Making a Website Live

What does "live" mean?

At a basic level, a website is "live" once it has been published to a web server. This creates an address (URL) so the site can be visited by users and indexed by search engines.

In the context of a site that is one part of the college web presence, it also means:

• there are links to the newly live site from all the places in the college website that were identified in the integration plan
• the newly live site has been included in the college website's search index as laid out in the integration plan.

What does this process apply to?

This process applies to:

• new college or college-affiliated websites, web-based forms and applications
• changes to  existing college or college-affiliated sites, web-based forms and applications that are beyond the scope of normal maintenance
• college or college-affiliated sites that are being migrated from their current platform into TerminalFour.

What must happen before a site can be made live?

All of the following tasks must be completed before a website can be made live:

• Authorization has been given for the website's subject or task as well as for the website.
• A site steward and at least one site administrator have been assigned.
• An integration plan has been approved by OCM and ITS in consultation with other stakeholders.
• If the new site is replacing an existing site, Web-based form or Web application, a detailed plan for decommissioning the old content and redirecting users to the new has been developed by the Web manager, in consultation with the Web Content Coordinator.
• All content has been reviewed and approved by the steward, OCM, OAA (for academic content), appropriate subject matter experts and stakeholders.
• The site, Web-based form or application has passed all relevant technical reviews. 
  
  • The minimum reviews are: accessibility, conformance to the applicable specifications for HTML and CSS, links, URLs for search engine optimization
  • ITS staff will identify any other reviews and tests that are needed. These include but are not limited to: checks of functionality, usability and security.
• For a site in t4, the appropriate t4 workflow has been applied.