CMS Help

Common Elements When Creating Content

• System Name (lowercase, no spaces, use dashes to separate words, no special characters)
• Display Name (label for the left navigation and breadcrumb trail)
• Page Title (Theme of the page, appears in large red H1 text)
• SEO Title (Add additional words to describe page content, if left blank, the page title will be used) This title is followed by | University of Hartford
• Display in Navigation (Yes to show, No to hide from left Navigation)

Pages

The Kitchen Sink Page is the standard for new pages.

The Kitchen Sink Page template shows module examples and the amount of content for best use.

Specialty pages

• UNotes Announcement
• Success Story
• News Story
• Program Detail Page
• Marketing Landing Page
• Email Form Page

Folders

• Containers (Not displayed in navigation) for holding images or documents
• Subsections (Displayed in navigation) used to create website subsections

Modules

The WYSIWYG is the standard for new module content sections. Modules are selected under the Main Content Section/Section Type.

List of Modules and (Options)

• WYSIWYG (Content Callout w/Image, Right Align Image, Video Callout) Buttons
• Content Block (Image, Right or Left Align,Video Options) Buttons
• Callout Boxes–3 Styles (3 w/images, 2 or 3 without/images) Links
• Quote ( w/image)
• Image Gallery–3 Styles (1-title/caption/link, 2-caption, 3-without/options)
• Our Faculty (Fixed top, multiple summery and images)
• Accordion (Content Callout w/Image, Left Align Image, Video Callout) Buttons
• Tab Box (Content Callout w/Image, Left Align Image, Video Callout) Buttons
• Table Title (Link Option)

Widgets

Created in [Site:_widget] and attached to the modules selected under the Main Content Section/Section Type.

• News
• Events
• Faculty Profiles (w/Image)
• Faculty 2 Column Profiles (without/Image)
• Spotlight
• Social

Navigation links

Blocks added to the left navigation to redirect users to pages inside or outside the CMS.

Text Edits

Allow the spell checker to finish check before submitting into the workflow.

Links

• Break old links before creating new ones
• Links are Internal, unless linking to locations outside of hartford.edu
  UNotes, News Stories, Success Stories, Directory profiles and school cross links are all Internal links.
• Link text  describes where a link is going to (Title of the destination page).
  When linking to documents include the file type. i.e. (PDF) (TXT)

Modules

Use a module and style that best fit the content.

The Kitchen Sink Page is a template to show module examples and the amount of content for best use.

Workflow

• Drafts are created every 10 minutes, if a page is exited before submission, select Resume Editing to keep changes or discard to start over, when returning to that page
• Submit often, when a page is ready for review by an approver choose Submit to Workflow.

Publishing Content

• All Images and documents need to be published to be recognized by the CMS
• Changes that affect the navigation require publishing the folders that hold the the edited content
• Renaming, Moving, and Deleting content will automatically unpublish it. It needs to be re-published if content is to be kept
• Final publishing is set by the approver

Submitting Content

• Drafts are created automatically every 10 minutes, if ya page is exited before submission, when returning the options are discard draft or resume editing
• Advance Submit saves a version of the page, that can be reinstated or continued to be worked on
• Advance Submit: Start a workflow or with Use a workflow selected, will send content to a reviewer, no other change can be made until the workflow is moved forward
• Advance Submit: Check Content & Submit without Use a workflow selected, will save a version of the page, that can be reinstated or continued to be worked on

Publishing Location

• Failover: A back location for our website
• Production: On the live website
• Test: For preview and Testing

Check List

• SEO Title
• Use Headings in order (H2-H5)
• Use a Title for each module
• Alternative-Text for images
• Make anchor inks descriptive and consistently named (The title of the destination page)
• Title and Description to Tables
• Follow Form Best Practices

Social Media Checks

• Apply accessibility checks to Social Media
• Check the image description or Alt-text before posting
• Add captions to videos (Use downloaded text form YouTube video captions)

Videos Checks (On website)

• Identified as a video with a description
• proofread captions
• link to a text transcript (If the video is providing information)

Videos Checks (On YouTube)

• Add video descriptions and details, link back to the website
• Proof read captions, (Use downloaded text for social media video captions)

The Digital Accessibility page will provide more detail on how to meet these standards.

Technical SEO is creating and optimizing a website so that search engines can readily crawl, index, and render it. Code, Speed, security, and content optimization.

