How to Do a Content Evaluation

On this page

• Step 1: Inventory your content
• Step 2: Align your content with your organizational goals
• Step 3: Identify content owners
• Step 4: Decide how you’ll use the Content Audit Workbook
• Step 5: Evaluate each page
• Step 6: Create a plan for each type of content.
• Resources
• Get support

Step 1: Inventory your content

The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) will complete this step for you! Email [email protected] and request a “Content Audit Workbook.” 

Your Content Audit Workbook will include a list of every page and every document on your website. It will also include information about each page and document to help you assess whether to keep, modify, or remove it.

Tips: 

• Request your Content Audit Workbook before you need it. Depending on the size of your website, it can take up to a week for DoIT to complete this request.
• See this sample Content Audit Workbook for a preview of what you will receive.

Step 2: Align your content with your organizational goals

Over time, a website can grow to encompass content that tries to do too many things by covering topics beyond the scope of your agency’s mission.

Conducting a content evaluation is a good opportunity to revisit your agency’s organizational goals for your website. This will help prepare you to make decisions about whether or not to keep a specific website page.

Some questions to consider:

• Who is your agency’s primary audience?
• Who are your secondary audiences?
• What tasks does your audience need to accomplish?
• What service does your team provide to these audiences?

Step 3: Identify content owners

For each website page or electronic document, identify who will make the decision to keep, modify, or remove that content. Making these decisions requires subject-matter expertise and, depending on your agency, may involve other stakeholders as well.

Record that person (or group of people) for each website page and electronic document in the Content Audit Workbook.

Step 4: Decide how you’ll use the Content Audit Workbook

There’s no getting around it—reviewing pages and documents is a time consuming process. While it’s important to be detail oriented and intentional in evaluating your content, the Content Audit Workbook is simply a tool. 

The Content Audit Workbook shouldn’t become a barrier to evaluating your website. Use the Content Audit Workbook columns that

• Are most valuable to your team
• Support your schedule and workload

Step 5: Evaluate each page

Your goal is to shrink the number of webpages and electronic documents by deleting redundant, outdated, or trivial content.

Use the criteria below to evaluate each website page and electronic document. Mark each as

• Remove: The content will be removed because it is no longer needed.
• Archive: These electronic documents will be kept and archived on the website.
  • Archived electronic documents must be exempt from ADA Title II.
• Keep as is: The content will be kept “as is” because it meets all of the criteria below.
• Modify: The content will be kept IF specific modifications are made to it.

Pay particular attention to PDFs on your website. 

• PDFs are “hidden content” (because you can only see them if you click a link to them).
• For this reason, they are frequently forgotten about and become outdated.
• Aim to remove 80% of the total number of PDFs on your site.

Evaluation Criteria

1. Required by law, regulation, or policy

2. Exempt from ADA Title II Accessibility Requirements

3. Current and timely

4. Accurate

5. Unique

6. Relevant

7. Engaging

8. Accessible

9. Readable

Step 6: Create a plan for each type of content.

At the end of Step 5, you’ll have four buckets of electronic documents. Use the guidance below to create a plan for content in each of the four buckets.

Remove content.

• Work with your web team to remove this content from your website.

Archive content.

• Electronic documents can be archived if they meet ADA Title II exemption #1.
• Follow the steps in How to Archive Electronic Documents on Your Website.

Keep content “as is.”

• If you are reorganizing your website content, make a plan to move these electronic documents to a new location if needed.

Modify content.

You may have a lot of content to modify. It may feel challenging to tackle all of it, especially if you have limited resources.

To help you, we’ve prioritized the list below so you can complete the highest-impact modifications first – the ones that will have the biggest positive impact on your audience.

Tip: Be sure to also develop a schedule and approval process to review the modified content and get the updates made to your website.

1. Modifications related to Accessibility are your number one priority.

   If you want to keep a webpage or electronic document AND it does not meet the State’s Accessibility Policy and Accessibility Guidelines, you must remediate it.

   1. Follow instructions in How to Remediate Webpages and Electronic Documents.

2. Modifications related to Plain Language Standards are equally important.

   Prioritize these modifications before (or alongside) other modifications below.

   1. Follow the guidance in Plain Language Standards.

3. Modifications to high traffic/high impact content

   Focus on webpages and electronic documents that are used most often by your audience.

4. Modifications to transactional content

   Focus on webpages and electronic documents that are used by constituents to get a benefit or service, for example, a web form to apply for an environmental permit or a fillable PDF to apply for a nursing license.

5. Modifications to content that addresses the needs of your primary audience

   Focus on webpages and electronic documents that are targeted directly at your primary audience.

6. Other modifications

   After you’ve worked your way through the first 5 categories, focus on the remaining modifications on your list.

Resources

Help and Support 

• Request an accessibility consultation with the DoIT Office of Accessibility by emailing [email protected].
• Request group accessibility training for your Agency by emailing [email protected].
• Request remediation of your most complex and highest priority PDFs. On a limited basis, the Office of Accessibility can provide PDF remediation for an Agency’s most complex and highest priority PDFs. Email [email protected] to request an accessibility consultation.

Accessibility

• State of Maryland Accessibility Guidelines.
• Learn from members of the Accessibility (A11y) Community of Practice.
  • The community meets on the last Tuesday of every month from 10am to 10:45am.
• Attend the Accessibility Office Hours.
  • Held every Friday from 12:45pm to 1:45pm.
• Complete accessibility training in Workday.
  • Log in to Workday to access the courses below. In the Workday Menu go to Personal > Learning > Topics > Digital Accessibility.
    
    1. Accessible Word Documents
    2. Accessible Excel Sheets
    3. Accessible PowerPoint Presentations
    4. Understand, create, and edit inaccessible PDF documents
     
  • Note: If your Agency cannot access Workday Learning, email [email protected] to request the training documentation.

Plain Language

• State of Maryland Plain Language Standards.
• Learn from members of the Plain Language Community of Practice (Google Chat).

Get support

Ask questions about the Maryland Drupal CMS, Maryland Web Design System (MDWDS), accessibility, plain language, and more.

Get support