Instructions for reducing the number of pages

One of the main aims of the relaunch is to ensure that external and internal users of the Viadrina website can find the information they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. In particular, dead links and outdated information are to be removed or updated during the digital relaunch. A critical look at your own content and the deletion of outdated pages are an indispensable step in the process of improving the Viadrina website.

How to proceed step by step:

1st TARGET GROUP:
Ask yourself: Who is the content of your website aimed at? Who belongs to your target group? Is the current content relevant? What information is your target group looking for? What problems and questions might arise?

2. CONTENT:
Identify pages that are essential for answering these questions from the target group's point of view and should definitely be retained. Check whether all links are still up to date. Take stock and write down which content is missing or should be highlighted.

3. REVIEW:
Be critical of your content. Delete unnecessary pages. Think of your website as a business card, not an archive. If you want to keep „historical“ content, present it on as few subpages as possible or in abbreviated form.

Past events can be bundled in the form of annual reports in an accessible PDF 

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Content that is exclusively for internal use, such as old seminar materials, should definitely be deleted and stored on your department's drive or in the Viadrina Cloud 

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Current and past courses are listed in the course schedules – you can link to them from your page.

Pages that are irrelevant for your target group, such as pages of completed projects, can be saved in the form of an html file, archived internally and then deleted in the CMS.

4. LESS IS MORE:
Avoid new subpages and instead try to compress the content onto fewer pages. This will save you a lot of work when migrating the data to the new structure. Avoid using tables, as they are difficult to display in the future responsive layout.

5th DELETE:
Delete all deactivated and unused pages. Why is this step necessary? Although the pages can no longer be found in the navigation of the Viadrina websites, they can still be displayed as results in search engines.

6. DELETE LINKS:
If a page to be deleted is linked elsewhere, you must first delete the link or move it to another page. Information on whether a page is linked can be found in the properties on the right-hand side of the CMS. In the „Detail view“ under the „References“ tab, you can find out which links these are. Only the responsible editor can delete/replace links outside their area of responsibility. In this case, find out the responsible editor with the help of the protocol and write this person an e-mail with the URLs, the pages to be deleted and the additional information as to which other pages they should be replaced with (or whether they have been deleted without replacement). A complete guide to deleting links can be found on the IKMZ page.