Congratulations – you’re officially a La Trobe University Web Editor! Give yourself a pat on the back, because getting here requires a lot of hard work.

This role not only comes with great responsibilities, but also great opportunities. This article will provide you with the what, when, how and why of web editing.

A year in the life of a Web Editor

To help you with your editing duties and to ensure your site is in tip-top shape, we’ve created an overview of tasks you should be completing over the course of a year.

Weekly

  • Briefly review your site to check for broken links, issues with your pages, incorrectly sized images and so on. If you find any errors, fix them. If you get stuck, submit a Digital Marketing Request.
  • If you are making content changes on your site, compare it against the web content review checklist before publishing.

Monthly

  • Read over each of your pages to ensure the content aligns with our Editorial Style Guide and Writing for the web guidelines. Also check that your content has a purpose and a goal. If it doesn’t, put it on your ‘To Do’ list to resolve this.
  • Meet with your Manager and co-web editors (if your site has them) to discuss the current site and talk about any projects and new initiatives in the coming months that may require information to be added or removed from your site.

6 monthly / yearly

  • Submit a Digital Marketing Request to have a Website Health Check report conducted for your site – it will provide analytics and a site audit, as well as an overview of the current health of your site. This will help you to identify areas of improvement that should be the focus of your editing duties in the months to come.
  • Conduct a rolling audit and review of your web page content, images and documents and identify unneeded, outdated or underperforming content. To get started, lodge a request for your website’s analytics and a starter inventory of your assets (pages, documents and images). Start small and focus on the most visited content first.

Why editing is good for professional development

Even Bill Gates was once a beginner with computers. Thanks to persistent work and a keen interest, he changed the face of computers as we know it. Of course, we don’t expect all of our editors to become billionaires, but we do hope you think of your editing duties as a way to increase your professional skills. In our ever-increasing online world these skills are highly valuable and will be an asset on your resume.

Also, remember to let your Manager know about your editing duties and that it takes time and effort. If they would like to learn more about your responsibilities direct them to the Web Editor Requirements and Information for Managers pages on the Intranet.

Have questions about your web editing?

Remember, we’re always here to help! To reach out, please: