Web

The University of Waterloo’s website is the primary digital communication channel for the University.  Over 1 million global visitors come to the website each month to learn about our world-class institution. 

The University of Waterloo’s primary web presence is hosted by the Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) and it has been designed to showcase our digital communications using the Waterloo brand.

While the WCMS provides a branded template for your website, there are additional considerations when building out your site content.

Key considerations

  • Structure your content using a heading hierarchy. Using heading styles in their proper order will improve accessibility, search engine optimization and design consistency.
    • In the WCMS, “Heading 1” or “h1” is used to display the page title at the top of the page.
    • Use Heading 2 to further section your content for increased readability.
    • If you’d like to subdivide your sections, use Heading 3.
    • Headings 4, 5 or 6 can be used to further subdivide subsections.
    • Heading styles should always be used in hierarchical order, for example:

      This is my first section (H2)
      This is some content in the first section.

      This is a subsection within my first section (H3)
      This is some more content

      This is my next section (H2)
  • Images used on your website should follow Waterloo’s photography guidelines. Additionally, each image requires descriptive “alt” text to help describe the image to a visitor who uses screen reading technology.
  • When writing for the web, it is important to ensure your content is scannable to help visitors quickly find the information they are looking for. Utilizing an “inverted pyramid” approach to your writing key. Ensure your most important information is at the top of the page with additional details and background information provided further down.
  • Written content should follow Waterloo’s Writing Style Guide.

Web strategy

Websites can be purpose built for specific audiences, topics or groups. Our Digital Communications team can help you build a website that will meet your strategic goals.