Website Toolkit

Posts & News

Posts are generally used for timely content such as news, announcements and stories that are organized chronologically or by category.

Categories & Taxonomy

Assign the appropriate categories or other available taxonomy fields when publishing a post. These fields help determine where content appears and allow users to browse or filter related content.

Excerpt

Write a short introduction that helps someone understand the post before opening it. Excerpts may appear on news listings, content feeds and when posts are shared through other communications channels.

Featured Image

The featured image is the primary image associated with a post. It may appear on news listings and when the post is shared through email, social media or other parts of the website.

Choose a relevant, high-quality image and set it in the Featured Image field. Add alt text when the image communicates meaningful information.

Keep Evergreen Content on Pages

If information needs to remain easy to find and regularly maintained over time, a Page is usually a better home than a time-based Post.

Images & Files

WordPress stores uploaded images and documents in the Media Library. Keep media files optimized, accessible and relevant to the page where they are used.

Images

• Resize and compress large images before uploading them.
• Choose images that support the content rather than adding unnecessary decoration.
• Add alt text when an image communicates meaningful information.
• Avoid placing important information only inside an image or graphic.
• Check image cropping and readability on mobile devices.

Alt Text

Alt text provides a text alternative for people who cannot see an image. Describe the essential information or purpose of the image rather than repeating the file name.

View UW guidance for making images accessible.

Documents & PDFs

Use webpage content instead of a downloadable document when the information can reasonably be presented in HTML. When a PDF or other document is necessary, make sure it meets accessibility requirements before publishing.

People Profiles

Faculty and staff profiles are generally managed through the People area of WordPress rather than as standard Pages.

When updating a profile:

• Confirm the person’s name, title and appointment information.
• Assign the appropriate role or other available profile categories.
• Use a current, appropriately cropped featured image.
• Update biography, contact information and CV or related fields when applicable.
• If a profile should no longer appear publicly, unpublish it rather than deleting information that may need to be retained.

Profile fields can vary by site. If you are unsure where information belongs, contact MarCom before creating a workaround in the page body.

Troubleshooting

Something Broke After an Edit

First check the page’s Revisions. Restoring the last working version is often faster and safer than trying to reconstruct complex formatting.

Copying & Pasting Text

Content copied from Word, email, websites and other applications can bring hidden formatting into WordPress.

If pasted content behaves strangely:

• Use Clear Formatting to remove unnecessary formatting while preserving basic content.
• Use Paste as Text when you need a cleaner starting point, then recreate headings, links and lists in WordPress.
• Avoid carrying unnecessary inline styles, font tags, spans or complex HTML into page content.

Shortcodes

Some CBE pages use shortcodes to create elements such as tabs, buttons, columns and other layouts. Shortcodes appear inside square brackets and often have both an opening and closing tag.

For example, a tab group may look like this:

[uw_tabs tour="true"]
[tabs_section title="Example"]
Content goes here.
[/tabs_section]
[/uw_tabs]

When making structural changes to a page that contains shortcodes, use the Text editor whenever possible. Be careful not to delete, move or separate opening and closing shortcodes.

Broken Links

If your site’s Broken Link Checker reports a problem, open the link first and confirm that it is actually broken. Login pages, paywalls and other restricted resources may sometimes be reported even when the destination still works.

If the destination has moved, update the URL. If the link is no longer useful, remove or replace it.

Not Sure What’s Causing the Problem?

Don’t rebuild a complex page or change plugins, theme settings or site structure to solve an editing problem. Contact MarCom and include the page URL and a short description of what is happening.