Before we get into the digital content, we can first take a look at the resources we can offer you. Marketing and Communications encompass the following:  Public Relations, Room Reservations, Events Scheduling, Video Production and Editing, Webpage Creation and Edits, Social Media Design and Promotion, Digital Display Slide Creation, Mass Email Communications, and more. All of these tasks can be requested through our ticket system, located at https://hilbertcollege.teamwork.com/support/#/tickets/new, or from our Marketing & Communications page on our website, at hilbert.edu/marketing. 

Add the Subject Title Line and Your Contact information. For MarCom services, please select the department you will need to collaborate with. You can choose from General if you need multiple departments or you don’t know which department you need. Don’t forget to add all the content that will be needed to start the project. If you need web, please include the URL that you need help on or the start of where you are planning a new webpage. 

Our event photography can be seen on our Flickr account, located at https://www.flickr.com/photos/hilbertcollege/. We also have marketing photography as well  - if interested, please add that request to the ticket system, or send me an email at cbrittin@hilbert.edu.

Strategy is making sure that your site is well structured and usable. Intentional, well-crafted content addresses issues with usability, findability, accessibility, and search engine results.  It improves institutional credibility and positively shapes the user experience across all audiences.

• Establish measurable goals
  
• What are your department’s assessment goals?
  
• How does/should the website support these efforts?
  
• Are there specific things you should be doing that could be best accomplished using the website
  
• Establish audiences 
  
• Audit the existing pages
  

Evaluate messaging

The most effective messaging is consistent across the entire website, and, in fact, across all Hilbert communications. Commit to a short review and evaluation of the content of the existing departmental site. 

• Users scan, rather than read, web content.
  

• Important information should be placed first so it’s seen
  

• Small, well-organized “chunks” of content improve clarity & retention
  

• Plain language works best
  

Scanners

Inverted Pyramid

Most of us write the way were trained to write - starting with a foundation and gradually building to a conclusion. Writing for the web is generally unlike writing for academic or print publication in that it’s best practice to start with the conclusion and work your way to lesser details as you work your way through the material. This concept is referred to as the inverted pyramid. Web content should be concise and to the point. If you are typically a long-form writer one rule of thumb is to write your message, cut it in half, and then try to cut it in half again. It may seem extreme, but this exercise in honing the message always yields valuable results. Be sure to follow our Editorial Style Guide.

Chunking

“Chunking” content using headings, concise sentences and paragraphs, and bulleted lists makes it more scannable, and therefore more likely to be understood, retained, and acted upon. The concept of chunking will be familiar to those who build online courses, as the same basic idea is applicable to educational content delivery.

Headings

The use of headings is actually valuable beyond making your content more easily readable, it also improves SEO and aids in accessibility. For search engine optimization, header one should be used only once, with header two used as sparingly. Each header should be nested within a larger header, to keep the page clean. In short, appropriate use of headers is a federal and commonwealth accessibility compliance requirement in addition to being critical for successful user experiences and search engine optimization. For example: 

Plain Language

There are several reasons not to use “click here.” The use of “click here” as link text is a significant accessibility violation. One primary use-case in point: many vision impaired users operate screen readers that read the links to the user. One cannot get context or value out of a computer voice reading “click here” over and over. We’ll cover this issue in more detail in our lesson on accessibility.

“Click here” is also a specific action, it’s device and ability dependent. If you’re on mobile, you’re not “clicking” because you’re not using a mouse. If you’re using a support device such as a screen reader, keyboard, voice activated device, etc., “click here” is inaccurate.

Resources: 

• Clarity and Readability Checklist for Content Creators (Meet Content)
  

• Writing for the Web (Usability.gov)
  

• Document Checklist for Plain Language on the Web (PlainLanguage.gov)
  

• How to Chunk Content into Scannable Pages (uxmovement.com)
  

• Topic: Writing for the Web, Topic: Chunking, Topic: Inverted Pyramids (Nielsen Norman Group)
  

• Accessibility Checklist for Web Writers (4syllables)
  

The basic premise of intentional keyword-usage is to understand the terms visitors will use to try to find your content, and then making sure that those terms appear in contextually-appropriate ways in the page. It is equally important to use key words and terms in page titles, headings, and content, and not “stuff” keywords into page content in contextually-inappropriate ways.

Measuring success

Take a look at your keyword situation with free keyword checks, like https://app.wordstream.com/. You can also check out the recording of SEO trends of 2022 from Monsido at https://monsido.wistia.com/medias/0ksnb8l4tu. 

