Capstone Project Report
Spring Semester 2023
April 23, 2023
Project Name: Paddle for Victory
Project Website: https://sites.google.com/view/paddleforvictory/home
Class: IT4983 W01
Sponsor: Paddle for the Cure NYC
Professor: Donald Privitera
Team Members: Rahim Siddiqi, Alvaro Jimenez-Kosan, Jesse Bancroft, Melina Castellon, and Seyedmahdi Salehkhoo
Executive Summary
In this semester-long project, we had the pleasure of working with a great organization called Paddle for the Cure NYC. This non-profit organization aims to provide support and events for breast cancer survivors and their families by offering a unique program that uses recreational dragon boat paddling to manage side effects of treatment for breast cancer survivors while also promoting a positive and healthy lifestyle for the local community. Our team was tasked to research, analyze, and implement strategies to help improve the Paddle for the Cure website and their digital platforms. We focused on five areas including social media exposure, search engine optimization, website design, website host, and newsletter features. The purpose was to generally boost traffic, increase engagement with current members, enhance visibility and accessibility, and increase overall efficiency and effectiveness of the current website. We feel that our research-based implementations and recommendations will help Paddle for the Cure NYC gain more target audience members and grow into a reputable community with the recognition that they deserve. Working on this capstone project helped us prepare for entering the professional industry by teaching us valuable lessons in time management, team collaboration, critical thinking, research strategies, presentation etiquette, and self-reflection.
Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................3
Objectives and Deliverables................4
Target Audience...................................4
Website Design....................................4
SEO......................................................5
Social Media Exposure........................6
Analytic Indicators...............................7
Newsletter.............................................7
WordPress Host....................................8
Project Planning and Management.......9
Project Experience...............................10
Gantt Chart...........................................10
References............................................11
Appendix..............................................13
Introduction
We are Kennesaw State University’s IT 4983’s Group 11, Team 1 researching how to improve the traffic and overall exposure to the Paddle for the Cure website. The team members are Rahim Siddiqi, Melina Castellon, Jesse Bancroft, Alvaro Jimenez-kosan, and Seyedmahdi Salehkhoo. The scope of this paper goes into detail of all the sections covered in the presentations, most notably, Website Design, SEO, Social Media Exposure, Newsletter, and WordPress Host.
Some of the technical concepts utilized in this project include web development and analysis, html overview, content management systems, UX/UI design, and applied research.
The first section that will be covered is the target audience. We thought this was prudent because every part of this project should be built around the understanding of what that audience is. Only then can we further build on this and improve the traffic and exposure of the Paddle for the Cure’s website.
Objectives and Deliverables
Our main objective is to cater to the sponsor. At the end of this project, we will have delivered the following:
Final Project Report
PowerPoint slides covering all our research
Recorded Presentations
Final Project Plan
Project Showcase Website
Target Audience
The most important priority for any website is to understand its target audience and how to appeal as closely as possible to the demographic that their audience resides in. It is even more important for a website like Paddle for the Cure as the audience is smaller than some other organizations. The clear audience is likely specifically breast cancer survivors but could be people associated with them too.
As we look further in this audience, the statistics show 99% of people that get breast cancer are women. Even deeper is that their age range is 50-65, the median being 63 (Cancer.Net Editorial Board, 2023).
Using this knowledge, every part of the website should have the audience and its sub-categories in mind. Whether it is the design of the website, its social media marketing, or its newsletter.
Website Design
This section will largely deal with the homepage of the website. This is the most accessed portion of the website, so it needs to be the most presentable, organized, and set the tone for the rest of the visitor experience. Therefore, each page of the website should have consistent organization, similar style, and have the same font colors displayed.
There seems to be a few clashing styles on the homepage. With different pinks, eyesore underlines, and content boxes varying in size. The most presentable part of this page is the, Why Choose Us? Section. It is clean, the font-size is large enough but does not overpower the page and is informative for the user.
As the audience target is on the older side, sections need to be clearly defined and not have too many buttons seeking attention. The welcome slider has too many options which most visitors would ignore or would not pay much attention to them. Towards the end of the page, there is the sponsor section with very large logos. This clogs the page from a seamless transition to the social media section. On a mobile device, this especially fills the screen with an endless scroll. Older users also tend to have difficulty reading busy webpages. While they would appreciate large font, having large sizes and then smaller sizes distorts the view and makes it hard to digest all the information on the page. A few improvements to this page would improve the homepage’s presentation considerably and improve long-term user engagement and revisits.
