Checklist for Website and Intranet Publishing v3 (March 2009)

Our website is used by over 1.5 million customers a year. Please ensure your section is useful to them and up to date.

1 Content SO CW PC M
a Charter Mark/Customer Service Excellence information, eg Customer
Charters, performance information, is located under your “contact us”
section.

b The page is located where a customer could intuitively find it.

c The purpose of the page is customer self-service, awareness or news.

(Events can be referenced but need to link to the full detail on
EventSheffield.com)

d The information is factual, concise and links to content in other parts of the
site or on other websites where appropriate. Such websites are ideally non-
commercial but always law abiding and their content inoffensive*.

e The tone and words used are appropriate for the audience. Customer
search terms are included**. Jargon and acronyms are avoided or
explained.

f The content is grammatically correct, with no spelling mistakes.

g A link to the relevant “contact us” page is provided.

2 Format
a The Page Title accurately describes what the page is about and is not
duplicated in the opening paragraph.

b The Navigation Text and Meaningful URL are a shorter version of the Page
Title.

c On new pages the Meaningful URL is shortened to one or two words, eg

“How to use images in EasySite” becomes “easysite-images”.

d The opening paragraph summarises the page using customer search

words. It does not begin with “Welcome to” (except on intranet newsletters).

e Sheffield City Council is referred to in the third person, eg we provide, our

policy is etc.

f All text has been standardised using EasySite’s “P” (Plain Text) button
before formatting has been applied.

g Long pages are structured using concise and meaningful sub-headings,

formatted with the appropriate header style. Pages with multiple sub-
headings have jump and “back to top” links to help customers.

h Long blocks of text are separated into short paragraphs, with space
between.

i All lists (including lists of links) are bulleted.

j Keywords and phrases (not whole paragraphs) are emphasised using bold
(not italics).

k No words are written in “UPPER CASE”.

l All content is black and left-aligned (except quotes which can be indented).

m Tables are used to compare data only, not to tidy up content.

Key: SO – Section Owner; CW – Content Writer; PC – Page Creator; M - Moderator

3 Links SO CW PC M
a Internal/external links work, and are displayed as a meaningful phrase (not
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/... etc). They open in the same browser window.

b Email links are written as the full address, eg John.Smith@sheffield.gov.uk.

4 Images
a Appropriate permission has been gained for each image used. You may
face serious legal consequences if not.

b The image is appropriate for the page (clip art should not be used).

c The file size is less than 12 kb and conforms to corporate image guidelines
(see http://sheffield.net/usingimages).
5 Maps
a All maps have been referred to the GIS Unit (27 36996). You may be faced
with serious Ordnance Survey copyright issues if not.
6 Meta Data
a The “Description” describes and promotes the page (copy the opening
paragraph).

b “Keywords” based on customer search terms are separated by a space, not

commas**.

c The name of the “Content Writer” is provided.

7 Documents
a For each PDF there is a text only (Word or RTF) version included, where
available*.

b The page contains a maximum of 10 attachments*.

c Document titles state the file type and size (eg Word/PowerPoint/PDF, 200
KB). Links to documents on other sites need to state the same information.

d Document summaries provide a useful overview of the content and don’t

simply duplicate the title.

e Documents conform to corporate branding guidelines.

Web Team, Customer Services * The checklist reflects our web standards.
Moderators will consider exceptions only if
the customer experience is improved.
Call: 203 7763 Please discuss exceptions with them.

Email: webmanager@sheffield.gov.uk ** For help with customer search terms,

contact your Directorate Web Champion.

Key: SO – Section Owner; CW – Content Writer; PC – Page Creator; M - Moderator