Web Team

Students, faculty, and staff come to the CNM website to complete tasks and find answers to questions. We want to make their visit as quick and efficient as possible.

As a website contributor on cnm.edu, you’ll be creating great content that is easy for our visitors to find and understand. 

Great content is:

• appropriate
• useful
• clear
• consistent
• concise

Writing for the Web

Following these guidelines will help you write and maintain effective web content.

Make Your Pages Easy to Scan

Readers on websites frequently scan content instead of reading. To make your pages easier to scan:

• Put important information at the top of the page.
• Use hyperlinks, bullets, and lists to create some visual white space.
• Use tables, numbers, and charts to convey information visually.
• Only use bold text for emphasis.

Edit Your Content

Most visitors to cnm.edu spend less than 30 seconds on each page. In that time, they’re skimming the content looking for information relevant to their needs. With that in mind, try following these writing tips: 

• Write in short, simple sentences.
• Talk to your audience (second person) instead of about them (third person).
• Use language your visitors would use.
• Highlight task-oriented information.
• Use headings and subheadings to organize information (3-7 word headings work best).
• Avoid jargon and explain acronyms that might be confusing to readers.
• Proofread your content prior to publishing.

Create Useful Links

The text you use when creating hyperlinks should give a general description of the content on the target page. It should also be easy to understand when read out of context. Generally, links should:

• Be short and informative.
• Provide information even when read out of context.
• Explain what the link goes to.
• Not include phrases like "click here" or “follow this link.”

Web Style Guide

The CNM Web Style Guide provides CNM website contributors with more detailed guidelines for creating content. This will help ensure that the content on cnm.edu is consistent, concise, understandable to the general public we serve.