Instructions for the web relaunch

The aim

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 In particular, dead links and outdated information are to be removed or updated during the digital relaunch. A critical look at your own content and the deletion of outdated pages are an indispensable step in the process of improving the Viadrina website.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:

Reducing the number of pages

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 could arise?

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.

Be critical with 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 published in the form of annual reports in an accessible PDF file.
  • Content that is for internal use only, such as old seminar materials, should definitely be deleted and stored on the your department's drive or in the Viadrina cloud 
    • .
  • 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.

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 will be difficult to display in the future responsive layout.

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.

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 editor responsible can delete/replace links outside your area of responsibility. In this case, write an email to this person with the URLs, the pages to be deleted and additional information on which other pages they should be replaced with (or whether they have been deleted without replacement).