Same Bark, New Bytes

The Santa Barbara Humane Society’s website, sbhumanesociety.org, recently underwent a makeover, giving fresh and new ways for those interested in adopting pets or using the group’s resources to engage online. Launched at the end of June, the site is averaging 1,300 users per week and nearly two times as many page views, with 40 percent of traffic coming from mobile phones, according to the Humane Society’s Rebecca Tivang. “We really want to be a resource for the community,” Tivang said. “But the old website was very text-heavy and a little bit difficult to navigate. It was kind of overwhelming.” The bounce rate has also significantly decreased, meaning more people are finding what they need right on the site and staying there instead of searching elsewhere.

Among other enhanced components, an updated Adopt section features short profiles and photos of the animals up for adoption, the Learning Library provides articles and tips for pet behavior and health, and a new Happy Tails page is filled with stories and photos of adopted pets in their new homes. “People really like to hear about the animals ending up in good homes,” Tivang said. “It makes our day when we get them, so we figured it would be nice to share that with the public so that people can really see that our animals are ending up really happy as part of a family.”

See sbhumanesociety.org.