Best Practices for Publishing on NIU News Sites

These best practices help every story on an NIU college or division news site reach readers through search engines, AI tools and screen readers. Prospective students increasingly find NIU through search results and AI assistants, and these tools rely on clear, consistent information in each post. 

News sites are held to the same digital accessibility standards as the rest of niu.edu.

Why News Appears on niu.edu Only Through Feeds

News stories are not published as pages on niu.edu. Stories posted as webpages stay in place long after they are current, and over time they leave outdated information on the university's website. Instead, colleges and divisions publish news on their news sites, and pages on niu.edu display the latest stories through feeds.

As you publish new stories, older ones drop off your college's or division's website automatically, while the full archive stays on your news site. The stories you publish, and the categories and tags you give them, decide what visitors see on your website.

Roles and Responsibilities

University Marketing sets up each site with:

• A clear site name and description, so search engines and AI tools know what each news site covers.
• A search setting that uses each post's excerpt as the short description shown in search results and AI answers. Communicators write the excerpt for each post.
• Structured data. Each post tells search engines and AI tools that it is an article and which college or division published it.
• Search settings and sitemaps, so the right pages are found and indexed.

How Your News Site Is Organized

Each news site runs on WordPress. A few WordPress terms come up throughout this page, and knowing how they work makes the checklist easier to follow.

• Posts are your news stories. They appear newest first on your site's homepage and in its feeds.
• Categories are the broad sections of your site, such as Students, Alumni, Faculty and Research, or Events. Each category has its own page that lists its posts, and category links can appear in your site's menu.
• Tags are specific labels for the programs, departments or initiatives a story is about, such as Nursing or Study Abroad.
• Feeds are automatic, always-current lists of your latest posts that other websites can display. Your site has one feed for all of its posts, plus a separate feed for every category and every tag.

How Categories and Tags Put Your Stories on Your Website

Program and department pages on your college's or division's main website on niu.edu can include a news section that pulls stories from your news site automatically. That news section reads the feed for one or more categories or tags. For example, a nursing program page can display the latest stories tagged Nursing, and an alumni page can display the latest stories in the Alumni category.

This means the categories and tags on a post decide which pages show it, so each one must be relevant to the story. A story tagged Nursing appears on the nursing program page. If unrelated stories are tagged Nursing, they appear on that page too, and prospective nursing students see news that has nothing to do with the program.

News feeds are not added to pages automatically. To add a news section to a program or department page, or to change which categories or tags a news section uses, request a website update through your college's or division's web update coordinator.

How Categories and Tags Differ

• Categories organize your site for visitors who are browsing it. Use a short list of categories that rarely changes, and put each post only in the categories that fit the story.
• Tags connect a story to the specific programs it is about. Use only the tags that apply to the story.
• Both categories and tags can feed news sections on your website, so a post's category and tags both affect where it appears.
• Every category in your menu should be in use. If your site's menu links to categories you do not use, visitors land on empty or outdated pages. 
• No post should be left in Uncategorized. WordPress assigns Uncategorized when no category is chosen.

Checklist for Every Post

1. Write an Excerpt

The excerpt is the one- or two-sentence summary that search engines and AI tools show for the post. It also appears with the story in news sections on your website. It is in the Excerpt box below the story editor. If you do not see the Excerpt box, open Screen Options at the top right of the screen and check Excerpt.

• Keep it under 155 characters so it is not cut off.
• Lead with who and what: the person, the program and the outcome.
• Do not repeat the headline.
• Write it as a complete sentence.

2. Choose Only the Categories and Tags the Story Is About

Use the Categories and Tags panels in the post sidebar. Categories and tags decide which pages on your website show the story, and they tell search engines what the story covers, so a short, accurate list matters more than a long one.

• Choose the category or categories that fit the story. Do not leave the post in Uncategorized.
• Choose only the tags for the programs, departments or initiatives the story is actually about.
• Use existing tags rather than creating new spellings or variations.
• A story about a graduate of one program should carry that program's tag, not the tags for every program in the college.
• Ask University Marketing before renaming or deleting a category or tag. Its feed address comes from its name, so renaming or deleting it can empty the news section on a page.

