Further Enquiries
Online Media
Marketing & Strategic Communications
The University of Adelaide
SA 5005
Australia
Email
Telephone: +61 8 8303 7511
Facsimile: +61 8 8303 4829
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Web Dos and Don’tsContent
| Do |
Don't |
Reason |
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Store sensitive information such as meeting minutes on an appropriate network drive and/or email to appropriate people | Put sensitive local content onto the website | Websites security is fallible;
Website content should be of broad interest so content intended for limited viewing should be distributed by other means | Seek written approval from the relevant people/organisations before publishing content | Put information, or images, on the website without copyright approval | Legal copyright and privacy issues | Consider the aims of the site and the needs of the website audience in determining suitable content for the website | Load all available content onto the website | Enhances users ability to find what they are looking for | | Link to existing content presented elsewhere on the web | Duplicate content on your site | Minimises duplication and provides consistency of information;
Avoids content becoming out of date when the original source updates the content | File Naming
| Do |
Don't |
Reason |
|---|
Use lower case letters, and numbers, when naming files | Use capitals in filenames | Avoids broken links in links and filenames as the University web servers are case specific | Use hyphens and underscores to separate words. Note that search engines treat words separated by hyphens as separate words for searching | Put spaces in filenames | Avoids problems in URLs when spaces are converted to code "%20" | Use generic filenames for files that are updated regularly (version dates can be included in the body of the document if it is required). Rename superseded documents with a date in the file name and if no longer needed for reference, move to a backed up local drive | Include dates in filenames for files that are regularly superseded | Allows files to be replaced by uploading the new version without changing links, minimising broken links and unnecessary workload | Formatting
| Do |
Don't |
Reason |
|---|
| Emphasise text using bold; italics can be used sparingly i.e. to emphasise/stress a word | Italisise a whole sentence for emphasis | Avoids confusion as underlining text on the web indicates that it is hyperlinked | Use tables to present tabular information only | Use tables to structure the layout of a page | Maximises accessibility by controlling layout with appropriate markup | When copying text from another application, such as Word or a browser, use the paste as plain text icon on the editing toolbar to insert text on to the web page | Copy text from Word or other applications directly into webpages | Avoids bad formatting which causes problems in the HTML coding of the page | Back up old files on a local drive and/or burn them to disk | Use the web servers as an archiving method for files that no longer need to appear online | Avoids old content being found by search engines leading to out of date or misleading information being available;
The University's limited web storage should be used for current content | Headings
| Do |
Don't |
Reason |
|---|
Use the built in heading styles | Capitalise headings | Maximises consistency;
Structural markup aids search engine visibility;
Minimises formatting effort so time can be spent on content | | Use the heading styles in hierarchical order | Use heading styles out of order | Maximises accessibility, readability and consistency of structure | | Use text after the heading to create links | Link headings | Avoids confusion with non-underlined headings not appearing as links | | Apply the Heading 1 style to the title of the page only | Apply the Heading 1 style to more than one heading on a page | Maximises search engine ranking by identifying the as the first Heading 1 in a page is used to populate the page title | Images
| Do |
Don't |
Reason |
|---|
Size images appropriately in an external editor before inserting them into a page | Use HTML to resize images | To avoid image distortion;
minimise download | Use images to provide additional information and clarification of the page content | Use images that don't enhance meaning | Provides additional meaning and value for the additional download overhead | | Include an image description for all images used on your website | Leave the image description empty | Maximises accessibility by providing a text alternative for non-text content | Linking
| Do |
Don't |
Reason |
|---|
Link between one and five words | Link whole sentences | Maximises readability | Link meaningful words, such as the name of a document, or target content | Link phrases such as ‘click here’. | Maximises accessibility. The link text should make sense when read out of context | Link on the name of a site or page | Link full URLs | Maximises readability | | Link the titles of documents in the content area of a webpage |
Include links to PDFs, Word files or Excel documents in the navigation menus | Avoids confusion by providing consistent behaviour of menus | | Open all links in the current window, allowing you to navigate back using back button |
Open links to external sites in a new window | Promotes consistency of the browsing experience;
Maximises accessibility |
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