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Guides, news, etc relating to web content.

Updating people pages

All of our academic Schools websites have a number of web pages that display people profile information. These web pages are automatically generated by combining data from multiple sources and applying a standard layout.

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Phrases to avoid on the web

During my time as a web content editor at St Andrews, I have picked up on certain phrases that are used frequently on our website that should actually be avoided where possible. These phrases are often unnecessary or…

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How do you write for different audiences?

When a website only has one audience, it is easy to understand and cater for user needs. More often than not, though, websites have multiple audiences, and you need to communicate very similar information in different…

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House style updates

We periodically review the University’s house style to make sure that it continues to meet user needs and best practice. Recently, we made a few changes to clarify some of the entries and to bring us more in line with…

Title "Plain English" over Scrabble block letters

Plain English for the web

When writing for the web, use plain English to make your content easy to read by all users. Plain English will also help your page rank higher in search engine results.

Common content mistakes – revisited

We’ve previously written about common content mistakes made on the web, but we thought it would be a good idea to provide an updated list. Below is a list of common mistakes our team sees coordinators make on a regular…

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Why to avoid marketese on the web

Marketese is a writing style which favours promotional, self-congratulatory and boastful language over technical and objective wording. At the University of St Andrews, we aim to avoid using marketese on the web at all…

Screenshot of the hero-banner event from the events homepage. Includes a featured event over a large background image.

Featured events criteria

The new events website allows us to highlight five events. On the events homepage, there is a large hero banner to showcase one event, and in the ‘Featured events’ section there are smaller boxes to showcase four…