Before you publish anything it must have:
- been fact-checked by the relevant subject matter expert
- been reviewed by a member of the content design team
- always followed the style guide
Before you publish something, and when you 2i, check that the content:
- should be on essex.gov.uk or another website
- does not already exist - if it does, create a link to it instead
- has a clear user need
- is the right content type
- does not contain any personal data or sensitive information, including document metadata, which should all be removed before publication
- has a subject matter expert assigned
- has a review date
Page titles
Titles must be:
- clear and specific
- optimised for search
- under 65 characters including spaces
- unique within the site - check search results to see if there are any that are similar
- in sentence case
- written in plain English (no jargon)
Summaries
Summaries should:
- expand on the title without repeating it
- explain the point of the page and make sense in search results
- be written in full sentences, with a verb and a full stop
- be front-loaded with words users are likely to search for
- be written in plain English (no jargon)
- explain any acronyms in the title
- be fewer than 140 characters including spaces
Body text
Body text should:
- begin with what’s most important to users, not to us
- be concise and easy to scan
- be written in plain English (no jargon) and easy to understand
- use short sentences
- define acronyms and abbreviations the first time they’re used
- explain any technical terms
Link text
Link text should be:
- be descriptive and front-load it with relevant terms instead of using something generic like ‘click here’ or ‘more’
- must make sense out of context or tell users where a link will take them, such as people using screen readers, who often scan through a list of links to navigate a page
If your link leads to information rather than starting a task, use the text about that information as the link. For example, ‘accessibility testing’. Consider using the title of the page the link goes to as your link text.
If your link takes the user to a page where they can start a task, start your link with a verb. For example, ‘send a tax return’.
Style points
Remember:
- bullet points have a lead in line and start with a lower case letter
- do not use full stops in abbreviations or acronyms
- use ‘and’ rather than ‘&’, unless it’s a department’s logo image
- do not use bold, italics, CAPS, semicolons, underlining or exclamation marks!!!
- use ‘to’ in date and time ranges, not hyphens or ‘/’
- write email addresses in full, in lower case and as active links