3. Link to Your Main Website in the Story

Links from stories to your college's or division's main website on niu.edu give readers a next step and help search engines and AI tools connect each story to the program it describes.

• Add two to four links in the body, on the first mention of a program, department or service. Four is a limit, not a goal. When a story has many links, they compete with one another, pull readers away before they reach the page that matters most, and make it harder for search engines to tell which page the story supports.
• Link each page only once. Do not link every person, office or department named in the story; choose the links that give readers a useful next step.
• Use descriptive link text that names the destination, such as the program's name. Do not use "click here" or a bare URL.
• Link to current page addresses, not older paths that redirect.
• For programs offered online, link the program page on your college's website when the story focuses on curriculum or faculty, and the NIU Online program page when the goal is encouraging prospective students to request information.
• End the story with a "Learn more about" link to the most relevant program page.

4. Use a Horizontal Featured Image and Add Alt Text to Every Image

Alt text describes an image for people using screen readers and for search engines. It is also required for ADA Title II compliance.

Featured image

• Use a horizontal featured image in a 3:2 shape, ideally 1200 x 800 pixels and no smaller than 900 x 600. The news.niu.edu homepage and social media previews crop featured images to a horizontal shape, so a tall or very wide image can lose faces, heads or text.
• To crop an image, open it in Media > Library, select Edit Image, choose the 3:2 aspect ratio, drag the crop box so the main subject is near the center, then select Crop and Save.
• Save photos as JPG files of about 300 KB or less so pages load quickly.
• Use the same shape for every post. When featured images match, your news site and its row on news.niu.edu look consistent.

Alt text

• Add alt text in the image settings when you insert an image into the post. Alt text added later in the Media Library does not update images already placed in a post.
• Add alt text to the featured image as well. Type it in the Alternative Text field when you choose the image under Set featured image, or later in Media > Library. WordPress uses the Media Library alt text for the featured image.
• Name the person and describe what is visible, in one sentence of about 125 characters or fewer.
• Do not begin with "Image of" or "Photo of." Screen readers already announce that it is an image.
• If an image contains words, include them in the alt text.

5. Make the Story Accessible

News sites are held to the same digital accessibility standards as the rest of niu.edu. Accessible posts are easier for everyone to read and for search engines and AI tools to understand.

Headings and lists

• The story's title is the page's main heading (Heading 1), so do not use Heading 1 in the story. If the story needs section headings, use Heading 2 from the Paragraph menu in the editor toolbar, and Heading 3 for sections within those. Do not skip levels.
• Do not use bold or larger text in place of a heading. Screen readers announce headings so listeners can move through the story, and bold text is not announced.
• Use the bulleted or numbered list buttons for lists rather than typing dashes or numbers.

Text and formatting

• Do not use color alone to show meaning, and do not change text colors.
• Do not underline text that is not a link, and do not write in all capital letters.
• Do not post a flyer or graphic in place of text. If a story includes a flyer, put the event name, date, time, location and registration details in the text of the post as well.
• Use tables only for data, with a header row. Do not use tables to lay out a page.

Video, audio and documents

• Videos must have accurate captions. Automatic captions must be reviewed and corrected before the video is posted.
• Audio, such as a podcast episode, needs a transcript.
• Avoid attaching PDF or Word files. Put the information in the post instead. If a document must be attached, it must be accessible, and the link text should name the file type, such as "2026 Award Recipients (PDF)."

6. Include Specifics That Can Be Quoted

AI tools favor concrete facts over general praise. In student and alumni stories, include details such as:

• Degree and program, including format when it matters, such as online or hybrid
• Graduation year or cohort
• Current role and employer
• Measurable outcomes, such as a promotion, certification, award or job offer

7. Preview Before Publishing

• The excerpt is a complete sentence.
• The post has only the categories and tags that apply.
• Every image, including the featured image, has alt text.
• The featured image is horizontal (3:2) and the subject is not cut off.
• Any section headings use the Heading formats, in order.
• Videos have accurate captions, and event details appear in text, not only in a flyer.
• Links go to the right pages.

Quick Reference