Create a new page: landing page content type

Owned by Jess Pietsch (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 26 Mar, 2024 by Marcella Marino
9 min read

This guide covers the basics of creating a new page (using the landing page content type) 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. 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.

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:

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 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.

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.

Before you upload an image, check your image has been resized correctly. Visit: Image ratios, sizes and component use.

  • 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. If it’s a photo of a well-known person, you should include their name and position in the title.

  • 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 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 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 more about 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

  • accompanied by alt text (unless descriptive).

Check our guidelines on adding images, files, audio and videos.

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 menu in the title field (for example, Commemorating veterans) as this will display at the top of the menu and helps users orientate themselves. If you're not sure what name to use, check what is used on other published pages.

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 can help users discover and browse content. 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.

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. This banner will appear under the page title and introduction section on the published page. For more information, see our introduction banner guide.

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 images and navigation links and not much text, such as a homepage.

Department/agency

Your department/agency should be selected by default. If what's showing isn't correct, choose the right one from the available options in the dropdown menu.

Metatags (for translated 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 in the Translated content guide.

Sites

Site

The site and/or site sections that you create content for should already be selected, but check if you need to untick any that aren't relevant (such as the CMS training space).

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 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.

The page will be submitted to the publishing queue where it will be reviewed against the publishing checklist.

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.

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:

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, monitor and maintain

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

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.