Hantsweb Good Practice

Content

Scope of Information | Authors | What's New? | Related Information

The information contained in your web pages is one of the most important considerations. In the Hantsweb standards we have already covered that the content should be appropriate for the audience. Here are some further considerations to undertake concerning the content of your web pages.

Scope of Information

Help users understand the scope of the information you provide - how comprehensive is it? What is included? What is not included? Where can they get information about missing bits (provide links to these if they exist elsewhere on the web or supply a contact and phone number if possible). This 'Scope' information could be on a separate page and could also contain any disclaimers and/or copyright notices.

Authors

Provide useful information about the author/information provider. This might be an individual or a team/unit/section in the organisation. One way of doing this is to make a link to a page about the author - details of who, where, when, how they can be contacted, telephone number, perhaps a photograph, etc.

What's New?

A 'What's New?' or 'Latest News' page can be useful for regular visitors - they can quickly identify pages that have changed or been introduced since their last visit. If you provide this facility give a date (to define what 'new' means). If your 'What's New?' is six months old it can reflect badly on the whole of your site, so it may be better not to carry a page of this nature.

Related Information

Concentrate on providing information for which you are the source/owner so that you can ensure it is authoritative and maintainable. This will also save you time and effort.

Research what other related information is available elsewhere and provide links to it (or references and contacts). Users will value pages which provide good links and use them again, but links should not be provided at too low a level otherwise they may not be found.

Do not duplicate information which is available elsewhere - use a link instead.

If you do include information from another source you must be in a position to keep it accurate, relevant and up to date. Contact the owner - obtain their consent and an agreement as to how they will keep you informed of any future changes.

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