Page Comparison

It covers:

• search engine optimisation (SEO) tips

• the different content templates in the CMS

• the mandatory and optional components of the landing page template

• how to format your text

• how to add images and documents to your page

• what you should do once your page is published.

It's a good idea when you create a new page to fill in just the required mandatory fields (e.g. Title, Summary, Topic, Site) and then save it as a draft before you start working on your page in more detail.

Saving your page regularly helps to avoid losing any work if there is a CMS timeout. If this happens to you, try opening another tab and logging back in on that tab. Then return to the tab you were working on and you may be able to save the page.

To create a new web page in the CMS, you can either:

• roll over Content and then Add content in the top menu and select your template, or

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• click on the Content page, click the Add content button.

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There are several content templates to choose from. The Landing page template is typically used for most content, and will be the example used for this guide.

For specific instructions on when and how to use other content templates, read our guides:

• Event

• Grant

• Publication

• Profile

• News

We also have guidelines on content types that don't have a specific CMS template – they would just use the landing page template:

• Creating a life event guide

• Promotional campaign and commemoration pages

• Case studies guidelines

• Content about government policy, ministers and groups

• Translated content

Page title

Enter a unique, SEO-focused page title. This will display as the page title on the live website.

Remember:

• The majority of our website traffic comes from search engine results, so if your content is not optimised it won't be found and won't be read.

• If your content is likely to be common then you will need to take this into account and be descriptive within the character limit. For example, use ‘About the Department of Premier and Cabinet’ rather than just ‘About us.’

Your title should be between 30 and 60 characters and contain keywords.

Summary

This is the meta description text that is shown on Google search results as well as on promotion or navigation cards.

• Aim for between 10 and 15 words (or 155 characters, including spaces). The CMS has a limit of 200 characters, but it’s best not to exceed 155 characters.

• Make it meaningful – don’t just copy and paste the first sentence from the page content. The summary should describe the content of the page using top 10 keywords and missing keywords to help people find your content.

• Use Google Trends to see what keywords people are using most in searches.

• Be specific – if the page is about an application, service, form or process, specify which one and what it does.

• Only use acronyms in your title if there is evidence that the acronym is commonly known, such as ranking highly in search results and on Google Trends.

Introduction text

The text you add in this section appears under your page title on your published page. Use one or 2 sentences to summarise the purpose of the page.

Header links

You can add up to 6 links in this section, which display on the right hand side of the page title.

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All content is matched to a predefined topic so we can automatically display key information across relevant areas. Topics also help people to discover and browse content that is relevant to their interests.

Check the 'topics and tags' page to see the list of topics you can choose from.

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On the right hand side of the landing page template, click the Sites drop-down.

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When you’re assigned access to the CMS, this section will be completed by default. Depending on your access, you may have the option to select a different primary site.

Here you select the type of header you want for your page. Unless a variation has been designed or signed-off by a UX designer (in conjunction with the content team), leave this as the default option of 'default appearance.'

Header style

Default appearance

Displays your page with the page title and introduction text.

Full-width background image

Add an image to the top of your page. For instructions on adding a full-with image, visit our Hero banner page.

Corner graphics

Allows you to customise the top and bottom corner graphics of a page. These can only be changed if there has been approval from the Digital 9 governance group. The graphical image will not display when a hero image is added.

Logo

This is a small logo that will appear above the page title. Only use this when working with a UX designer or the content team.

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Under this tab you can add an introduction banner.

This banner will appear under the page title and introduction section on the published page.

For more information, see our introduction banner guide.

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Feature image

Feature images don't display on the page you're updating. Instead, they appear in any promotion cards or navigation cards linking to the page. This image also appears on social media when the link to the page is being used.

Resize the image for your page to be 818 pixels wide x 496 pixels high (keep this dimension proportional).

• Click Select images.

• Browse and select your image from the Library tab if uploading an existing image.

• If you're uploading an image for the first time, click on Add image, then Choose file and browse your computer for your image.

• Complete the Name field. Make the name of the file meaningful to the image, so it can be easily found using Media search. For example, a photo of a teenage girl laughing should be titled ‘Teenage girl laughing.’ If it’s a photo of a well-known person, you should include their name and position in the title (e.g. Joan Kirner former Premier of Victoria).

• Complete the Alternative text field for your image. This is a description of the image for users who can’t see the image; it’s an important accessibility requirement. If the image is simply decorative, add 2 double quotes in the alt text field; this tells the screen reader to skip it.

• Click Save image.

Create or add a campaign block

If you've already created a campaign block, start typing the name of your custom block component to display your campaign. To find out how to create one, read our campaign blocks guide.

