Built-In Site Audit Tools

Whether you’re preparing your catalog for an accreditation review or simply wondering how well your catalog is performing, our built-in site audit page is a powerful tool to get a pulse on your site. Not only does it allow you to quickly identify any errors, missing content, or broken links, but it enables you to easily click into those pages to correct the issue. Check out several of the most helpful audit tools we offer and how they can help your staff more effectively manage your course catalog.

Broken Links

When the URL of a webpage changes or the webpage is deleted altogether, it often leads to a broken link. Broken links can negatively impact accessibility, SEO (search engine optimization) and the user experience. Your site audit will include a list of all broken links across your website, allowing you to easily change the URLs and fix the links.

Accessibility Errors

Accessibility is the buzzword for modern academic software – and for good reason! Not only do accrediting institutions typically require a base level of accessibility across publications, but accessibility is a key factor in ensuring your catalog’s success. Your site audit page will run continuous accessibility tests on your catalog site, checking to ensure each page meets WCAG AA standards. This includes having alt tags on all images, meta tags on copy, the appropriate text hierarchy, large font sizes, empty links, screen contrast, and more.

Since we build out all new catalog sites to meet (and surpass!) WCAG AA standards by default, you likely won’t see any flagged accessibility errors in the site audit. However, this feature acts as a safety net in case your team makes any considerable backend changes that affect accessibility.

Courses Missing Programs

If any of your courses aren’t assigned to a program or subject, they will be flagged on your audit page. By having a quick overview of which courses are parentless, you’ll easily be able to click into the course and assign a program. This also helps to improve your site’s search function. For example, if a student searches for courses within a specific program, you want to ensure the search result list is comprehensive. As a general rule of thumb, all courses in your catalog should be tied to a program.

Degrees Missing Programs

Similarly, any degree pages that aren’t assigned to a program will be listed on your site audit. Ensuring all degrees are linked to programs is important for your site organization, search capabilities, and accessibility. When a degree isn’t assigned to a program, it likely won’t appear in PDF exports of your catalog. Using your site audit page, you can easily remedy any degree pages by assigning it to a program.

Unused Elective Groups

Elective groups are used on degree pages to show students situations in which they can select between multiple classes. When an elective group isn’t displayed on any degree pages, then it isn’t displayed anywhere on your catalog site. This is typically an indication that the content can be safely deleted from your site. While this isn’t necessary, it can help you to “spring clean” your catalog.

Content Count Summary

At the bottom of your audit page, you will also find a content count summary that gives a comprehensive overview of your catalog. At a glance, you will be able to determine the number of text pages, classes, degrees, course schedules, and elective groups that live in your catalog. Counts for both published and unpublished content types are shown. This helps you to quickly identify whether any content is mistakenly still in draft mode and needs to be published.

If you’d like to learn more about our site audit tools or schedule a demo to see how they work in real-time, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.