
conclusion
Throughout analyzing the Elephant Sanctuary website and writing this report, I was able to learn more about web content and SEO, which is extremely helpful for anyone who wants to create their own site. This process was eye opening in the sense that I got to understand what goes into making a site and the continuous process to improve and upkeep it.