Having robust governance in place is critical for the success of any digital channel aimed at customers, employees or other audiences.  Governance is an umbrella term that can be applied to many of the essential aspects needed to manage a website, from the strategic (who defines the aims of the website) right down to the content on every page (“can we post that image here?”).

It’s also often a word that’s misunderstood – governance sounds both overbearing and boring – although if positioned as “what will make your website a success,” it usually fares better with those involved.

To make governance effective and sustainable, consider it an ecosystem of different but related parts. At a high level, these fall into five main categories:

• Structures and roles
• Policies and standards
• Tools and technology
• Processes
• Guidelines and training

Let’s look at each component in more detail.

Structures and roles

These are the structures and roles that have responsibility for the website, digital channels and related content. This covers senior ownership and sponsorship and the person ultimately responsible for day to day management. It also covers technical roles from the IT department, as well as third party suppliers and hosts. There are also those involved with content including authors, editors, approvers and administrators.

Digital teams need to establish clarity over the specific responsibilities and activities of each role. It’s always surprising how few teams write this down.  It might take you a couple of hours, but it’s an exercise worth doing so that everybody is working from the same page. Websites are usually an ensemble effort, after all.

Policies and standards

Policies and standards detail the essential principles and related rules you must put in place to make your website meet its objectives around:

• brand (look and feel)
• content (tone of voice, accuracy, timeliness, formatting, images, links etc.)
• compliance (data, accessibility, copyright etc.)
• security and performance

Again, these need to be written down if you want to get people to adhere to them. Clarity is the key, here.  

Tools and technology

This is the technology and the related tools through which you manage your website and its content. At the centre of managing your website will be your Content Management System. Your CMS should allow you to deliver some of your governance framework, for example, through site and page templates, effective permissions and an approval workflow.

Often your CMS will need to be supplemented by other tools to help you to:

• enforce your policies and standards
• identify issues which may otherwise go unnoticed
• help to prioritise actions
• and to know when to update content

An automated solution like Sitemorse will prove to be an essential element within your digital governance ecosystem.

Processes

You also need to have the right processes in place. This covers decision-making – including questions like who gets to decide on a new area of the website if it is requested by a part of your business – right through to more operational matters such as monthly reporting. Again, our advice is to write those common processes down!

Guidelines and training

While your CMS and tools like Sitemorse are essential, in the end it’s people who will make all of the above happen. You need to have guidelines and associated training so that everybody is confident and motivated to deliver an excellent website.

It’s not rocket science!

Digital governance isn’t rocket science. You can make it work but you need to have all the separate parts of the ecosystem in place to make it happen and make it sustainable.

In practice, most digital teams are extremely busy and operate quite informally in some of the above areas. Spending a little time to formalise roles and processes and filling any gaps really is worth the effort. It will make your website and its content better and your everyday management more efficient. 

Image: Pexels/Stokpic