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P1 Running a Public Website Day to Day

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Lesson 1 of 8 · Video

The weekly check

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Curriculum0 of 8 done
2 minutes 28 seconds. Captions are on. Slides, a fictional city site in WordPress Playground, and the public LFW Client Portal demo with sample data. The narration is a synthesized voice; a recorded voice replaces it later.

A 20-minute routine, once a week, that catches the expired alert, the missing agenda and the broken form before a resident does.

Notes

Step 1 of 6

Start here

A public website goes wrong slowly. An event passes and stays on the homepage. An alert about last month's snow is still at the top. A form sends to someone who retired. None of it is dramatic, and residents notice all of it.

This course is for the person who keeps the site current. It starts with the habit that prevents most problems: a short check, once a week, on the same day.

Step 2 of 6

Why weekly

Most of what a public site publishes is dated: meetings, events, closures, deadlines, seasonal services. A week is short enough that nothing stays wrong for long, and long enough that the check stays quick. Pick a day that is not your busiest. Many clerks use the morning after the regular board meeting.

Step 3 of 6

The checklist

Copy this list, adjust it to your site and keep it where your backup can find it.

The homepage (5 minutes)

  1. Is the alert bar on? If yes, is the alert still true? If not, turn it off.
  2. Are the news items and events current? Remove or archive anything that has passed.
  3. Does every link in the top section of the page work?

Meetings (5 minutes)

  1. Is every meeting in the next two weeks posted, with the date, time, place and agenda when it is ready?
  2. Are last week's materials posted: the packet, the recording if you post one, and draft minutes if your practice is to post them?
  3. Are cancelled or moved meetings marked as such?

Things residents send (5 minutes)

  1. Send a test message through the main contact form. Did it arrive at the right inbox?
  2. Read the website feedback inbox, if you have one, and answer or forward what is there.
  3. Did anyone report a problem with the site by phone or at the counter this week? Write it down.

A look on a phone (5 minutes)

  1. Open the homepage and two popular pages on your own phone. Can you read them without zooming? Does the menu open?
  2. Use the site search for one common term, such as "trash" or "permit." Does the right page come up first?

Write the date and your initials at the bottom when you are done.

Step 4 of 6

What you do with what you find

Fix small things on the spot: turn off the expired alert, unpublish the past event, correct the time. For anything that takes longer than a few minutes, write it on a list with the date you found it. That list feeds the monthly report in lesson 8.

When a page belongs to another department, send the fix to its owner with a date: "The pool hours on the Parks page still show summer. Can you send me the fall hours by Friday?"

Step 5 of 6

Add a quick accessibility look

The Department of Justice's 2024 rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires state and local government web content to meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA. ADA.gov lists the compliance dates: April 26, 2027 for governments serving 50,000 or more people, and April 26, 2028 for smaller governments and special districts.

The weekly check is not an accessibility audit. It is a good moment to glance at what was published this week: a new image without alt text, a scanned PDF, a heading made with bold text. The W3C's Easy Checks page lists quick checks anyone can do.

Step 6 of 6

When you are out

The weekly check only works if it happens every week. Name a backup, show them the list once, and give them the access they need for the steps (no more). Shared Accounts and Offboarding covers how to give that access safely.

Sources

Transcript

Synthesized narration; a recorded voice replaces it later.

  1. 0:00A public website goes wrong slowly.
  2. 0:02An event passes and stays on the homepage.
  3. 0:05An alert about last month's snow is still at the top.
  4. 0:08A form sends to someone who retired.
  5. 0:10Residents notice all of it.
  6. 0:13The habit that prevents most problems is a short check, once a week, on the same day.
  7. 0:18Pick a day that is not your busiest.
  8. 0:21Many clerks use the morning after the regular board meeting.
  9. 0:25The checklist has four parts, about five minutes each: the homepage, meetings, the things residents send, and a look on a phone.
  10. 0:35Start in the dashboard.
  11. 0:37At a Glance and Activity show what was published recently.
  12. 0:40Is anything there already out of date?
  13. 0:44The homepage.
  14. 0:46Is the alert bar on?
  15. 0:47If yes, is the alert still true?
  16. 0:49If not, turn it off.
  17. 0:51Are the news items and events current?
  18. 0:53Remove or archive anything that has passed.
  19. 0:56Does every link in the top section work?
  20. 1:00Site Health is worth a glance too.
  21. 1:03Anything new under critical issues goes to whoever runs the site.
  22. 1:07Meetings.
  23. 1:08Is every meeting in the next two weeks posted, with the date, time, place and agenda when it is ready?
  24. 1:15Are last week's materials posted?
  25. 1:17Are cancelled or moved meetings marked?
  26. 1:20Things residents send.
  27. 1:22Send a test message through the main contact form, and check it arrived at the right inbox.
  28. 1:27Read the feedback inbox.
  29. 1:29Write down any problem someone reported by phone or at the counter.
  30. 1:35If your site has a monitoring report, it catches what you would miss by eye.
  31. 1:39This is the public demo of LFW's client portal, with sample data.
  32. 1:44The open findings list a page that returns an error: a broken link.
  33. 1:49A look on a phone.
  34. 1:50Open the homepage and two popular pages on your own phone.
  35. 1:54Can you read them without zooming?
  36. 1:56Does the menu open?
  37. 1:57Then search for one common term, such as trash or permit.
  38. 2:02Fix small things on the spot.
  39. 2:04For anything that takes longer, write it on a list with the date you found it.
  40. 2:08That list feeds the monthly report.
  41. 2:11Then write the date and your initials at the bottom.
  42. 2:14Your task.
  43. 2:15Copy the checklist, and adjust it to your site.
  44. 2:18Run the whole check once this week.
  45. 2:21Write down every problem you found, and whether you fixed it.
  46. 2:24Then name your backup, and send them the list.

Task

Your task at your institution

Quiz

4 questions. Choose one answer for each, then check them. Each answer shows its reason.

1. What is the main point of a weekly check?
2. Where should the weekly check be recorded?
3. How do you check that a contact form still works?
4. The homepage still lists an event from two weeks ago. What does a resident conclude?
Show the answers
  1. B. To catch out-of-date and broken things before residents find them. Most website problems are small and dated: an old alert, a past event, a form that stopped sending. A short routine catches them.
  2. B. On a dated checklist anyone on the team can see. A dated record shows the check happened, and lets a backup run it when you are out.
  3. B. Send a test message and confirm it arrives at the right inbox. A form can look fine and send nowhere. Only a test submission proves it.
  4. B. That the site may not be kept up, so other facts may be wrong too. Stale items make residents doubt everything else on the page, including the facts that are current.