Removing outdated and unnecessary content

One thing you can be doing right now to improve search engine results for your department site is to clean up old content and files. Delete or update anything that isn’t current, accurate, or required to be archived for compliance purpose. Anything that needs to be archived should be evaluated for inclusion in the digital archives, and not stored permanently on the website unless required by law or accreditation.

Taking steps toward improvement in this area on your department website improves overall SEO for your webpages.  It’s another example of rising tides raising all boats - and it’s one way we’re working together to be better stewards of this institutional resource.

We generally think of accessibility issues as being life-long conditions: someone born blind, deaf, colorblind, or with a significant physical impairment. What we don’t often take into consideration are the later onset or temporary conditions that can create Web accessibility issues for users. A broken arm, a healing eye injury, cataracts, stroke, loss of a limb, diabetes, nerve damage, and even the normal aging process - all of these situations can lead to difficulties interacting with hardware, software, and the information presented on web sites.

Accessibility is a thread woven through essentially every facet of publishing web content. It touches how we organize sites and pages (think headers and menus), how we format information (think lists and tables), how we handle multimedia content (such as sound bites, video, slideshows, etc.) and even the words we use to convey ideas.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of images or graphics on a web page. Those that add value and context to the content, and those that don’t.

In general, it’s best to avoid generic or gratuitous images. Not only do they add unnecessary bandwidth overhead in a world where we are increasingly using measured mobile broadband to access content, but they can sometimes add unnecessary cognitive overhead and confuse users. One measure of the value of an image: can you write a very short sentence to describe this image in a way that supports or enhances the content of the page? “Three students sitting under a tree” doesn’t do much to support the message of most pages on a website.

On the other hand, quality images that enhance and support the message are highly encouraged. Images showcasing outcomes and success stories, highlighting events, visualizing data, or telling a story can all serve to engage and inform the audience. 

Accessibility compliance requires images to have text equivalents. Someone who is unable to see the screen should be able to acquire the same information and/or context from an image that a seeing person would. To accomplish this, we use the image’s “alt” attribute. For “gratuitous” images, this often means leaving the “alt” attribute blank. A blank alt attribute tells screen readers that this image is unimportant. A non-blank alt attribute will be read aloud to a visually impaired user. Including the alt attribute and intentionally setting it to blank if the image is unimportant is required.



Note that embedding charts or tables as graphics with embedded text (meaning text as part of the image, and not as part of the machine readable text on the page) can be a challenging accessibility problem. The content of the page and alt tag MUST describe the same information seen in the table or chart. There are a number of ways to support this need. When in doubt, contact cbrittin@hilbert.edu for help working out the best way to make your information available to everyone.

Captions

Captions are visible descriptions of images or other media. On an image, a caption is a text line describing the image to enhance understanding for those who can see the image. It’s also useful in conjunction with the alt attribute to provide additional context. A common way to think about image captions is how they appear in newspaper articles. An image caption is not generally required, but is very useful when applied appropriately. 

Audio

Users who can hear, but not see, must be presented visual information in audible form. Many of these users employ screen readers to glean information from image alt attributes and page content. It’s important to note, however, that video often contains information that isn’t verbalized and is thus unavailable to those who can’t see it. 

Users who can see, but not hear, will find audio-only information such as a recorded interview or lecture completely unusable. For these users transcripts are necessary.

In short, for every media type you include on a page, you must also include alternative methods of accessing the given information. Alt attributes, captions, and audio transcripts are some of the ways you can remain in compliance and provide a supportive environment for all users.

• Web Accessibility Matters: Why Should We Care (David Berman Communications)
  

• Screen Reader Demo (Blind Inspiration Cast)
  

• Headings & screen readers (SSBBart Group)
  

• Introduction to the screen reader (YouTube)
  

• Web Accessibility through the eyes of a screen reader (Liz Stover - University of Arkansas
  

1. Can you select text? No? Then it is an image documnnet, and not accessible. 
   
2. Has metadata been added? Go to File>Properties and take a look - the title, subject (description), author (always Hilbert College), and keywords.
   
3. In Adobe Acrobat Pro (if applicable), run the Accessibility Checker in Tools. 
   

As editors, you are expected to:

1. Adhere to accessibility and copyright compliance requirements
   

2. Follow the Hilbert Editorial Style Guide and Brand Guide & Resources
   

3. Adhere to writing for the web and search engine optimization best practices
   

4. Request access to the CMS if you haven’t already
   

5. Review, correct, and update all pages that you manage a minimum of once per year
   

6. Submit a ticket on any Hilbert pages you don’t manage where you find errors
   

7. Communicate all questions about web issues directly to our MarCom team