Web Standards
EMU’s emu.edu and emuroyals.com websites are the primary web presence of EMU. They are intended primarily for external audiences including:
- prospective students
- parents of prospective students
- parents of current students
- alumni
- donors and friends of EMU
- community members
EMU faculty, staff and current students are a secondary audience for this content. The content of the emu.edu website is intended to marketing EMU to the external audiences mentioned above. Information intended for current students, faculty and staff will be housed on other networks and disseminated in other ways.
EMU uses a content management system (CMS) with web editors in multiple departments who manage content. The web project manager and strategist and the front-end developer are responsible for maintaining consistency in style, content and design, along with the brand id manager. These positions are housed within the marketing and communications office at EMU and work with other members of that office to create an overall brand identity for EMU.
Web editors use templates and features housed within the CMS to help maintain consistency. The web project manager and strategist trains web editors to use the features properly and approves changes to content for most web editors.
Website voice/content
Web editors are strongly encouraged to use active voice and speak directly to readers using second person.
For example:
Preferred: “With a degree from EMU, you will gain the knowledge and skills to make
meaningful, scientific contributions to the world.”
Not preferred: “A biology degree at EMU will help the student gain knowledge and skills
to make scientific contributions to the world.”
Organization/Readability
- Make your content as easy to skim as possible.
- Use bullet points and headings.
- Break up large sections of text with images or other features.
- Use headers in outline order (h1, h2, h3, h4) and avoid skipping to lower numbers without higher numbers between. For example, do not use an h1 and then an h3 with no h2 between.
- The website uses the EMU editorial style guide for all style questions- including punctuation, capitalization and other style questions.
- Only use acronyms that are extremely common outside of EMU.
Examples:
Use: FAFSA, MBA and PhD
Do not use: MCC or OLS
Training
EMU has a limited number of web editor licenses. The web project manager and strategist is responsible for giving access and providing training to web editors across campus. Web editors will be provided with additional training on content writing, search engine optimization, best practices for web, and other relevant web topics.
Social Media
The marketing and communication office maintains the following official social media channels for the university:
- Snapchat
- YouTube
Departments or programs may choose to maintain their own social media channels but M&C must be given access to these channels. All social media must adhere to the EMU social media policy. Adherence to social media best practices are strongly encouraged.