SEO
The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to increase the quality and quantity of website traffic by making it easier for people to find your website through search engines like Google and Bing (Dean, 2022). Some key factors here are meaning, relevance, quality, usability, and context. To fit in with these factors, the content of the website covers most of them except the usability, which is more of a design element. The website should be easy to use and easy to navigate. If it is not properly organized and structured, then Google will not rank it highly in their search results. There are a few additional things related to SEO that the search engine prioritizes. Some of these things are consistent website updates, and then there are html tags and backlinking.
The cornerstone of SEO is content. High quality content generation and regular updates to content is one of the metrics that increases SEO. An example of regular updates is using the welcome slider to showcase events past or current, which is currently being done to some extent.
Another aid to content SEO is to include long-tail keywords. A long-tail keyword is a specific keyword phrase that contains three or more words, often containing descriptive words that narrow down the search intent (Weber, 2022). Some examples are breast cancer survivors, cancer support groups, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and overcoming challenges for cancer survivors. This has already been done in an effective way on the homepage already, with only a little improvement required for other pages on the PFC website.
But an important aspect of getting that content recognized is to be known by Google as an authoritative site. The way the engine recognizes this is the number of high-quality links from other websites to your site – a backlink. Thus, it would be helpful to the website’s SEO, if sponsors and partners provided additional backlinks to the PFC website as well as seeing if local health organizations can also provide backlinks on their breast cancer support sections.
The last recommendation for this section is that there should be a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on the website, either accessible from the navigation menu or the welcome slider. A FAQ page can answer popular questions from members and supporters and provide additional long-tail keywords in the answers to the SEO algorithm.
Social Media Exposure
For social media exposure, the team started with what PFC is currently doing. PFCNYC is on all the major social media platforms and is active, which is one of the most important things when using social media as a source of traffic and engagement.
Some statistics on social media:
Nearly 77.6% of small businesses use social media (Iannuzzi, 2021).
Facebook is the most highly used social media channel (86%), while Instagram is the second most used (48%).
Most commonly used social media within the target audience is Facebook
From the first analysis, it is clear Paddle for the Cure is putting great effort into creating content on all the major platforms. But there are some concerning pieces of data. There is currently a lack of engagement on posts from subscribers and followers. As of March 2023, PFCNYC has 1.1K followers on Facebook. According to Empower, small nonprofits have an average of 8,722 Facebook followers. This means PFCNCY is 87.4% below the average. On the review side, there are only 7 reviews for the Facebook page.
On Instagram, the account seems to be active as it has 3 posts in just the last week and even posts stories. As of March 2023, Paddle for the Cure follows 2,519 accounts and has a following of 596. In the last 5 Instagram posts, PFCNYC has got 17 likes and 5 comments.
The trend here is a lack of engagement from subscribers and followers. The recommendations from the team are to encourage followers to engage and repost the content, reference a friend, and share the content among their friends, collaborate with other organizations, and utilize hashtags in posts and captions. All these additions, as well as keeping up with regular posts as is already occurring, should increase exposure for Paddle for the Cure.
One last recommendation is to post the YouTube link with posts and reference the YouTube channel on Twitter in order to aid in traffic capitalization.
Analytic Indicators
Using the visitor analytics provided by Paddle for the Cure, the team made some observations of the data. The data that most caught our attention were the following statistics:
Most Users first visit the Home Page
Average engagement time is 46 seconds
41% of site visitors were mobile users
Organic Social only account for 72 out of 272 users
Organic Search only accounts for 41 users out of 272 users
These statistics indicate some crucial information. It seems the traffic from PFC’s social media accounts are a good portion of the overall traffic and visits to the website, but the social media exposure still shows room for improvement as shown by the previous section, so this number should rise as the engagement from social media accounts increase.
The next piece of important data, though not mentioned in the above statistics, is the referrals. The number is low and needs to rise. An increase of backlinking, as discussed in the SEO section, would not only increase Organic Search users, but would also increase the referral count listed in the analytic data. This is an example where one important difference in SEO can influence a few areas of traffic to the website.
