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Tips for Monitoring Your Website

Planning, drafting, publishing, and monitoring web content can feel like a full time job. Add in quality assurance, accessibility compliance, and improving search engine optimization and it can start to feel a bit overwhelming. However, getting started is as easy as blocking out a consistent time on your calendar each week to check in with your content.

Getting Started – Acquia Optimize Access and Reports

If you have access to Acquia Optimize, you should receive a report each week outlining results from the latest scan. This report provides an overview of your sites quality assurance, accessibility, and search engine optimization. To learn more about this report see Acquia Optimize: Review Scan Report.

After reviewing your scan report, decide how much time you can dedicate each week to making edits to your content. Here’s an example of what you can get done in 15, 30, and 60 minutes each week.

15 Minutes – Fix what’s broken

If you’re short on time, the best thing you can do is spend a 15 minutes each week fixing anything that’s broken.

This includes:

Set your timer for 15 minutes

After reviewing your weekly scan report, set a timer for 15 minutes and fix as many broken images and links as you can. If you finish fixing all the broken links and images (or you don’t have any to begin with) and you still have time on the clock, move onto correcting any misspelled words. Once you are done with these issues, focus on resolving any accessibility errors and finally policy violations.

Continue in this order each week until your weekly report is free of errors. Once your site is free of issues, spend 15 minutes each week on professional development.

This includes:

30 Minutes – Review documents, media, and images

If you have 30 minutes each week to dedicate to monitoring and maintaining your website, you can add some additional activities into your routine. First, complete the procedure outlined in the 15 minute section, then spend an additional 15 minutes:

Set your timer for 30 minutes

After reviewing your weekly scan report, set a timer for 15 minutes and fix as many broken images and links as you can. If you finish fixing all the broken links and images (or you don’t have any to begin with) and you still have time on the clock, move onto correcting any misspelled words. Once you are done with these issues, focus on resolving any accessibility errors and finally policy violations.

Next, set your timer for another 15 minutes and review any PDFs to determine if you can update them with a more accessible version, like a webpage. If you don’t have any documents on your site, review any videos you have published and ensure you have accurate captions, descriptions, and transcripts. If you don’t have any videos, review any images you may have published to ensure alternative text descriptions are accurate.

Continue in this order each week until your weekly report is free of errors. Once your site is free of issues, spend 30 minutes each week on professional development.

This includes:

60 Minutes – Learn a new skill

If you have 60 minutes each week to dedicate to monitoring and maintaining your website, you can add some additional activities into your routine. First, complete the procedure outlined in the 15 and 30 minute sections, then spend 30 minutes learning a new skill.

Set your timer for 60 minutes

After reviewing your weekly scan report, set a timer for 15 minutes and fix as many broken images and links as you can. If you finish fixing all the broken links and images (or you don’t have any to begin with) and you still have time on the clock, move onto correcting any misspelled words. Once you are done with these issues, focus on resolving any accessibility errors and finally policy violations.

Next, set your timer for another 15-30 minutes and review any PDFs to determine if you can update them with a more accessible version, like a webpage. If you don’t have any documents on your site, review any videos you have published and ensure you have accurate captions, descriptions, and transcripts. If you don’t have any videos, review any images you may have published to ensure alternative text descriptions are accurate.

Finally, set your timer for a final 15-30 minutes and practice a new skill.

This includes:

Continue in this order each week until your weekly report is free of errors. Once your site is free of issues, spend 60 minutes each week on professional development.