Download Web Info and Updates - Daniels College of Business

DANIELS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
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UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
9
SECTION
Web Info
and Updates
Our Online Presence
Every Daniels website contributes to the user’s perception of the Daniels College of Business. When a user
visits a Daniels website, they form an impression of the College, our departments, schools, centers and
community. To ensure a unified web presence, official pages of the Daniels websites should appear to
be visually related in order to promote usability and to reinforce the College’s brand identity.
Daniels OCM maintains an official website: daniels.du.edu
Website Goals
In the digital age, Daniels main website, daniels.du.edu, is our number one marketing tool with prospective
students; therefore, our website focuses on the following goals with prospective students as the
primary audience:
1.Recruit, attract and inform prospective graduate students.
2.Nurture relationships with students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, friends, supportive businesses,
associations, government and media representatives.
3.Communicate and support the College’s mission and values expressed in a strong, unified institutional
image, including a positive web experience.
Website Strategy
The Daniels website is a highly visible and important way to communicate with our audience. Individually
and collectively, the sites within the Daniels domain create an impression about the College, its personality
and the work we do to impact and transform lives, regionally and internationally through knowledge creation,
education and outreach. It is critical that every page on the Daniels website meets the highest standards in
terms of content, ease of use and accessibility. There are tremendous benefits for both developers and users to
adopt uniform standards. These standards include:
• Increase search engine page rankings
• Improved usability
• Enhanced institutional branding
• Improved conformance to International Standards of Accessibility
• More efficient design, development and maintenance
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Standardization simplifies the user experience, which is one of the most powerful ways to improve usability
and helps those who design, develop and maintain sites.
This style guide applies only to official Daniels College of Business web pages. Official College web
pages are defined as webpages created by the Daniels College of Business Office of Communications and
Marketing. It does not apply to personal web pages created by students, student groups, faculty members,
schools, departments or centers.
Web Update/Change Requests
All requests for changes to the web must be submitted through the web update form on the brand pages.
This is a different form than the Event Submission Form. Once submitted, it is sent to the website team who
prioritize the request. You will be contacted when your update is complete.
Helpful Hints for Your Web Updates:
•Bookmark this for easy access: daniels.du.edu/about/brand/web-request or access through our brand
pages at daniels.du.edu/brand.
•All requests for changes to the Daniels Website (daniels.du.edu) must be submitted through the form.
•Please do not email your updates to prevent emails from getting lost in inboxes.
•Timelines: Requests are reviewed weekly and updates are made frequently. Allow between two business
days and two weeks for most web updates.
•A member of the OCM team will notify you when your update has been made.
•Updates to your directory profile should be made at daniels.du.edu/about/brand/faculty-staff.
•List everything you would like updated in the form the first time. Fewer changes means quicker updates.
•If you are not quite sure what to do, let us know and we will be happy to have a conversation.
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DANIELS COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
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UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
Writing for the Web
Quick Tips & Tricks
Keep it scannable. If website users cannot quickly scan and absorb the message, they will move on.
• Write for a reason. What’s the page about? How does it benefit the reader? What do you want
them to do?
• Organize your content clearly and logically, using succinct headlines and boldface type to keep the
message scannable.
• Keep website content—including calls to action, headlines, and paragraphs shorter and with simpler
language than you would use in printed communications.
• Limit content to one main idea per paragraph. Research indicates that secondary messaging is often
overlooked by website readers.
• Link only key information-carrying words. Don’t link “click here” and other self-referential terms. Use
links as a quick way to get the reader to relevant information. There are also search engine optimization
advantages to choosing linked words carefully. Some links might be better placed in a sidebar.
It Takes 25 Percent Longer to Read Content on a Computer Screen Than on Paper
• Write simply, succinctly and clearly.
• Pay attention to tone, brevity and a call to action.
• Structure the page using information categories.
• Use visual techniques of placement, type and graphics only if they enhance clarity. Resist the temptation to
add complicated typography or images merely to fill up space. Every image should add value to the page.
• Limit bulleted content or lists to nine or fewer items.
Websites Should Be Clean and Lean
• Place the most important information near the top (above “the fold”).
• Solicit the help of an editor to polish grammar and punctuation and to ensure consistency and clarity.
• Omit unnecessary words. Less is more in web writing.
Web Users Can and Do Enter Your Site From Any Page and Will Freely Navigate Within Your Site
Once They Do.
• Be sure each page serves a purpose and can exist independently of all other pages within the site.
• Create meta titles that accurately describe the page topic. The title should be comprehensible when
pulled out of context; users often scan long lists from retrieved searches and will base their selection
on the most relevant title. When pages contain similar content, be sure the meta titles contain
important differentiators.
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Content Guidelines
General Usage Notes
•On the website home page, use Daniels College of Business at University of Denver. For each secondary
page, the names Daniels College of Business, Daniels, the College, or our College may be used.
•Refer to “Daniels College of Business” in first reference of the College on a page; use Daniels in all
subsequent references.
•Always refer to Daniels as a business college or college of business. Avoid references to “business
school” unless appropriate in describing other schools.
•If a page provides information for both graduate and undergraduate students, list the graduate
information first.
•Follow the first reference of University of Denver with (DU). Use DU for all subsequent references.
•Page anchors may be used on pages when important information is not viewable at 1025 x 768
screen resolution.
•Inverted pyramid: In most cases, make sure the most pertinent information (and keywords) is included
in the first paragraph on a page.
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