Off-Page SEO are the tactics applied outside of a website to improve its rankings. These include link building, guest posting, social media marketing, and more.

It is to get search engines (and users) to a website as more trustworthy and authoritative an essential parts of a successful SEO strategy.

On-Page SEO is creating concise and descriptive web content that provides a better user experience. It is using relevant keywords to answer questions, guide a process, and for higher ranking on search inquiries.

Google Scanned Keyword Locations

1. File Name and location
2. SEO Title
3. Page Title (Page Heading)
4. Metadata
5. Anchor Text
6. Headings
7. Image/Document names
8. Alt Text
9. Intro text
10. On page text
11. Added Keywords

A Headline is the title text that outlines the contents of an article, news story or success story. These should be a concise and compelling summary of the article, the words that entice readers to read the rest of the story.

The purpose of Headings is to make content easier to read and understand. They provide structure using keywords and plain language to highlight essential tasks or information.

Headings should be short, descriptive, and consistent. Usually a question, statement or topic relevant to the content within each module or section. 

Heading style formats are H1-H6:

H1 - Page Title 

H2 - Main Sections

H3 - Sub Sections

H4-H6 - Additional structure or description for H3

H1 is used for the page title so use H2-H5 sequentially to format each Main Content Section.

Headings should outline important information and read like a page summary or outline. Each Main Content Section starts with an H2, unless content is a continuation from the module above it, each H3 should be relevant to the H2 of that section. Use Headings in order (H2-H5)

Heading Tips:

• Use Headings in sequential order
• Use a Heading for each module
• Heading are descriptive of the content below it
• Don’t skip levels or use styles for visual aesthetic

Anchor text should be short and descriptive, relevant to where the user is being directed. Avoid using sentences or non descriptive words. The destination page title or the encouraged action is a good option for link text. 

Anchor text is identified as keywords, wording should be succinct, meet expectations of the user and make sense out of context. It may be necessary to rewrite a sentences for better word flow and to incorporate the link with in the content.

Calls to action (CTA) are the exception, however:

• Avoid multiple vague CTAs on standard page
• On Marketing and Home pages use unique text for each CTA

Links

Links should be Internal unless linking to locations outside of hartford.edu. UNotes, News Stories, Success Stories, Directory profiles and school cross links are all Internal links.

• Don't link to short URLs, redirects, or hartford.edu as an external addresses.
• Break old links before creating new ones
• Avoid using: Click Here, Visit, full URLs or redundant Learn Mores, as link titles

Link Tips:

• Text should be specific, describe where a link is going too 
• Include the file type (PDF), when linking to a document
• Use the same link text for links that go to the same place
• List links are vertical, 6 is the ideal number
• A descriptive Title can be added if the destination is not clear by the link text

Uploading Content Files

• Use descriptive names for images and document, include the extension. i.e. (.jpg) (.pdf) (.txt)
• Optimize images and document for the web. (Crop and image file size)
• Published content to be recognized by the CMS
• Content can't be larger than 20 mb, for regular and compressed files. i.e. (.zip)

Images

• Don't use images of text
• If an image has text, repeated it in the Alt-text or caption area
• JPGs are for images, PNGs are for graphics
• Crop image to size before uploading to the CMS
• Optimized images for the web
• Images require Alt-text or caption

Image Sizes are listed on Image Sizes, also on the template pages.

Documents

• Check for accessibility (With the program it was created with)
• Documents should be in PDF format
• Compress documents that have images need to be optimized (Compressed) for web
• Heavily designed document need a web equivalent

On-line Tools

Drag and drop images or documents then download them back to your computer. If using Chrome, there are add-ons that can be add to the browser.

The best practice for video is to view it on the hosting platform, Zoom, Vimeo, Kaltora, or YouTube. These services have their own requirements for meeting accessibility.

For videos that are embedded, or displayed in modules on the website videos must:

• Be Identified as a video and have a description
• Have proofread captions
• Link to a text transcript (If the video is providing information)

Video Title

Use descriptive keywords and search phrases to create a title. Place the most important, subject-oriented keywords first. Avoid repeating words and phrases that appear in the Playlist or Video Description fields and re-stating a college name, department or location.

Video Description

When writing a video description for a platform be informative, concise and compelling. Explain what it's about and what to learn from it, provide titles and positions of active participants. If important to the understanding the video include: when, where, and why it was created and use simple language.