With increased social media exposure and better SEO, the number of users visiting the site will increase, but it will also likely increase mobile users, which will push the need for a more organized, consistent website as discussed in the Website Design portion of this paper.
Newsletter
As the newsletter page loads up, it is clear that the style and fonts are completely different from the rest of the website. This is found to be jarring to the user. It is as if we navigated to a new website and no longer on Paddle for the Cure. Another notable observation is the lack of an eye-catching header image. Header images are considered important in website design and make the page interesting to the viewer.
As the page scrolls, there is no obvious break between weeks or months, so it is unclear as to the theme that the newsletter is going for. The team recommends a monthly theme for each month for the newsletter that changes every month, and it focuses on different subjects every month. If a consistent color scheme is applied throughout the webpage more in-line with the rest of the website this will also improve readability and engagement. Adding more pictures from social media, dates, and clear sections to every event will also add more excitement and authenticity to the newsletter as a whole.
As mentioned earlier in this paper, there should be an Opt-in Feature at the end of this webpage as well as the homepage so that viewers can subscribe and get their own filters for content and essentially personalize the website based on their preferences. The email version of the newsletter can also be condensed from the website version to encourage users to visit the website from the email. In this way, the email subscribers still access the website so that those visits do not disappear. The key here is to build a stronger connection between the subscriber, future subscriber and the website.
WordPress Host
In the first meeting with the industry partner, it was suggested that a possible website platform change might be beneficial. The team looked at this and determined a few questions would have to be answered in order to consider such a change. The three questions were: Should the platform be changed? Is there a better platform? And is it worth changing?
When looking at WordPress’ history, it was discovered that the platform has been around since 2003 and has been a stable and easy-to-use system since the beginning. In fact, almost 50% of the websites on the internet utilize WordPress as its website platform (Deckers, 2023).
When looking at the advantages, there are some clear pluses. It is free, easy-to-use, has a history of stability, a large library of plugins, and a hassle-free way of updating the software on a regular basis. All these things have been associated with WordPress since almost the beginning and other website platforms have been trying to catch up. Some significant strides have been made by some competitors though and WordPress’ dominance might be challenged.
When browsing and looking at alternatives and also using prior industry experience, the alternatives, RVSiteBuilder, SitePad, Squarespace, Weebly, and Wix came up most frequently. Using a simple image below, some of the pros and cons can be easily realized.
SitePad is not mentioned in the image for space, but it offers similar features to WordPress, though it is not quite so long-standing, which means the history of plugins is not quite so vast as WordPress. What it does offer compared to the others mentioned is, just like WordPress, they can be accessed from control panels, so it is likely that there would be less work in migrating website platforms, unlike Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace, where they have separate self-contained platforms.
Another not mentioned in the image is RVSiteBuilder. It is also not as well-known as some of the others. It is a builder that has been around since 2005. 10 years ago, WordPress was still way more advanced in features and usability, but since then it has caught up significantly in ability as have all the other competitors.
After comparing all the pros and cons to each platform, it seems the question whether it is worth changing is the most important. Ten years ago, WordPress was the clear winner in likely every aspect. While the competitors have caught up in features, there is no significant gain from changing and it would cost time and a headache making sure every feature is running smoothly as before. WordPress would likely edge in terms of cost, SEO-friendliness, and in number of plugins. In every notable aspect WordPress still wins.
Thus, the verdict is that Paddle for the Cure should keep WordPress as its platform of choice.
Project Planning and Management
In beginning this project, we created a plan that detailed our scope, communication methods, milestone scheduling, and how we were going to monitor our progress. For communication, we utilized both Microsoft Teams and GroupMe. Microsoft Teams was used to organize our weekly meetings and create our PowerPoints, research reports, and recorded presentations. GroupMe was utilized to stay updated on where we were at in our research when not in our weekly meeting and to notify of any project updates whether from ourselves or the instructor.
The process to complete the project was to divide up the work into milestones, each focusing on different elements of our approach to the scope. In Milestone 1, we focused on SEO and Website Analysis. In Milestone 2, we took on more subjects and discussed social media exposure, an overview of the analytic data provided by PFC, the newsletter, and finally the WordPress Host. To cap off the project, Milestone 3, re-covered many of the same sections but with a heavy focus on implementation of the recommendations discussed in each previous milestone.
