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Website Health & Happiness

Governance Review Schedule

Coming soon!

Redirect Best Practices

  1. Identify high traffic or crucial pages (10-20)
    • Primary tier (high-priority): URLs that cumulatively account for the top 80%–90% of overall site traffic over a trailing 12-month period, as well as designated primary conversion pages (e.g., forms, key landing pages).
    • Threshold identification: The precise cut-off number (e.g., 12 vs. 20 pages) is identified at the point where traffic sharply decreases (the “traffic cliff”).
  2. Map routing
    • Exact match: Does the new site have an identical page?
      • Redirect traffic
    • Close cousin: Is there a page covering similar content/intent?
      • Redirect to cousin page
    • No match: The current page has no cousin or exact matches
      • High-value page: Redirect to relevant parent or homepage
      • Low-value (zero/near zero traffic, no backlinks): 404
  3. Redirect Lifespan
    • Standard 301 redirects should stay active permanently (or at least 1–2 years minimum).

Requesting New Components & Features

  1. Fill out a “Component Submission” form on Wrike
  2. CMD will review the request and will take one of the following actions:
    • Approve the request, at which point the component will go through CMD’s New Component Process
    • Match the request with a component that already meets the stated needs
    • Deny the request. If the component is too complex or unique (i.e. only used for one unit or need), the request will be denied.

Bug Reporting

  1. Defining a bug
    • What is a bug? A technical error (i.e., a button doesn’t work, a page is 404ing, the layout is broken on mobile etc)
    • What is NOT a bug? A type or request to change a photo, these fixes can be handled at the unit level
  2. Find a bug?

Accessibility & Inclusivity Goals

  1. U-M Resources on accessibility: https://accessibility.umich.edu/
  2. Our Tools: We use SiteImprove to monitor site health. There is a web app as well as an extension available on Chrome
  3. Units are responsible for fixing “Content-Level” errors (like missing Alt Text or broken heading orders)
  4. Accessible Files: All PDFs uploaded to the site must be run through an accessibility checker like Adobe Acrobat Pro. If a PDF can’t be made accessible, the information must be provided as a standard web page instead.

SEO Best Practices, Tips & Tricks

  1. Use your frontmatter (SEO Title and Meta Description)! It matters!
  2. Keywords vs. Clutter: Don’t “stuff” keywords. Write for the student first. If the student is looking for “Housing Contracts,” make sure that exact phrase is in your H1 or H2.
  3. Descriptive Links: Never use “Click Here.” Use descriptive text like “Download the 2024 Housing Contract.” (This helps Google and screen readers).
  4. URL Slugs: Keep them short and lowercase. studentlife.umich.edu/housing-application is better than studentlife.umich.edu/application-for-housing-2024-final-v2.