Blog Standards Guide

Because blogs are a less formal way of communicating with your readers, it’s a great way to connect with them on mutually interesting subjects to provide meaningful insight. They are meant to be more conversational and updated more regularly than the rest of your website content.

University bloggers must make a commitment to post one blog a month during the semester. We understand your posting schedule may slow down between the semester, but keeping a regular posting schedule helps retain visitors. Blogs not updated regularly will be subject for removal.

Blogs at the University are attached to existing academic or administrative units’ websites on the Louisiana.edu domain. Personal blogs must be maintained by individuals on websites outside the University’s domain. Remember that your University blog reflects upon your unit and the University in general. 

If any website content doesn’t follow the University’s web guidelines, the web team reserves the right to remove or edit that content. In accordance with the University’s website policy, these websites are official University publications, belonging to the University and not individual colleges, departments, or offices. As such, content is ultimately owned by the University and will be edited at OCM’s discretion to ensure effectiveness, accuracy, alignment with web standards and practices, and branding.

Selling and advertising via University blogs and websites is prohibited. 

Process

Follow these steps to create a blog on a University website.

Preparation

Before the blog is activated, the University unit must:

• Identify why a blog is the appropriate medium for their messages. 
• Identify who the primary audience and secondary audiences are for the blog. 
• Receive permission from the appropriate supervisors to create a blog.
• Identify the primary person/people who will be responsible for posting blogs. These people can be Web Ambassadors and have access to edit the entire website, or they can be Bloggers and have permission only to post and update blogs.
• Request permission for blog access from the University’s Office of Communications and Marketing by emailing website@louisiana.edu.
• Draft at least one blog and determine three additional blog topic ideas.
• Determine how to publicize the blog on social media, with colleagues, and on the unit’s website.

To activate the blog

To have the blog activated on the unit’s website, a web ambassador should submit a request via this form and include the information gathered in the preparation stage. 

During this stage, all bloggers must submit a 50-word bio with a photo and contact information so readers understand your authority on the blog subject matter.

Criteria for Writing & Posting Blog

Blog Writing

Bloggers need to understand the voice and tone of the blog. Keep it conversational, referring to “us” (the unit) and “you” (the reader). Blogs are a conversation piece with a less official feeling than news or other website content.

Create your blog in a word processor first—do not compose directly in the website Content Management System. Use Microsoft Word or Grammarly to conduct a spell and grammar check.

Blogs should be about 300-800 words, and they should rarely exceed 1,000 words. Your goal is always to write a succinct post.

Use headings to break up the different content sections of your blog.

Link to related pages/news/blogs on your website, other University websites, and outside authoritative websites to support the text in your blog. Calls to action are helpful for readers.

Edit yourself, and ask someone else to edit the blog. Ensure that all responsible parties read the blog and approve it for posting.

Blog posting

Use descriptive and engaging blog titles (not a full sentence, but explains what the blog is about. Avoid click bait titles like “you won’t believe…” or “Amazing! See what happens when…”). Avoid using first person in the title.

Use the appropriate metadata fields (as covered in the Web Writing Workshop) to ensure maximum searchability and shareability.