Nothing kills the authority of an intranet site – or any website – faster than obvious, avoidable errors. These errors can be factual (such as job titles or general facts), graphical (the wrong image assigned to the wrong person, for example) or grammatical (bad spelling or punctuation), but whatever the mistakes the effect is the same: users go elsewhere.

It’s not enough to make sure that your site owner is thorough. Everyone makes mistakes, and the best way to cope with the possibility of a slip-up is to ensure that you have a dedicated quality control process in place at all times. If you use an agency to run your site, then they should be able to work this out with you. If you work on the site yourself, read on for some key areas that you should focus on…

Proof reading

Perform a full proof read to check for spelling mistakes / typos / missing content (such as a paragraph of text due to copy-paste errors). Better yet, get someone else to do the proof read – they won’t have your familiarity, and will be able to spot mistakes more easily.

• Check that house style / brand guidelines are followed (correct typefaces, colours, sizes, and so on)
• Check correctness of all people names, spellings of people names, job titles, trademarks and entity names. If unsure, check with someone who will know – there is a lot of potential for embarrassment if you are wrong.
• If new content appears on the homepage in the form of a summary article, check that the summary text is not too long and will not be auto-cropped.
• Check any placeholder (e.g. “Lorem ipsum”) content is removed.

Links & attachments

Check all links. Make sure they go through to their intended destinations, and that they open up in the correct windows. It’s very easy to miss the odd link here or there, but nothing frustrates a user more than information that can’t be accessed.

• Check that all files have been uploaded correctly and have working links.
• Check that all (there may be more than one!) parent links to content have been updated and work properly.
• Check that all parent links to previous versions of content are updated / removed (if necessary).
• Check that all downloads are correctly labeled (including file types, file sizes and dates).
• Check that user permissions are set correctly if applicable. Check on computers with different permission levels.

Version checking

When editing an existing file (such as an image), always create a new version of the source file at the start of the editing process and ensure you are using the most recent version. You can sort between previous versions by introducing naming conventions, such as org_chart_v1, org_chart_v2 and so on.

• Links to updated images must also be changed and checked.
• Check that all alt tags and metadata are updated in line with the change in content (e.g. If an image is changed, ensure that the alt tag is updated as well).
• Check that previous versions of content are removed from the live site.

These are just some of the things we look for at Content Formula as part of our standard QC process. However, every site is different, and you should tailor your processes accordingly. Drop us a line if you have any questions – either in the comments below or by giving us a call!