In each milestone, for efficient time management, we distributed different sections to each team member. Rahim was the team leader and researched Website Analysis and WordPress Host. Alvaro researched SEO and Social Media Exposure. Melina researched SEO, Social Media Exposure, and General Analytics. Seyedmahdi researched Website Analysis and the Newsletter. Jesse researched SEO, Website Analysis, General Analytics, WordPress Host, and created and updated the project website and Gantt Chart.
Work load summary:
Milestone 1- 90 total man hours
Milestone 2- 100 total man hours
Milestone 3- 200 total man hours
Project Experience
As with any project, there are struggles ranging from time management, communication, and attendance to meetings. All of these issues manifested themselves throughout this semester. Some weeks required additional meetings to meet the deliverables required for the deadline and other issues were just breaking complex information into simple digestible material for the industry partner.
Communication is a key aspect to every step of this project and in some cases, this faltered which resulted in not knowing the entirety of the submission required and not communicating with the instructors to get the necessary information in time. As a team we were able to overcome these hurdles and submit the necessary deliverables required to the organization. Some of the communications platforms we used were Microsoft Teams, GroupMe, Zoom, and email.
What we learned:
Researching and analyzing data/information is vital to any project
Presentation skills, delivering complex information in an easy-to-understand way
Creating our own deadlines is important to stay disciplined and meet the required project deadlines
Staying flexible for last-minute changes to objectives, meetings, and deadlines.
Gantt Chart
(See Gantt Chart page)
References
Cancer.Net Editorial Board. (2023, February 23). Breast cancer - statistics. Cancer.Net. Retrieved April 20, 2023, from https://www.cancer.net/cancer-types/breast-cancer/statistics
Dean, Brian. “What Is Seo? Search Engine Optimization in Plain English.” Backlinko, 2 Nov. 2022, https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/what-is-seo.
Deckers, E. (2023, February 20). Why Wordpress? 7 benefits of WordPress websites. GoDaddy Blog. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from https://www.godaddy.com/garage/why-wordpress-benefits-wordpress-websites/
“How Does Search Engine Optimization Work?” International Trade Administration | Trade.gov, https://www.trade.gov/how-does-search-engine-optimization-work.
Iannuzzi, Tony. “Tips to Improve Your Social Media Exposure.” AJI Media, 24 Nov. 2021, https://ajimedia.com/tips-to-improve-your-social-media-exposure/.
Khan, M. F. (2022, October 21). Social Media for Small Business – 6 major platforms. Social Champ. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from https://www.socialchamp.io/blog/how-to-use-social-media-for-small-business/
Matthews, B. (2023, March 8). Social media stats for charities and nonprofits. Empower Agency. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from https://empower.agency/social-media-stats-charities-nonprofits/
Michigan Technological University. “Five Ways to Improve Your Site's Ranking (SEO).” Michigan Technological University, Michigan Technological University, 4 Oct. 2021, https://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/websites/seo/.
Personalized content — what it is, why it’s important, and how to get ... (2023, January 17). Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/how-to-personalize-content
“Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide.” Google, https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide.
Weber, R. (2022, October 12). Content personalization: What is it? Search Engine Journal. Retrieved March 22, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/content-personalization-what-is-it/467198/
Appendix
a. Project Details
Milestone Reports
Milestone PowerPoints
Milestone Presentations
Project Plan
Project Website
Final Report
Gantt Chart
b. Project files list: explain each file/folder arranged in the “project files” sub-folder.
- PFC Final Deliverables Folder
- C-day folder
- Reports folder
- Presentation folder - milestone 1.mp4, milestone 2.mp4, milestone 3.mp4
- PowerPoint folder - milestone 1.pptx, milestone2.pptx, milestone 3.pptx
- Project Plan.doc,
- Paddle for Victory.url (link to project website),
- Paddle Gantt.mpp
- Paddle Gantt.pdf
- Final Report.doc
- Final Presentation.mp4
- Milestone Final.pptx
c. Progress reports list: describe each file arranged in the “progress report files” sub-folder.
- Milestone 1 Report.doc
- Milestone 2 Report.doc
- Final Report.doc