Content Strategy for Web Admins

website updates checklist and tips for planning your website strategy

Schedule for Website Updates

Weekly Updates

  • Add new events or news articles as needed. Make sure to tag faculty and staff members in articles.
  • Check the shared content feed and import pertinent news and events to your site. Make sure to tag faculty and staff members in articles.
  • Remove any outdated events from the header slideshows. Past events will not be automatically removed.
  • Close webforms once an event has passed to reduce spam.


Monthly Updates

  • Review Siteimprove to fix any misspellings, broken links, or accessibility issues.


Beginning of Every Semester

  • Ask faculty and staff to send any updated information they would like included on their profiles.
  • Add any new books and tag the faculty member.


As Needed Updates

  • When a person leaves the department, remove their information from your website as appropriate.
  • When a person joins the department
    • If this is their primary department, make sure you collect all of their information and create their person profile on your website.
    • If this is not their primary department, make sure you import their profile once the primary department has created it.
    • If the staff or faculty had access to edit your department website, please email the web team at artsci-webteam@wustl.edu so we can remove their access.


Summer Updates

  • If the department doesn't have many upcoming events, temporarily remove any section automatically pulling in the next upcoming event. An alternative option would be to add a few events from the Academic Calendar.
  • Refresh content as needed:
    • Updates to major, minor, or graduate program information
    • Update any career outcome data
    • Review and update any top-level landing pages.
  • July1st is when most new faculty hires take effect. It is a great time to dive into your people landing page and make sure everything is up to date!
    • Unpublish retiring faculty members
    • Update faculty titles
    • Update any department tags to reflect leadership changes such as the Department Chair, DUS, or DUS
    • Add new graduate students and unpublish alumni.
    • Update any other people tags. If you need changes to the tags, please contact the Web Team with a list of your changes at artsci-webteam@wustl.edu.
    • Collect new student testimonials and add them to your site.
  • Summer photography updates
    • Contact Sean Garcia to schedule any needed photographs
      • New faculty or graduate students
      • New lab spaces or facilities
      • Any upcoming large events hosted by your department

Need help with website content strategy?

KJ can help you create website content in order to meet specific goals and ensure the right content is delivered to the right audience at the right time.

email KJ Schaeffner

Content Strategy Planning

Each year, it’s a good idea to evaluate how your website is supporting your department’s strategic goals and to ensure it aligns with A&S’s priority of leveraging the website as a tool to attract prospective students and faculty members. With that, work with your department chair, faculty members, and communications professionals to assess how the website works for you and your teams’ goals. Websites are an excellent tool to use for recruiting, informing current students and providing them with resources, and elevating the great work your department does. Below are prompts to use to help you assess the value and direction of your website.

Target Audiences

Who are your target audiences and what are the key characteristics of each? What do they like? How do they communicate? Use this information to illustrate to them why your department is where they need to be!


Selling Points

Work with your chair, DUS, and DGS to identify your department’s selling points. What does your department do well? What research is your faculty conducting and why is that important? What are the unique opportunities your department offers undergraduates and graduate students? How do you stand apart from your competitors?


Calls to Action

Identify what you’re asking your website user to do. Do you want them to apply for your program? Perhaps it’s to register for an event or apply to a faculty position within your department? Identify what you want them to do and then be sure to create a clear and concise path for them to do that. Remember, you can ask your different target audiences to take different actions. This is not a one-size-fits all, but varies depending on those strategic goals.
 

Strategic Content

It’s helpful to develop a strategic content calendar that aligns with important times throughout the academic year. Perhaps you want to feature certain content during the university’s yield time. Or maybe you want to pay tribute to your graduates near commencement to build alumni affinity to ensure they stay engaged with your department. Talk with your department leadership to align your content to drive strategic action in your web- site users. Here’s a quick guide:

  • August & September - Academic Year Begins
  • October - February - Bulk of the Academic Year
  • March & April - Yield Season
  • April & May - Commencement
     

Additional Web Resources & Guides