Search powered by Funnelback
In a nutshell
The marketing and PR team at National Park College (NPC) were looking for a way to identify and correct WCAG accessibility issues and improve their underutilized and largely ineffective site search tool. The team chose Funnelback for Higher Education as the all-in-one solution for search and accessibility, providing more features and flexibility than they had before.
In less than a year, the small team accomplished more than they thought possible: reducing WCAG compliance errors from 200,000 to 13,000 and dramatically increasing the use of site search to improve the user experience and identify content gaps.
The organization
Serving over 7,500 students per year, National Park College is located 45 minutes southwest of Little Rock, Arkansas and is the fourth largest community college in the state. The External Affairs office is responsible for managing the College’s brand, advertising, media relations and communications as well as web development.
- Industry
- Education
- Country
- United States
- Website
- Features
- Funnelback for Higher Education
- Faceted Navigation
- Accessibility Auditor
- People Search
- Related Searches
- Favorites
- Search History
Featuring
-
Improved site accessibility
Project details
After years of lacking proper tools to check accessibility compliance and unsatisfied with their site’s usability, the web team at NPC faced a new challenge. “Accessibility, search, and SEO were three areas we were lacking across the board”, reports Melony Ritter, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at NPC. When they discovered Funnelback, they realized how many features they could make use of, including:
- Visibility over how visitors are searching the site and what they’re searching for
- Full control over search appearance, result rankings, and synonyms to guide users in the right direction
- Top unanswered queries to identify content gaps and opportunities to recommend alternatives
- Accessibility tools to identify WCAG errors and recommended solutions.
The team now has an all-in-one dashboard to improve web governance, visibility, and provide actionable insights.
Funnelback for Higher Education is an out-of-the-box product that saved weeks of development time. This was crucial to the small web staff at NPC.
“The transition was quick and painless...with little time investment from our staff. The team at Funnelback was exceptional.”
MELONY RITTER, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
Accessibility: Solved
One of the main goals of the NPC website is to make the experience as inclusive as possible to equip all students for success. In less than a year, NPC was able to reduce their compliance errors from well over 200,000 to 13,000.
“In many cases,” Melony reports, “the changes we made impacted everyone, not just our visitors with disabilities.”
Real benefits from site search
The increased use in search means a better user experience. “The search is so robust. It’s so easy for people to find what they need.”
With Funnelback, NPC also learned that search data is valuable. The marketing team leverages data on popular search terms, unanswered queries, and curated results to make better-informed decisions about their navigation and overall usability. 
The results
With no plans of slowing down, the team at National Park College continue to make improvements.
Equipped with the right tools, the team is prioritizing the usability and functionality of their website with a search solution that delights users and an inclusive web experience that grants everyone access to the content they need. In line with strategic goals of the college, the team now has KPIs to share with leadership.
"The results we were able to accomplish far exceeded what we originally believed was feasible with our small web staff,” reports Ritter. “Search was a big deal for us."
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