This article includes editorial guidance to help you choose images, write effective page summaries, and follow our style conventions for lists and text formatting.
Images
- Select images that are authentic, real and relatable to the people of NSW.
- Use high-quality, colour images that are relevant to the content of the page.
- Use appropriate alt text.
For full guidance on image use, see the CMS components guide.
Italics, bold and underlining
Italics
Limit use of italics.
Italicise titles of stand-alone works, legal cases and Acts.
For full guidance on italics, refer to the Australian Government Style Manual.
Bold
Most screen readers won't announce when bold is being used on a webpage. For this reason, it's best to limit the use of bold as a way of emphasising information.
Underlining
Never underline words for emphasis. It can look like a hyperlink and confuse readers.
Lists
List items can be complete sentences or fragments.
Complete sentences
When the list items are complete sentences, we:
- capitalise the first word of every list item
- end each item with a full stop.
Fragments
When the list items are fragments, we:
- start with a lead-in phrase that is common to all the list items
- start each item with a lowercase letter
- check that each item makes a full sentence when read with the lead-in phrase
- don’t use a comma or semicolon after each list item
- don’t use ‘and' after the second-to-last item
- use a full stop on the last list item.
For detailed guidance on lists – including numbered and nested lists – see content structure in the Digital.NSW guidelines.
On this page
'On this page' or in page navigation is a table of contents (TOC element).
It's formatted as a bulleted list of anchor links to the h2s on that page.
It is an optional element that should be used as follows:
- never when there is only 1 h2 on the page
- at the discretion of the writer or publisher (depending on page length) when there are 2 h2s on the page
- always when there are 3 or more h2s on page – except when the h2s are accordions and the user can easily scan them at a glance.
Page summaries
The page summary serves a number of purposes:
- it's used by search engines to help catalogue pages
- it's displayed on search engine results pages to help readers choose the search result that most closely matches their needs
- it may be displayed as part of a view on parent pages within our site (such as on cards)
- it can help our audiences orientate themselves and ensure they're in the right place for the task they want to accomplish (if they've arrived at the page via direct link).
The summary should:
- catch the reader's attention quickly and encourage them to read on
- make sense in the context of the webpage itself and when it's presented alone in other contexts
- contain important keywords and be between 140 and 160 characters (including spaces).
The summary should not contain:
- any hyperlinks
- unnecessary references to ominous consequences (don't write ‘driving an unregistered vehicle can attract heavy penalties’, instead try ‘you must not drive an unregistered vehicle’).
Tips for writing great summaries
- Try using second person point-of-view to help keep the tone friendly and engaging (when it's appropriate).
For example, 'A healthy attitude to social media isn't just for children, it's for all of us. You can model the positive online behaviours you wish to see in your children. Here's how.' - Refer back to the user story to make sure you home in on the primary task/s you're writing to.
- While it does need to be short and sharp, make sure you include enough detail to make the summary useful. (Remember, the summary should add value and context beyond what the reader would already grasp from the page title).
- Try highlighting some key facts to help the reader understand and complete the task more quickly.
For example, ‘If you hold a current interstate licence, NSW will match the expiry date on an equivalent licence for up to 10 years at no charge.’ (bold added to highlight key facts). - Rhetorical questions can be a great way to capture a range of different scenarios and keywords, while keeping the sentences short and easy to read.
For example, ‘Has your licence card been lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed? You can apply for a replacement card online or at a service centre.’
Learn more about the importance of page summaries for SEO.
Need any more help?
If you have any questions, or require assistance with anything mentioned on this article, submit a request via the webform.