About the Content Gardening Project

Topics:

Website Management

The State of Iowa is launching a new initiative called Content Gardening to support agencies in improving their websites through better content strategy, governance, accessibility, broken link fixes, and plain language enhancements. 

This project will follow a phased cohort model and involve collaborative training and improvement efforts alongside Lullabot, Qualtrics CX, Accessibility, and the DOM teams.

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Why Content Strategy Matters

Content strategy is crucial because it ensures that all content creation efforts align with your agency goals and meet the needs of the target audience, ultimately resulting in a more effective and impactful constituent experience.

As an agency, your content should:

  • Be organized and easy to find and understand
  • Focus on the end user and their needs
  • Speak to their experience, and answer questions they have today
  • Help people complete a task efficiently
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Project Goals

  • Reduce broken links and improve redirect strategies
  • Improve accessibility and reading levels across agency websites
  • Employ content design practices to make content flow and organization more intentional and efficient for users
  • Support better decision-making around what content belongs on state websites and support a sustainable governance practice
  • Confidently audit and update existing content
  • Fulfil feedback requirement for project funding requirement
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Platform Goals

  • 90%+ of broken links redirected or resolved
  • 83%+ Accessibility Score in Acquia Optimize
  • 8th Grade or below average reading level
  • All sites using the new content governance checklist
  • Pro-rated fixes and customized support for small agencies
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Cohort Schedule

Timeframe: June 2025 – Dec 2025
 

CohortDepartmentWebsiteProjected Kickoff Date
1 - PilotAdministrative Serviceshttps://das.iowa.gov/June 2, 2025
1 - PilotVolunteerhttps://volunteer.iowa.gov/June 2,2025
2Health and Human Serviceshttps://hhs.iowa.gov/July 7, 2025
3-TBDPosted at a later time.  
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Agency Participation Checklist

To help you prepare for your content gardening cohort, agencies are expected to: 

  • Complete content audit (pages, files, forms)
  • Fix broken links or submit URL redirects
  • Review plain language and accessibility issues via Acquia Optimize
  • Submit approval for DOM-led content fixes (for small teams)
  • Participate in 1-hour governance training (content do’s/don’ts)
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Training & Resources

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