Keeping Web Content Accurate and Up-to-Date

Maintaining current and accurate content is essential for providing reliable information and services to your audience. A well-structured content review process helps build trust, supports TMCC’s mission, and ensures credibility. Regular updates prevent outdated or incorrect information from appearing on your website, keeping it relevant and user-friendly.

Planning and Organizing Your Content

TMCC’s website plays a crucial role in recruiting and retaining students. As you develop content, consider:

  • Your website’s primary purpose—what are the three most important things it must do?
  • Your audience—what information do they need, and how can you make it easy to find?
  • A content approval workflow—who is responsible for creating, reviewing, and approving content?

Each department should designate a web content contributor to manage content updates and work with Web Services to ensure accuracy and consistency. Content responsibilities should be clearly assigned to individuals closest to the information, with one person ultimately accountable for each section.

Quality Standards: Content Review Checklist

A content review should evaluate the following areas:

  • Usefulness and Relevance: Does the content meet TMCC’s goals and the needs of its audience? Is it still relevant, or has it expired?
  • Clarity and Accuracy: Is the content easy to understand, logically organized, and free of factual or grammatical errors?
  • Completeness: Does it provide all necessary details without excessive or redundant information?
  • Voice and Style: Does it follow TMCC’s style guidelines and maintain a professional tone?
  • Usability and Accessibility: Is it formatted for easy scanning, with headings, bulleted lists, and appropriate metadata for searchability? (Web Services can assist in this area.)

Spelling and grammar errors should be avoided at all costs. As an academic institution, TMCC must maintain a high standard of professionalism in all published content.

Establishing a Review Process

A consistent review schedule ensures that web content remains accurate and useful. Follow these key steps:

Step 1: Build a Solid Foundation

Support from leadership ensures that web content maintenance remains a departmental priority. Each department’s web content contributor is responsible for reviewing pages and working with Web Services to keep content updated.

Step 2: Set Review Criteria

During each review, check for:

  • Functionality: Do all links work? Can visitors complete their intended tasks smoothly?
  • Quality: Is the page free of spelling, grammar, or factual errors? Does it align with TMCC’s objectives?

Step 3: Develop a Review Schedule

Every web page should be reviewed at least a few times per year. Set a recurring schedule and ensure content reviews are part of your department’s workflow. 

Step 4: Follow Up

Once updates are published, notify relevant team members and staff. Acknowledge their contributions and encourage ongoing participation in the content review process.

A well-maintained website reflects TMCC’s commitment to accuracy, clarity, and user experience. By implementing a structured content review process, departments can ensure that the website remains a valuable resource for students, faculty, and the community.

What Makes Good Web Content?

High-quality web content is more than just well-written text—it is clear, consistent, concise, and well-maintained. Ensuring these qualities improves usability, enhances engagement, and helps users quickly find the information they need.

Good Content is Clear

Clarity is essential. Effective content communicates directly, using simple language and logical organization. It should speak to users in terms they understand and present information in a way that is easy to navigate.

As a TMCC web content contributor, you are responsible for ensuring that your content is clear and structured for usability. Users should not have to struggle to understand the information provided.

Good Content is Consistent

Consistency reduces confusion and makes content easier to absorb. Using standardized formatting, terminology, and style throughout TMCC’s website ensures a seamless user experience.

Inconsistent writing—such as varying terminology for the same concept—adds unnecessary cognitive effort and can make content harder to follow. To maintain uniformity, adhere to TMCC’s AP style guidelines and apply the same principles across all pages.

Good Content is Concise

Avoid unnecessary content. While the web offers unlimited space, publishing everything possible dilutes quality and makes relevant information harder to find.

Consider whether your content:

  • Repeats information already available elsewhere.
  • Includes redundant FAQs or documentation that could be consolidated.
  • Contains long mission statements, legal disclaimers, or irrelevant details that could be simplified or removed.

Users come to TMCC’s website to find specific information quickly—avoid overwhelming them with excessive content.

WRONG

Many have made the wise observation that when a stone is in motion rolling down a hill or incline that that moving stone is not as likely to be covered all over with the kind of thick green moss that grows on stationary unmoving things and becomes a nuisance and suggests that those things haven’t moved in a long time and probably won’t move any time soon. (Too wordy)

RIGHT

A rolling stone gathers no moss. (Short and sweet)

Good Content is Maintained

Web content is not static—it must be reviewed, updated, and removed when no longer relevant. Outdated information leads to confusion and erodes credibility.

A well-maintained website requires:

  • Regular updates to factual content as new information becomes available.
  • Removal of expired or irrelevant material (e.g., past event announcements).
  • Clear ownership of content responsibilities within each department.

Expecting overburdened staff to manage web content as an afterthought leads to neglect. Content management should be formally included in job roles, performance reviews, and resource planning to ensure it remains a priority.

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