Information for website collaborators
Website collaborators play an integral role in the overall university enrollment process by creating and managing web pages focusing on student recruitment and retention. They consider the user's journey on each page and create an easy flow of content for users to locate information quickly and complete actionable steps.
Website collaborator selection
Senior leadership choose website collaborators to maintain their web section.
Website collaborator primary duties
- Maintain open communication with their assigned digital strategist.
- Share feedback on the website, issues working on the site, and identify back-up website collaborator for absences.
- Coordinate and disseminate website updates and information throughout their area.
- Manage web pages for their university department or college, including college department and program-level pages.
- Add content and wording on web pages.
- Use Sitefinity widgets and layouts by following the playbook instructions.
- Size, optimize and upload images for placement on web pages.
- Format documents to a PDF file, optimize and upload for placement on web pages.
- Embed YouTube videos on web pages.
- Insert links and hyperlinks on web pages.
- Populate "people" biography pages for use on faculty/staff pages.
- Create forms and add to web pages.
- Create events to display on university calendars.
- Create news items to display on web pages.
- Follow the page review checklist for approving web pages.
- Optimize web pages and documents with search engine optimization meta descriptions, tags, categories and headings according to CMU Website Standards.
- Coordinate the editor and approver workflow timelines for their area.
- Attend collaborator meetings.
- Attend trainings to apply learning outcomes and improve skillset.
Digital strategists and University Communications duties
- Create training for new website collaborators.
- Create training for forms and other topics.
- Create training for creating news items.
- Create content for, update and review the playbook and website standards.
- Manage requests for new program pages, maintain current ones and unpublish discontinued program pages.
- Complete edits for academic program pages.
- Facilitate strategic discussions about page navigation and templates.
- Research and communicate best practices for page and search engine optimization.
- Provide overall website strategy suggestions.
Website workflow
As you work on your webpages and send them for publishing, they will go through the workflow review process.
In Sitefinity, there are two roles website collaborators can have:
- Editor- an editor can create and edit specific content within Sitefinity. They do not have the ability to send a page for publishing, rather it is sent for review.
- Pages that need to be reviewed by an approver are sent for approval before they are published.
- Pages that have been reviewed by an approver are sent for publishing by the approver.
- Approver - same abilities as editor plus they reject or send the page for publishing.
*Some website collaborators will have both roles.
Once your page has been sent for publishing, it will be reviewed by your digital strategist and either published or returned for changes to be made.
Reporting website issues
As you work in Sitefinity, you may encounter a web page issue. There are two main types of web page issues: content and functionality issues.