Content Quality Checklist for Web Authors
Writing for the web is an important skill to communicate with Iowans who need our information.
Use this Content Quality checklist as guide to follow as you audit your site periodically and before migration to identify content that should be archived or rewritten to maintain quality content.
Is your content on-brand?
Does it follow an established and consistent style, voice, and tone?
Does it align with your audience’s needs?
Does your content support your key mission, vision, values, and purpose?
Is your content useful?
Does your content answer the audience’s questions? Is information presented in an organized way, with the most important information towards the top?
Is your content easy to access and understand (e.g. grade 8 or less) using short simple words and sentences?
Does your content follow web writing and accessibility guidelines that support scanning and reading, such as subheads, bulleted lists, etc.? Are all links descriptive?
Is your content findable?
Have you established a page title, H1, and appropriate meta description? Is the page title unique, short, and accurately reflects the content that appears on it?
Do you have a page title and meta description filled out, within the appropriate character limits? (Page titles < 60 characters; meta descriptions < 170 characters)
Do your images on the page have alternative (alt) tags for accessibility?
Is your content a PDF? (If so, consider rewriting as an HTML page, as PDFs are not mobile-friendly, often not accessible, and generally not searchable)
Keep in mind the State of Iowa quality targets:
- Readability - 8th grade or below by Hemming Way App
- Quality - 93% score by Acquia Optimize
- Accessibility - 83% score by Acquia Optimize