To decide what content type to use, refer to our section on Whitehall publisher content types.
Title
Front load subject matter i.e. put the main subject at the beginning, for example: 'Identifying and reducing inequalities in NHS population screening' is better as 'NHS population screening: identifying and reducing inequalities'
Front loading titles makes them more findable by Google.
Similarly, titles should be 65 characters or less (including spaces). That's because this is how many characters are displayed in a Google search result.
Summary Try not to repeat phrases from the title. Try to
Summaries also have a character limit, this time of 160 characters (including spaces) because Google usually only shows the first 160 characters in search results.
Details section
Keep it brief. Important information is usually in the attachments.
Attachments
Do not add a Gateway number if attachments are created in HTML, i.e. only use Gateway numbers for PDFs.
Markdown
Consult markdown tips for common formatting requirements, on the right of each webpage.
Avoid ‘Words to avoid’, also listed on the right of each webpage.
Numbered sections
Avoid numbering sections (tick ‘manually numbered headings’ tickbox) unless for a long legal, or official document where numbered sections might need to be referred to.
Style tips
Headings Use headings, starting with heading 2, indicated by ##, then heading 3 (###) and heading 4 (####).
All headings should be in sentence case i.e. avoid unnecessary capitals.
Acronyms Spell out all acronyms on first appearance. Identify all acronyms used in the text and make a list of them using acronym markdown at end of main text e.g. *[PHE]: Public Health England. (This is explained in the
Capitals Do not capitalise words for emphasis. If points must be emphasised use bold (sparingly)
Hyphens Do not use hyphens to indicate duration. 20-40 should be written ’20 to 40’
Italics aren’t possible in Markdown, so can’t be used for species names
Links Embed links in meaningful link text.
Number All numbers must be written as digits except one, unless one is used with other numbers or as part of a sequence of steps.
Slashes Do not use forward slashes for years, use the word ‘to’. 2019/20 should be written ‘2019 to 2020’.
Tables Explain how to create.
Refer to online table creator?
Explain functionality which toggles tables to bar charts and back.
Images
Refer to images and infographics section
Main points are:
- Images must be 960 x 640 pixels in dimension
- Add to image using image functionality on main Document page. Add a caption but no alt text. GDS now mandate that instead of alt text all images must be described in main body copy
- When you upload an image the system generates a snippet of markdown code, for example ‘!!1’. Insert this in the text where needed.
Further reading