Digital Content

Consider what visitors to the site or page expect to find, and organize information and media in ways that provide clear, accessible pathways for users to locate or discover relevant content.

Websites and digital media should comply with the branding, logos, fonts and color standards established by each College or University's marketing department.

• Keene Marketing & Communications
• Plymouth Communications & Marketing
• UNH Marketing

Logo and branding guidelines 

Images and Video

Images and video convey visual impact and excitement for website visitors, but too many images can diminish the user experience, slowing down the load time of a webpage. Therefore, strive to include only selective, high impact and high quality media that promotes the mission of the page. Avoid adding more than 5-6 images to a slideshow and consider housing additional images in social media platforms or public SharePoint folders.

Size and Formatting

All images should be optimized for the web and uploaded in proper formats (jpg, gif, or png) and resolutions. Image  guidelines are available for USNH Drupal sites. Giving images short file names using relevant words with dashes in between will help with both search engine results (SEO) and image library maintenance.

Special accessibility considerations for images on web pages:

• Do not add text within an image, add it to the web page instead. If page text is placed over an image the contrast needs to be high enough to allow the text to be easily read.

• If  placing text over images, select photos that have clear areas for text and make sure the text is legible and ADA-compliant. 

• All images must have alt text, a simple text description of the image, in order to be ADA-compliant. Alt-text also provides additional information to search engines, improving the SEO of the page. 

Copyright and permissions

All imagery and video used on websites should comply with all copyright and permissions restrictions.  

Copyright and permissions guidelines 

Resources

University system approved high-quality photograph and video resources are available for use on your website, and each institution provides options locating and choosing suitable content.

Adding documents

Directly uploading .pdfs and word documents to websites should be avoided whenever possible. If these files must be included on the website they should be created in an accessible format. If the material is important, create a webpage instead. If the .pdf is a form or document for current students, faculty or staff only, store it in SharePoint and create a task for it in the student portal instead.

Creating accessible .pdfs

Creating accessible Word documents

Naming files

Uploaded files should be named using lowercase letters with dashes in-between words rather than spaces. File names should be short and descriptive in order to boost search engine discoverability and to allow for easier file maintenance within a site.

Sharing a domain name or subdomain

When referring to a domain, subdomain, or URL within marketing and communications materials avoid including url prefixes such as "http://," "https://" or "www. Always test a URL before referring to it in written communications.

Webforms

Webform editors must follow university system policies for collecting, using and retaining personal information. See the webform standard for additional webform guidelines and practices.

Forms, event registration & surveys guidelines

Embedded Content

External content can be embedded in a USNH website only if the creator of the material is from USNH or from an organization with a recognized relationship. Allowed embedded content includes USNH videos stored in MediaSpace or YouTube and key faculty information pulled in automatically from Banner and/or myElements. More information regarding adding faculty and staff pages to websites can be found here. Please reach out to ET&S to request that other tools, services, or information be embedded on a web page as these may need to be reviewed first for security.

Editorial

Page editors should familiarize themselves with their institution's guidelines for writing for the web. Content should be checked for accuracy and not duplicated from other sites or pages. Shared content from other sources should always link to or embed from the "single source of truth"

Single sources of truth guidelines

Review schedules

Website administrators are responsible for keeping their pages updated and accurate and should work with their institution's marketing or communications department to establish review schedules. In general:

• Static content, or content that rarely is changed, should be reviewed annually. This includes high-quality images that may be placed in prominent positions on a site.
• Time-sensitive content, or content that requires frequent updates, should be reviewed according to the related expiration date, no less than once a semester. Event listings or announcements, for example, should be updated immediately as events expire.
• Webforms should be reviewed at least twice a year to make sure the form is working correctly, the correct person is receiving the form information, and that the data is being stored or removed as needed.
• Out-of-date content should be deleted or archived. This includes events that have passed, news that is no longer relevant, or information that is outdated. Materials such as news stories, press releases and newsletters should only date back five years.
• All content should be reviewed periodically for broken links, spelling errors, and ADA compliance.
• Pages that have not been visited in the past 18 months should be removed.

Accessibility

All USNH website editors must ensure that the content within their sites is ADA compliant and follows Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. AA

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Support

Anyone working on a USNH Drupal or Wordpress website is welcome to attend the open walk-in training and help sessions that ET&S offers. For a schedule of the training sessions and walk-in times, see the Teaching & Learning Technologies training calendar.

Training

Anyone working on a college or school website is welcome to attend the open walk-in training and help sessions that ET&S offers in support of Drupal and USNH Wordpress sites. For a schedule of the training sessions and walk-in times, see the Teaching & Learning Technologies (TLT) training calendar.