Structuring your page content

Page title

• Be unique and descriptive (e.g. "About the Department of Premier and Cabinet" not "About us").
• Frontload with your keywords and end with your department or organisation name.
• Use sentence case (capitalise only the first word and proper nouns).
• Aim for between 30 and 70 characters.

Introduction text

• Summarise the purpose of your content in one or 2 sentences.
• Use complete sentences with punctuation at the end.
• Include a call to action if relevant (e.g. 'Apply for X', 'Submit a complaint about Y', 'View Z').

Paragraphs

• Present the most important information first, or a summary of what will be covered on the page.
• Use short paragraphs that are 2 or 3 sentences long, with a maximum of 15 words per sentence.
• Write in plain language.
• Read the Style Manual's guidance on types of structure and on paragraphs.

Headings and subheadings

• Use headings to break up the content.
• Headings should be short and use keywords.
• Your page title is the H1 heading attached to the page's meta data.
• Heading sizes must be sequential to meet accessibility requirements.
• All main headings on a page need to be H2.
• Subheadings under these are H3, and then H4 if required.
• Read the Style Manual's guidance on headings.

Lists

• Lists help to make content scannable.
• Numbered lists should only be used when there is a particular order or to show priority.
• Use a parallel structure (e.g. all verbs using the same form) for each list item that flows from the lead-in sentence.
  • For example, this list is being used to:
    • illustrate an example of writing lists
    • guide content editors through using a parallel structure
• No punctuation should be used for bulleted lists, unless each list item is a complete sentence.
• Read the Style Manual's guidance on lists.

Links and calls to action

• A call to action is a button, link or card that leads the reader to the next step in their journey (Apply, Register, Subscribe, etc.).
• Write link text that describes the destination in clear language (e.g. 'Find out more on the Australian Government Style Manual website' not 'click here').
• Read the Style Manual's guidance on links.

Content production template

Use the Australian Government content production template to plan, write and check your content.