Why you need to review web content
We all make mistakes, and even the most experienced writers need someone else to check their work.
When someone creates or edits content on the website, it can be difficult for them to see their own mistakes or remember to check the links and formatting on the page. They must ask a colleague to review their changes, even if the changes are small, before anyone publishes the page on the University website.
If a colleague asks you to review some content changes, you need to be able to recognise:
- incorrect information
- unclear language
- spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes
- other typos
- broken links
- broken formatting
- unsuitable or ineffective images
- accessibility issues
Use the checklists on this page to review your colleague's preview page. Even if they've only made a small change, you should check each of these things before publishing the page. Links and images can break, accessibility issues can appear, and language and information can become less clear over time.
We've also created a downloadable checklist for reviewing Typecase content that you might want to keep a copy of for easy reference.
Reviewing preview pages
If a colleague asks you to review some content on the University website, they should send you a preview version of the page.
The preview is a version of the web page that hasn't been published yet, so you can see the changes your colleague made before other people can.
To see the preview page, you need to be connected to our network or signed in to our Virtual Private Network (VPN).
If they've updated an existing page, you can compare the preview version with the live version to help you check their changes. Just replace 'preview' in the URL with 'www' to switch from the preview page to the live page.
To find the edits made to a web page, you can:
- use the Comparison function on Word
- paste the text onto a website like Text Compare
You can also use a screen reader like Microsoft Narrator or Mac VoiceOver to dictate the content. This will allow you to test how your content is presented to people who use a screen reader.
Reviewing web copy
Page purpose
- Read the brief or any instructions for the content to make sure the page meets the requirements.
- Check that the page is the correct content type.
- Review the page's user story to make sure all the content meets this need. If the content addresses more than one user need, think about whether to divide it into more than one page.
Information
Review all the factual information on the page to make sure everything is correct and up to date, for example:
- contact details
- dates
- instructions
- names and places
Language
Make sure the language on the page is as clear as it can be. To do this:
- Check the page title and summary describe the page and are clear to people who find the page out of the context of your pages.
- Make sure the language used throughout the page is as simple as possible so that anyone can understand it. Use Hemingwayapp.com to check for clarity, passive voice, and reading grade. Aim for Grade 8.
- Refer to our Editorial Style Guide to make sure the language is consistent with the rest of the website.
- Use Grammarly to check spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Reviewing formatting
All formatting affects accessibility, so you must check that the structure of your web page is correct. You can do this by:
- Making sure all the headings use the correct heading styles and hierarchy.
- Making sure all bullet points, numbered lists and tables look right.
- Checking for italics and bold text. Avoid using either except for the reasons in our Editorial style guide.
Links
Links are a common cause of accessibility issues. You must check links carefully to make sure they comply with the WCAG link purpose requirements.
- Test all links, including the Call to action, to make sure they work and go to the correct pages.
- Check you can see all email addresses and phone numbers on the page and that they're not hidden behind other text.
- Make sure the link text meets our guidelines. Your link text must be descriptive so that web users understand where it will take them and so that assistive technology can read the description aloud.
- If there's a Local navigation (a light blue strip at the top of the page), make sure there are no broken links there.
Link-checker browser extensions
You can install extensions on a variety of web browsers to help you check the links on a preview page work. These include:
While link-checking extensions are available for Microsoft Edge, they are disabled on University computers with the Edge browser.
Don't rely on tools like this. You must make sure your links work and go to the correct destination page.
Tables
Tables should only be used to display tabular data. If it's clearer and more accessible to display your content in plain text, rather than in columns and rows, don't use a table.
Read our guidelines for creating tables.
Reviewing media
Images
Correct size and shape
Check all the images on the page to make sure they’re:
- not blurred or pixelated
- optimised for the web - if images aren't optimised, they can make a page load slowly, which can lead to search engines demoting the page in their results
- the right size and shape for the Typecase component they've been added to
Appropriate and effective
Make sure all images are appropriate for a University web page. This means they:
- depict an area of the University's activities in a positive but accurate way
- represent the University's diversity and sense of community
- don't look unprofessional or homemade
You should also check that images are effective. This depends on the type of image and the context of the web page it’s on. For example:
- decorative images should complement the message of the page without distracting people from the information they need
- informative images should add useful information to the page content and be easy to understand
- complex images, like diagrams or charts, should show relevant data or detailed information in a clear and accessible way
Pinned item images are not visible on the page they’re added to and only appear as a thumbnail image when someone adds that page to a Case study, Landing page, or Topic. If an image is being used as a pinned item image, make sure it's not too complex or detailed to be clear at the smaller size.
Accessible
Check all images are accessible.
We use different techniques to make different types of images accessible, for example:
- decorative images shouldn't have alternative (alt) text or any text description
- informative images need alt text to explain the information being conveyed by the image to people who can’t see it
- complex images need to have both alt text and a text equivalent, like a table, with the data or information from the image
Responsiveness
Check the web page on different screen sizes to make sure the images still look good when they’re resized for different devices.
While looking at the web page:
- Make sure your browser window isn't full screen.
- Drag one side of the browser window towards the other, checking the images look good all the way to the narrowest width.
Copyright infringement
Make sure any:
- stock images are clearly credited
- Creative Commons images are used according to the licence conditions
- AI-generated images are acknowledged
Typecase users should add these credits and acknowledgements to image caption fields where available or in the text field after an image if not. If there isn’t a suitable text field to add them to, it’s best to include them as part of the alt text.
Correcting mistakes
When you've reviewed the preview page, it's best to give written feedback to the person who made the changes detailing what they need to fix before someone can publish the page.
If you're a Typecase user and have access to the page you're reviewing, you can make small corrections yourself. You can access the edit screen of the page in Typecase by replacing 'preview' with 'typecase' in the URL.
If you make bigger changes yourself, make sure you ask someone else for a review before anyone publishes the page.
Publishing pages
When the page is ready to be published, send the URL to the assigned publisher in your team.
If you don't have an assigned publisher in your team, you can email beta-content@bath.ac.uk and ask the Digital Content team to publish your content.
If your team needs another person with publishing access and you've been using Typecase for six months or more, you might be able to request publishing access for yourself.