Before you publish a new page to your agency’s website, use this checklist to verify what should be done first. Use this as an author or as a reviewer to provide feedback to fellow team members.
Pages you publish must include a parent page, page name, and page summary and meet accessibility requirements for the web.
Does this content meet a specific user need?
Did you select a parent for the page you’re about to publish? All pages of a website should have a parent, except some landing pages and main navigation.
Did you write a clear, unique page summary (meta description) to describe what information users will find on this page? This is pertinent to search engines, social share links, and accessibility.
Page summaries (meta descriptions) should be fewer than 175 characters, with spaces. They are helpful for link and social sharing, and accessibility.
Formula: Action + topic introduction + organization name
Example: Explore highway crash data and statistics for 2010 to present from the Department of Transportation.
Is the copy free of spelling or grammatical errors?
Is the copy laid out in logical order? (Uses proper headings and formatting, e.g. H2, H3, H4, etc.)
Is the information accurate, current, and true?
All content must adhere to W3C web accessibility standards. In copy this includes:
Are links written using descriptive links? (Make sure you didn’t use “click here.”)
Are headings used appropriately, in correct nesting order?
Do images have alt text (brief description of the images for blind or low-vision users)?
Does your content avoid the words above, below, right, or left?