Web Services and Standards

Office of Marketing and Strategic Communications
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
(269) 387-8400

News articles

News articles can be created by reporters to provide stories of interest that can be shared across sections.

How to create a news article

  1. Click on Add Content in the administration menu and choose Article.
  2. Select the Site this page is being created in. Click Add to Group.
  3. Enter the Headline for the article in news case, capitalizing only the first word and proper nouns.
  4. Add a Summary, used as a teaser for the article.
  5. In the Content region, click Add Component and select Text to add your article text or Media to add an image. Repeat this process until both your complete article text and images have been added.
  6. Upload or select Attachments to add if you need to create links to any files.
  7. To add a thumbnail image to your article, select Add media in the Lead image region. This image will be displayed when the article is placed on other pages.
  8. Select Add Contact to brovide the byline name. If you do not follow this step, the person creating the article in CMS will be listed as the contact.
  9. Provide the contact email, the address to email when the contact link on the article is clicked.
  10. Press the Save button at the bottom of the page. Then follow the moderation steps as you would any other page.

 

Create a URL for news articles

As part of the website update project, content creators at Western now have the opportunity to create their own URLs for news articles. This transition from a numerical to a written URL structure benefits content creators by allowing them to improve their search rankings in Google for news stories. We advise content creators to follow the guidelines below when creating URLs.

Do

  • Reflect the content of the article or event and clearly indicate to the reader what it is about in your URL.
  • Create a simple and short URL with common language. Using complex terms and intellectualized language do not benefit your SEO results. Simplicity is more important than length, but the reader should be able to quickly read the URL.
  • Use keywords (i.e., common search terms) to make it easier for readers to find your story. Avoid being overly generic; keywords can include specific titles, names or organizations.
  • Separate words with hyphens. (i.e., https://wmich.edu/news/laura-argentati-wins-2024-new-york-fashion-week-competition)

Do not

  • Use articles in URLs (i.e., "a," "the," "in," "of," etc.).
  • Use the same URL for regularly occurring articles or events. URLs should be unique; does this year's event have something special that it didn't in the past? At a minimum, place the year in the URL. (i.e., "https://wmich.edu/events/we-talk-2024-george-franklin-discusses-homelessness" or "https://wmich.edu/news/president-gives-2023-university-address-new-student-center")
  • Capitalize any characters in a URL. Everything should be in lowercase. 
  • Use acronyms in URLs. You are a Bronco veteran, but our prospective students and researching scholars are not. Using acronyms can impact your search results and are not friendly to new readers trying to find your content.