Web Management Guidelines

What We Oversee

The VIU Web Management Office with assistance from the Brand and Marketing Office, oversees the structure, content, and design of the university's core digital properties. We partner with others throughout VIU who maintain websites for their VIU department or unit. 

For help and support, please contact us at ITHelp@viu.ca.

Website Governance

All editors with credentials to edit web pages within the VIU web ecosystem are required to follow our web governance standards.

Web Accessibility

VIU uses tools developed by, and available through the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative and WebAIM in order to evaluate how accessible your website is, and shows you how to make it better.

Scans are performed weekly on VIU Drupal websites for web accessibility issues, misspellings and broken links. Reports of the scans are available via email.

Interested in receiving Accessibility reports or want more information? Please contact us at ITHelp@viu.ca.

Learn more about web accessibility at VIU.

Web Analytics

The VIU Web Management Office measures, collects, analyzes, and reports web data to understand and optimize web usage. We focus on identifying metrics based on organizational, department and user goals, using the data to determine the success of those goals, drive strategy and improve user experience and website effectiveness.

Contact us at ITHelp@viu.ca with questions about your website data.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you are responsible for adding content to our university website or another public website representing a university entity, please review these tips on how to help your content be seen more easily by search engines.

Writing for the Web

Help visitors to your site find information quickly by following these tips on writing for the web:

• Be concise. Start with your original text, then edit it down to half its size.
• Make it scannable. Most people scan through pages looking for headlines and keywords to guide their way. Use headers, bulleted lists, and short paragraphs to help visitors find what they're looking for.
• Use plain language. No need to say "utilize" when you can say "use."
• Provide links. Most people come to a site page directly from Google, not from your home page or a section landing page. If a visitor needs additional information, link to it in the text. Don't assume they will find it in your site's menus.
• Proofread! Please.