Web Site Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Business units of the University should give due attention to the following phases required when moving an existing website to the Content Management System (CMS).

Consultation

Develop a list of your needs and expectations and discuss these with the ITS Service Desk.

Map Site Structure

Be aware that the University Web Guidelines require that web sites adopt a user-focused structure. Develop a detailed map of your existing site structure. Sites developed in the CMS require a tree structure. Map your existing site to a tree structure. Indicate in the new tree structure where the content for each new page resides in the old site structure.

If you require assistance obtaining a map of your existing site, or in preparing a user-focused structure for your new site, please contact the ITS Service Desk for assistance.

Move Content

Often it is possible to simply copy and paste content from existing electronic sources (web pages, documents, spreadsheets) directly into the CMS. This task needs to be undertaken one page at a time. If the content requires little or no reworking, the skill level required to migrate content to the CMS is relatively low.

However, sometimes it is advisable or necessary to "clean" the content before migrating to the CMS. This is particularly the case where some web authoring packages introduce spurious HTML that may make it difficult to edit your content once it is available in the CMS. Sometimes it is safest to copy textual information to a text editor and then from the text editor to the CMS in order to remove all formatting. The text can then be reformatted in the CMS.

The ITS Service Desk can advise on simple strategies and software tools for "cleaning" your content as you migrate it to the CMS.

All internal links within your website will change. Many of these will be replaced by the site navigation tools automatically provided by the CMS. However where links to pages within your site have been included within the content or body of a page, these will need to be updated.

Implement Redirects

In order to ensure the minimum disruption to clients and visitors to your website, it is vital to implement comprehensive redirects that will point people attempting to reach your old pages to the corresponding new page within the CMS.

People will have bookmarked the addresses of many of the old pages within your website - not just the home page. Other sites will provide links to pages within your website. All the major search engines (and many smaller ones) may contain references to every page in your old web site. These bookmarks, links and indeces may take months or even years to be updated.

When you are almost ready to publish your new website, speak with the ITS Service Desk. We will need the following information to map your old page addresses to the new pages:

• a list of all old web page addresses on your old (current) website
• next to each address, the corresponding new MySource page ID number

A spreadsheet is often the easiest tool for these with one column for each of the above.

The Website Office will work with you to ensure that redirects are implemented using the information contained in your site structures; mapping your old page addresses to new pages in the CMS. Where there is no directly corresponding page, it will be important for you to make an informed judgement about what other information on your new site may be relevant for clients seeking details on the old page.