Internal page

Purpose

These guidelines cover internal site pages that have a significant amount of content on a specific subject.

About internal pages

Presenting well-written and well-organised content is critical to help all users navigate easily, including people with disabilities. This is also true for Search Engines. You can find more information on the structuring page content section of this guide. 

You should use progressive disclosure: where possible, use headings and navigation elements to direct users to the level of detail they need. Favour layout options that help users complete the tasks they came to your site to accomplish. 

Guidelines are provided directly on the template below:

Before you start

Think about the purpose of the page you're creating and publishing:

• what should the content achieve? (provide background, inform, update, encourage users to take a specific action...)
• do you have evidence about the task your audience is looking to fulfill - which elements of this content will help them to achieve it?
• does your content interest mainly a specialist (professional) audience with a specific task?
• if your audience is mainly professional users with a specific task(s), avoid extraneous images/videos.

When to use this template

Use the content-heavy page guidelines for any basic, internal site page that's mostly text.

When to consider something else

If the page is intended to meet specific needs, check if this guide's types of content (News, Event, etc) could better fit the purpose of your page.

Dos

Content

Keep content to a minimum that achieves the page purpose and ensures relevant content.

Link to more detailed content on a sub-page/sub-pages to avoid a page that scrolls indefinitely. Edit and re-edit!

Update the page as new, relevant content is available. Equally, archive or delete content that has become irrelevant or redundant.

Design, layout, components

Avoid overloading the user:

• use sub-headings
• link to existing (more detailed) content elsewhere, where it exists and is relevant
• use components to highlight or isolate content within your page.

Follow web design principles and typography guidelines; apply available headings and styles instead of manually formatting your font.

Follow the guidelines on using images.

If you use a banner, use the standard page banner, not the hero banner.

Don'ts

Avoid using images, unless they are directly relevant and support understanding.

Avoid images that contain text as they can create accessibility and language issues; do not use documents (e.g. PowerPoint slides) as images.

Avoid using heavily manipulated images

Avoid using maps as navigation.

Usability guidance

Keep the text brief. Don’t try to include lengthy text. Descriptions should not exceed 400 characters. If you need more space, move 'deeper' content to a child page and link to it.

Sites developed on corporate web development platforms

Use the landing page (EU Login required) content type for this template. 

Remove unnecessary elements. Do not create extra content just to fill the template. You can remove individual sections (such as the event block) or sub-sections from the template as you implement it. This version gives you a broad idea of the range of elements your page could include. But never make a page more complex than you need to.

See component-specific guidance below. For guidance on specific components, visit the page for the individual component, listed below.