Primary campaign

Primary campaigns display at the top of the page between the header section and the body content section. They span the full width of the content area.

Secondary campaign

Secondary campaigns display after the content area, just above the page footer. They span the full width of the content area.

This is where you add the main body copy and components to your page.

Table of contents

Tick the box if you'd like to add a table of contents to the top of your page that includes anchor links that jump to any H2 headings, as well as H3 headings if you select that option.

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Content components

Select Add Component to begin adding content. The Basic text component is the most common component you'll use.

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Visit the Format basic text page for more detailed instructions on using this component, such as formatting headings, creating lists and adding links.

Visit the Body text components page to learn about using these features:

• Show table of contents

• Basic text

• Navigation cards and promotion cards

• Call to action feature.

Add images and documents

There are some important rules for using images, image galleries and downloadable files.

Documents should be:

• only added when there's a strong user need

• no larger than 10MB

• named appropriately and descriptively, using hyphens between words in the original file name

• always accompanied by a HTML version of the content.

Images should be:

• only added if they serve a purpose (not merely decorative)

• cropped and resized to the appropriate dimensions

• named appropriately and descriptively, using hyphens between words in the original file name

• accompanied by alt text (unless descriptive).

Find more information at guidelines on adding images, files, audio and videos and accessibility guides.

Site-section navigation

Ticking this box displays the site section navigation menu, visible on the right side of the screen on your published page.

Add the name of your site section in the Site-section Navigation Title field (for example, Commemorating veterans) as this will display at the top of the menu and helps users orientate themselves.

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For more information, read our Site-section navigation guide.

Related links and What's next

These will be unticked by default. Keep these unticked if you have no content in them, otherwise a heading will be displayed on the page.

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For more information, read our Related link and What's next guide.

Contact

Read the Adding a contact block guide.

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Social sharing

This allows users to share the page on social media. It defaults to 'On' but can be turned off. We recommend keeping it on.

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White is used for most pages and will be the default option selected.

Change this option to grey for a homepage or for a site-section landing page that has a lot of cards and visual components. Avoid using grey if there’s lots of basic text on the page.

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Review the Department/agency assigned to this content is correct and update if needed.

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You won't need to update most of these fields. An exception is if you're publishing a page in a language other than English.

When creating an in-language page, update the Content Language field with the appropriate language code. This formats the page correctly, especially in the case of right-to-left languages.

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A list of language codes is available on the Translated content page.

Before submitting your page for approval, visit our publishing checklist page to ensure your content follows best practice.

The checklist covers:

• search engine optimised (SEO) title and summary

• structuring content from most important to least important

• linking emails and phone numbers

• heading structure on the page

• creating HTML content and avoiding PDFs and Word documents

• navigation and menus

• creating accessible images, documents, video and audio content.

Preview and share draft content

Once you've saved a draft of your page you can preview what it will look like as well as share a link to this preview with others.

For step-by-step instructions visit the How to preview and share draft content guide.

Once you're happy with your content, change the page status to Needs Review, enter comments in the Change request detail field and select Save. Any notes or comments will be saved into the Revisions tab.

The page will be submitted to the publishing queue where it will be reviewed against the publishing checklist. Alternatively, we will notify you if further changes are required before the page is published.

Your department’s publishing team will review and publish content within 2 business days. State in the comment field if your content is embargoed or time critical.

How will people find your page?

If you have added a new page to an existing site section, you should consider adding links to your page:

• from other pages

• on the side menu if you have one (called the site section navigation).

The type of links you use depend on the setup of your existing pages. These could include:

• hyperlinked text

• adding a button

• promotion card (portrait displayed card with optional image)

• navigation card (landscape displayed card).

When you add a link using the automated 'internal link' functionality in the CMS, this means the link won't break if the page is relocated or the title or URL is changed. The internal link option can display options for any page housed in the http://content.vic.gov.au CMS.

Depending on your site and department or organisation, various online tools are available to measure your page's success. For example, DPC uses:

• Was this page helpful? user feedback

• heatmaps and surveys on Hotjar

• Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Google Search Console.

How to interpret feedback and data

• Find out how to action user feedback in our blog post: 3 simple ways to understand your user without talking to them

• Refer to our Measure how content performs digital guide

Join a community of practice

All Victorian Government staff can access groups on the Innovation Network.

We recommend you search for and join:

• WoVG Google Marketing Platform 360

• Single Digital Presence Community

Regular content updates

Pages should be checked and updated at least every 6 months.

If a page is no longer needed, you can set its status to Archive pending and your publishing team will archive this page. This means it is unpublished from the live website. Remember to remove any links to this archived page from other pages and also your menu.