Web content publishing - quality checks

Owned by Jess Pietsch (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 30 Nov, 2023 by Marcella Marino
4 min read

Ensure your content is user-focussed and accessible by reviewing our quality checklist.

All our content is to:

  • help Victorians to navigate government by providing news, events, grants, contacts and assistance information

  • tell the ‘story’ of government so Victorians can understand what’s happening and how they can access services

  • allow Victorians (including public servants) to help themselves and others by providing innovation opportunities, including freeing government information for reuse.

Check your content is hitting the mark by doing the following checks.

Search engine optimised (SEO) title and summary

Before adding a new content page, ensure there is a clear purpose to the page/outcome for the user.

Check Google Trends for keywords to use in your page title and description.

Check the title is:

  • no longer than 70 characters

  • unique and descriptive. For example, don't use About us as a page title, use About Cladding Safety Victoria.

Check the summary is:

  • no longer than 156 characters

  • meaningful and describes the content of the page using key words.

Check meaningful sub-headings been used throughout the page.

Content structured from most important to least important

Remember to write like a journalist! Don’t bury the lead or key messages of your content. Users want to get information as quickly as possible. Structure your page in order of:

  • Need to know or essential information.

  • Supporting information.

  • Nice to know information.

Remember only 25% of uses will scroll to the bottom of a page to get more detail.

Heading structure on the page start from H2 to H5 sequentially

Showing the hierarchy of content makes your page scannable.

  • Heading 1 is your page title.

  • Always start with Heading 2 in the content.

  • Then use H3 for sub-groupings under H2.

This gives visual clues to the readers.

It’s also important to meet accessibility guidelines for people using screen readers. They will scan the page headings and skip to relevant content sections.

Hyperlinks are correctly formatted

  • Hyperlinks to webpages within the same website or that are managed in the same Content Management System should be added as internal hyperlinks.

  • Hyperlinks to external websites need to have the full “https://www.” string included or they won’t work.

  • All phone numbers and email addresses should be hyperlinked.

Check our hyperlinks guide for more detailed information.

Content is on the page and not hidden in attachments

HTML should be the default for all government information.

  • It's a better experience for users - they won't need to jump between website content and PDFs/Word documents to understand content.

  • Most people prefer to read web pages and avoid PDFs.

  • HTML pages receive more traffic and offer a better user experience.

If you have to include a PDF or Word document, you also need a HTML version to meet accessibility.

Navigation and menus

If you create a new page, ensure its been added to the menu.

Check the Site section navigation box is ticked and includes a menu title that reflects the front-end user experience.

If you need a new menu created, contact the SDP content team.

Check images, documents, video and audio content is accessible

Documents

A HTML equivalent is available for Word or PDF documents.

Our Publications template allows you to create an accessible online publication.

If adding a download in addition to the online publication, check the following has been applied to the document:

  • correct branding is applied (at a minimum the document has the Victorian Government logo)

  • properties are applied e.g. title

  • the document has bookmarks, alt text on images, colour contrast and large font size

  • print to check it prints as expected.

Images

Meaningful text alternative been provided for informational images in the alt text field. If your alternative text is long and your image has lots of detail, use the complex image component. If the image is decorative image, use " " in the alternative text field.

You also need to check the following when using images:

  • The image follows brand and style quality guidelines e.g. has people in the photo, adds meaning to the content, diversity of subjects.

  • The image is resized to 818 x 408px, for feature images and landscape-format images embedded in body content. Portrait-format images embedded in body content should be no taller than 400px or they will be automatically shrunk on display.

  • The image used appropriate and does it add more context/meaning to the content.

  • Permission has been granted to use the photo. (This is the content owner's responsibility but if concerned query it.)

Video

The video has been added to a hosting site like Vimeo or YouTube and has been embedded onto the page using the video module. Use the video module to include a video title, length and transcript.

The video is close-captioned (accurately, not using auto-generated YouTube captions).

Audio

Check the podcast provider has been added our security list:

  • Libsyn

  • Soundcloud

  • Acast

Check there is a transcript for the audio file and it has been embedded using our audio module.

Proofread your content

Check the content uses:

Use an active voice (change the nouns to verbs)

Using an active voice in your writing means the subject of the sentence comes first and performs the action the rest of the sentence describes.

For example, say 'we manage the program' and 'we analyse data' not 'management of the program is undertaken by the Department of Premier and Cabinet.'

Check the content reading level

  • Use the Hemingway Editor to check the reading level, pick up complex sentences and common errors.

  • Aim for year 8 reading level.

  • Check for clarify and accuracy.

  • Eliminate redundancy.

Formatting and tagging

Have all content styles been applied correctly e.g. buttons, callout, quotes?

  • Under site is vic.gov.au and the appropriate subsite area selected?

  • Is an appropriate Topic been selected and an appropriate tag if available?

  • Is the latest version of the page published?

  • Check display on mobile as well as desktop.

  • Show content rating is ticked.

  • The background colour is white unless it is a navigational page and then grey should be selected.

  • Site section navigation box is ticked and includes a menu title that reflects the front end user experience.

  • No sidebars are showing that don't have any links or content in them e.g. What's next.