For the upgrade to the Age UK Episerver CMS, we have created a template website for every partner, which you can use as the basis for your upgraded website.

If you’re not sure how to start reviewing and rationalising your content for the new CMS, this short video (less than two minutes) shows you a simple and visual technique that may help.

Find out more about why we’re upgrading.

On this page:

  1. The new top navigation
  2. How to rationalise
  3. Preparing your content
  4. Advanced feature development
  5. Tips
  6. Next steps

 

  1. The new top navigation

We have worked with a leading agency to create a standard top navigation for all the partner sites. The new navigation menu will mean we can direct visitors to your services directly from the national site. This new navigation means that your site structure may need to be reworked in order to help your users find the content they are looking for.

The standard navigation menu is as follows:

  • Our services
  • Activities and events
  • Get involved
  • About us
  • Buy products (if you sell them)

There are also the other options of Shops if you have a large number of them, and Room hire.

If you have concerns that visitors won’t be able to find what they are looking for in terms of services and information on your site, we expect that most traffic will come via organic search e.g. Google search results.  So the top navigation would not need to have information about every service you offer. You can check this yourself in Google Analytics.  For this purpose we have worked very hard to ensure the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) of the site is as refined as it can be.

 

2. How to rationalise

With the upgrade you will need to look at the existing content on your website and complete an audit of it before you start to build your website in the upgraded CMS.  Decide what needs to stay, what needs to go, and what needs improving before you build.

When you are ready to start rationalising your content, we will provide you with a list of the live pages on your website.

What to do with your live pages list

We will send the live pages list in a Google doc. This list will be accurate up to the date it was created, anything you added post that date to your site will not be listed. We will be able to see any changes you make to the Google doc , so you don’t need to worry about saving the list and sending it back to us.

The first tab has a list of your live pages, with lots of useful information like when they were published and the meta data (information for search engines) for each page.

The Essentials navigation tab contains information about the pages that you will get as part of your template site.

The content and redirects tab is there to use as a template for reviewing your live pages and letting us know any redirects that need to happen.

The redirects column is where you put a new or changed web address for a page when it’s built on the upgraded CMS so we can redirect the old web address to the new one. You only need to redirect a page if it has changed its URL or moved to a different location.

You could also use the content and redirects tab to plan what you want to do with the live pages currently on your site:
• Keep
• Delete
• Merge

Keep
You may decide to keep certain pages as they are on your current website. If you are keeping content make sure it is fit for purpose, written for SEO and has the correct metadata. This is also a good opportunity to update your web pages with new information. If you need to rename a page to improve the user experience, remember to record the changed name for the redirects.

Delete
If you decide there is content you no longer want to keep you can mark this as deleted but you don’t need to delete/unpublish any pages from your current site. Make sure you redirect any pages you don’t plan on keeping.

Merge
You may want to join or combine certain content, eg your local mission statement could sit on your ‘About us’ page. The same rules will apply here as for the update of content.

If you create any new pages please use the guidance on naming urls.

 

3. Preparing your content

When you have a plan, you may find it helpful to copy and paste all your content into word processing documents to organise it, edit it, get it signed off and ready to paste into your new basic site when you have access. Each page should have its own title. You could use the content template to help you if you want to.

Services

The Services section provided in your basic site will have a landing index page on which you can list the titles and links of your services; individually or in groupings.

Each service should ideally have its own content page for the best user experience and SEO purposes.

In terms of the title, see the guidance on service naming, but think about the users, e.g. if you have home help scheme called ‘Excelsior’, think about what the user might search for – would they look for “Excelsior service” or “Home help in XXX”.

Images and Downloads

Delete the downloads that you do not use or do not link too.

Download all images and PDFs from your site and store them in a folder.

You can use the images in the basic site in the upgraded CMS, or you can choose new ones from Brand Hub or take your own.  You should follow the guidelines regarding using images online.

 

4. Advanced feature development:

News

The news templates have been released and are ready for use on your site.  If you require a news section you will find the instructions with the other guidance.

Blog, Calendar, and Local Directory

Currently we don’t have these functions for the upgraded CMS. If your website requires these features you can get them later in the year when they are developed. You should still rationalise your content and you could start building your site in preparation.

If you currently have no  blog, calendar, or local directory functionality then this will not affect you.

 

5. TIPS

Google analytics

With Google analytics you can check the traffic on all your pages and see what traffic different sections are getting.  This might help you decide which pages could be retired, such as archived news.  It will also tell you how the pages were found. If the content is not getting a great deal of traffic, why is this? Is it promoted properly, or does its SEO need improving?

Research Methods

If you have much more content you want to keep but you are not sure where to put it, then it can help to find out what your users or colleagues think. Why not use the free online tools available at optimal workshops? https://www.optimalworkshop.com/features

User personas

It can help to visualise your users.  We have created user profiles for a variety of users that will help you think more clearly about who your visitors are and what they want.

 

6. Next steps

When you have rationalised your content the Partner Content team will give you access to your basic template site in the upgraded Episerver CMS, where you can amend and add any pages you want to.