Content editor tasks and responsibilities

Your responsibilities

Every page must have a content owner. The content editor is responsible for:

• inputting content into the content management system
• your content being factually correct and up to date
• your content being approved by your relevant manager according to your departmental processes
• your content meeting accessibility standards and digital standards
• updating any links to your content that are in other documents (eg in forms, within documents)
• managing your media items (documents, images, videos etc)
• working to reasonable timelines for publishing and resources
• advising SDP if you’re no longer responsible for web content and ensuring a replacement content owner is allocated.

Content quality monitoring and content reviews

The SDP team monitors all content for broken links, other compliance issues and 'Was this page helpful' feedback to be actioned.

You will be notified of issues that relate to your content. If issues are not resolved within a reasonable time frame your Director will be provided with a compliance report for further action.

At a minimum, every page must be reviewed for accuracy every 6 months.

Updating published content

Updates to existing content must be made in the content management system (CMS).

Response time: In most cases, updates to existing pages will be published (live) within 48 hours. We commit to publishing updated content within 2 business days of the request.

When updating an existing page, note significant changes, such as:

• changed dates
• new documents added or versions updated
• revised all page content

Examples:

• Changed closing date for submissions.
• Replaced guidelines doc with new version.

Managing your media items

Correctly managing your media items involves:

• suitable file naming and accessibility tagging (see our accessibility guides)
• avoiding and removing duplication (see correct process for updating items)
• archiving media item in Content Manager when they're no longer needed and removing them from the content management system

Adding new sections, publications or technical plugins

For significant new pieces of work, you must meet with the vic.gov.au Senior Product Lead before:

• releasing a request for quote to market
• building a set of content pages in the CMS

This is to ensure:

• your business outcomes are achieved
• the work fits in with our digital strategy and is best practice
• the work meets our Digital Standards, including accessibility standards
• moderation and other communications plans are in place
• testing can be carried out
• scanning, heatmaps and other analytics are set up
• publication by your due date

Turnaround time: Minimum 2 weeks

Find out more about our publishing governance for new Victorian government content.

Digital Victoria

We're available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

SDP requires a minimum lead time of 2 weeks for significant new content. It's essential that you factor digital production time into your project timeline.

We understand that sometimes a faster response time is needed, such as in emergencies and for breaking news. Only urgent content requests will be reviewed outside of business hours. Urgent content is classified as factually inaccurate content where the inaccuracy could lead to public harm or embarrassment to the government.

vic.gov.au has a federated publishing model. This means each department looks after its own publishing queue. If you have an urgent content request contact your department digital lead.

For situations like ministerial announcements and media releases where the date or time is unclear, you should contact your department digital lead ahead of time so they can prepare.

What we check

Our checks are there to make sure your content meets the digital standards for Victorian Government as well as being discoverable and useful for your audience. The SDP team will continue to provide training and support to content owners.

A new content page, document or image will only be published if the content meets our vic.gov.au digital quality standards:

Page purpose

Your page should have a clear objective. Rethink it if the page's content isn't relevant to the user.

Page structure

Your intro should start with an audience need and your call to action should be towards the top of the page. Don't start with the history of an initiative or why it's important to government.

Reading level

Aim for a year 8 reading level. Exceptions to this may include technical audiences/information or historical information such as biographies (which use past tense), independent reports or tabled documents, but the exemption must be pre-approved.

Check the reading level using Word or the Hemingway app.

Spelling and style

You content must follow the Victorian Government Digital Standard's style guide of choice: the Australian Government web style guide.

Accessibility

There must be a digital version (content in HTML). If there is a strong user need to provide a download document, it must be accessible.

'Alt text' for images, closed captions and transcripts for videos, no text in images unless an image description is included.

Discoverability

Appropriate keywords must be used in the title and URL. Meta description must be provided.

Photos

Photos are focused on a person/s or real-life object and are good quality (clear, light etc). Logos as photos are not allowed.

Links

Add links to connect with other government content, including your own.

Standards we follow

We meet all Victorian Government digital standards including:

• Victorian Government digital guides
• Victorian Government Communications guidelines including multicultural, gender portrayal, regional communication and branding