This guide covers the basics of creating a new page for your website or section on vic.gov.au.
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.
Start with search results
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.
This means:
each page title must be unique and descriptive
titles should contain keywords so they rank well on search results
titles should be between 30 and 70 characters
the page URL should match the page title.
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".
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.
Choose your content template
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
on the Content page, click the Add content button.
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:
We also have guidelines on 'content types' that don't have a specific CMS template – they would just use the landing page template:
How to fill out the landing page template
Save regularly
Saving regularly while working in the CMS helps avoid losing your work. This sometimes happens when you have connection problems, the page times out due to inactivity, or the CMS resets (which happens twice a day).
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.
Header tab
Page title
Enter a unique, SEO-focused page title. This will display as the page title on the live website.
Your title should be between 30 and 80 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 a maximum of 150 characters, including spaces)
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 keywords that will help people find your content.
Use Google Trendsto 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.
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 that the user may find important. They are displayed alongside the page title on the introduction banner.
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.
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.
Page campaign
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.
Page content
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.
Content components
Select 'Add Component' to begin adding content. The Basic text component is the most common component you'll use.
See the Format basic text page for more detailed instructions on using this component, such as formatting headings, creating lists and adding links.
Read the Body text components page to learn about using these features:
Show table of contents
Basic text
Navigation 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).
Read more at guidelines on adding images, files, audio and videos and accessibility guides.
Sidebar
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 title field (for example, Commemorating veterans) as this will display at the top of the menu and helps users orientate themselves.
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.
For more information, read our Related link and What's next guide.
Contact
Read the Adding a contact block guide.
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.
Topic
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 out the 'topics and tags' page to see the list of topics you can choose from.
Tags (content audience)
Tags are not mandatory for most content pages, but they help users discover and browse content.
Tags are recommended for events to help users filter to content that interests them.
If you choose to add tags, you can choose 1 to 3 from the tags list. You can select your department as a tag to show the content belongs to your department.
The list of current tags can be found on the 'topics and tags' page.
Additional tagging for events
Event pages have additional tagging options. This includes selecting up to 3 tags for:
audience type
event category
event requirements.
To see the tag options you can choose, visit the 'create an event' page.
Customised header tab
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 by the content team. The graphical image will not display when a hero image is added.
Call to action banner
Allows you to add a hero banner under the page title and introduction banner.
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.
Header extras tab
Under this tab you can add:
an introduction banner
a search banner
an Acknowledgement of Country
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.
Search banner
This allows you to display a full-width search bar under your page header.
Acknowledgement of Country
Ticking this box will add an 'Acknowledgement of Country' block below your page header.
Background colour
White is used for most pages and will be the default option selected.
Change this option to grey if your page has a lot of navigation links, such as a homepage.
Department/agency
Start typing your department or agency name and select the correct option when it appears or click the down arrow option to see the full list of available options in a dropdown menu.
Metatags (for in-language content)
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.
A list of language codes is available on the Languages that use different scripts/fonts page.
Sites
Site
Tick the relevant site that you create content for, and any relevant site sections under this.
For example:
–Bushfire Recovery Victoria
–Goods and services procurement
Primary site
Tick your relevant site, such as 'vic.gov.au' or 'http://buyingfor.vic.gov.au '
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 read the How to preview and share draft content guide.
Proofread your page
Before submitting your page for approval, check 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.
Submit your page for approval
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.
We’ll seek to get your content published within 2 business days. State in the comment field if your content is embargoed or time critical.
The page will be submitted to the publishing queue where it will be reviewed against the publishing checklist.
We will publish your page if it meets publishing best practice. Alternatively, we will notify you if further changes are required before the page is published.
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:
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.
Measure and monitor
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 of Practice
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.
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