Revise Your Unit’s Subsite or Pages

Before working with Web Ops for the first time or beginning a large web project, you may want to review the following page which provides an overview of the process and considerations involved.

Phase One: Clean-Up

Existing pages within your unit should be reviewed for accuracy. When providing content edits, either copy-paste sections of the webpage into the Web Ops Contact Form and note what parts of the text need updating, or copy-paste the entire page content into Word and use track changes or comments to note changes.

Contact information

  • Office contact information. Generic information including the office location, phone, email, mailstop, hours. Examples: Enrollment, Admissions. Try to include only one contact point per page so users understand who to reach out to with questions.
  • Administration and staff contact information. Some offices also want their staff listed, with their tiles and links to contact info. Examples: Facilities. This may not be needed since a link to the online Faculty and Staff Directory is found in the Shortcuts in the header of every page on the website. Photos are not included for administrators and staff (except for leadership roles).
  • Faculty information. Contact information for faculty is usually listed on a separate page with the school or department webpages. Photos are encouraged. The format is governed by the Office of the Provost. Use the faculty profiles form to submit faculty information.
  • Social media. List your social media services and the URLs for portals or other external websites.

Take inventory

  • Sitemap. On request, WebOps can create a sitemap as a spreadsheet and share it on OneDrive. Use this spreadsheet as a starting point to provide WebOps with the information needed prior to meeting about the changes.
  • Content. Sometimes it helps to have printouts of ALL your webpages so you have something to work with and mark-up (and keep as a record). For a better quality printout use a browser plug-in. WebOps recommends using one of the browser plug-ins listed below.

Delete

Indicate whole pages or sections of pages that need to be deleted. Delete any programs, initiatives, or sections that have been permanently discontinued. Copy the content to OneDrive first if you think you’ll need it in the future. WebOps does not archive deleted content.

Phase Two: New and Updated Content

Regulations and guidelines

Delete or rewrite any content that violates privacy laws and that may jeopardize FDU’s tax-exempt status.

  • Privacy laws (NJ, California, Europe) affect the use of student names, graduation dates, images, and works.
  • NJ and federal tax-exempt law prevent us from appearing to promote or advertise another product or service. 
  • Forms probably need to be updated to conform to new laws: PDF, TouchNet, Elevate, Office365, Qualtrix, ConstantContact, other?

Ensure that the remaining content adheres to guidelines for American universities.

  • Web Style Guide dictates content guidelines for FDU branding, American English, accessibility, UX (user experience), and SEO.
    • Follow rules for link text and external linking.
  • HEA (Higher Education Act) requires that certain information be available to the public and students.

Best practices

  • Internal links may need to be used to avoid duplication or to enhance SEO. Information should never be duplicated across different pages; instead you can create an internal link.
  • PDF brochures should be converted to webpages, made accessible, or removed from the website.
  • Pages should have 1400 to 2600 words. That is, sub-sections should usually all be on one page rather than broken up into several child pages. If a page gets too long, Web Ops will suggest that it gets broken up into child pages.    

Marketing, technology, and management

  • Who is the primary and/or secondary audience? Prospects, current students, graduate applicants, current faculty, local business, donors, a mix? Tailor your content specifically to your audience(s).
  • For larger subsites, WebOps will create a new sitemap outline to reflect changes. We will work with you to reorganize the structure as needed with the focus on the needs of the website visitor, not the organization of the office. It’s important to keep the new sitemap shallow for ADA, SEO, and general ease-of-use.
  • Help WebOps understand the role of any specialized portals that you use, or any software/apps that may need to be embedded into your pages (such as a newsletter signup form).
  • What is the role of social media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.) for your office? Should links to social media be included on your pages?
  • Photography may need to be updated. Make sure we have the right to post the images.
  • Designate a liaison from your office who can authorize content changes.
  • Reveal any deadlines or time away.

Working with the Web Ops staff

There are two ways to contact Web Ops:

  • Fill out and submit the Web Ops request form. You will be prompted to include all the information that will allow us to help you quickly and efficiently.
  • Email webops@fdu.edu with your request. If discussing an existing webpage, include the URL/address of the page copy-pasted into your email.

Please do not email Web Ops members directly to submit a request or ask questions. Contacting us through one of the above methods allows us to be more efficient in routing and responding to your request.

Someone in your office will need to write revised or added content at some point. If it is lengthy, use Word. If not, simply copy-paste the content into the request form/email with enough context so that we can tell where it is on the page. Do not add any fancy formatting, as it will need to be stripped out anyway before it becomes a webpage. If you need to include a link, please enter it in brackets after a description, ex.:

Register for the Workshop [https://fdu.touchnet.net/register/workshop/].

Follow guidelines in the Web Style Guide and American English spelling, grammar, and syntax. We recommend you install Grammarly into your browser.

If your content includes a table, please post it to OneDrive, share it so we can edit it, and provide the link when contacting us.