Communicator Audit Checklist
The following list should be used by CLAS communicators and editors for auditing websites and social media.
Weekly
1) Post to social media accounts
Department social accounts should be updated at least once per week to maintain an active and consistent social media presence. Two to three times a week is preferred, but at least once per week. If this proves to be a challenge with managing multiple social media accounts for a single department, deactivate the accounts that have the least engagement and focus on the one with the most engagement.
See best practices for social media
2) Update department/program event calendar
Website event calendars should be regularly populated with upcoming department/program events and/or relevant college and university events. College and university events should be "cross promoted" to your department event calendar rather than recreated by copy/pasting.
See Events Guide and Checklist
Monthly
1) Update/remove stale and irrelevant content
Sweep your website for content updates such as deadlines, changes to personnel, contact information, program requirements and policy changes. These are the most common but there may be other areas to check. News and spotlight articles are considered snapshots in time and should not be altered for this purpose unless they're still currently being referenced (e.g., a blog about contacting your advisor). Since most outdated information is simply overlooked or forgotten about, set calendar reminders and use these tips for handling time-sensitive content.
Content areas to check
- Admissions pages
- Advising pages
- Department/program directory (request update)
- Personnel changes
- Policy changes
- Program requirements or contacts
- Research pages (for current faculty/interests)
- Student groups (see example)
⚠️ Important note about meta descriptions: Be sure to add a short summary of the page/article in the meta description field at the bottom of the editor (also called "excerpt" for spotlight articles) as this is what is read and collected for ranking by search engines. In some cases, it's appropriate to use the first opening sentence of your page/article (if it makes sense in describing what the content is about).
Spelling/grammar checks
Install and run Grammarly to perform spelling/grammar checks as you work within the editor. If you don't edit pages directly, review these key content areas for any misspellings, especially after additions and revisions (e.g., news/spotlight articles). Note: While Grammarly will flag the majority of spelling/grammatical issues, it's not 100% accurate and requires your best judgment on the changes recommended. The free version also does not format for AP style (sentence case headings, lower case titles, etc.) which our sites use. Refer to the university style guide for more info.
⚠️ Important: Outdated content is subject to removal or revision at any time. Due to the breadth of our site network, we won't always be able to notify you before removing or updating stale content. The CLAS Marketing Team actively scans all CLAS sites for common spelling errors but the AI is not 100% accurate.
2) Add news and spotlights
Departments should aim to publish at least one news and one spotlight article per month to maintain engagement on their site. One news article per week and one spotlight article every two weeks are ideal to shoot for.
Learn more about news and spotlights
3) Fix/remove broken links
Check for and update broken links within your website(s) using the Broken Link Checker for Google Chrome (including news and spotlight articles). This scanner will flag all of the broken links within an individual web page (not the entire website).
⚠️ Important: The CLAS Marketing Team actively scans all CLAS sites and repairs broken links. You should only perform this check if you're notified of a broken link or have spare time.
Semesterly
1) Remind and encourage individual faculty profile updates
Full-time and part-time faculty profiles should be updated every semester (with required criteria at a minimum) in conjunction with our HLC accreditation standard. While most faculty have access to edit their own profiles, departments that have a directory administrator should work with their faculty to coordinate these updates.
View faculty profiles update reminder
2) Update department directory updates
Departments should submit a request at least once per semester to add/remove faculty/staff, or change faculty/staff status (e.g. part-time to graduate student) for their respective people directory. Reminder: Don't forget your advising pages (see example).
Submit a directory change request
Note: CLAS Marketing does not update the profile content (e.g., picture, CV, etc.) on behalf of faculty/staff, including title changes.
3) Access
Has there been any role changes to your communicators, website editors, or social media administrators? Who should currently have access? Send an email to clas@wayne.edu detailing all role/access changes.
⚠️ Important: New website editors and social media managers must complete the required training prior to gaining editor access.
Yearly
1) Career outlook
Departments should review and update their respective career outlook pages once per year (in June or prior) for accurate occupations and employment information (per the career insights tool) as well as any supplemental data provided by the department.
View career outlook update reminder
2) Plans of work
Plans of work that are posted to the website should be updated by August 1 each year. Posted plans that do not reflect the current university/college requirements are subject to removal from the website after notice is given to the department.
View plans of work update reminder
3) Need a website refresher?
Our new website guide is regularly updated with the top need-to-knows of your website. If you need a refresher or are even onboarding someone new to the team, begin here.