☰
Navigation :

Web Elements

Every piece of content we publish is supported by a number of smaller pieces. This section lays out our style in regards to these web elements, and explains our approach to the tricky art of SEO.

Guidelines

Alt text

Alt text is a way to label images, and it’s especially important for people who can’t see the images on our website. Alt text should describe the image in a brief sentence or two.

For more on how and why we use alt text, read the Accessibility section.

Headings and subheadings

***Making content “shareable” also goes under here? (e.g. anchor links for headers?)

Headings and subheadings organize content for readers and make it scannable, like a newspaper. Be generous and descriptive.

Headings (H1) give people a taste of what they’re about to read. Use them for page and blog titles.

Subheadings (H2, H3, etc.) break pages into smaller, more specific sections. They give readers avenues into your content and make it more scannable.

Headings and subheadings should be organized in a hierarchy, with heading first, followed by subheadings in order. (An H2 will nestle under H1, an H3 under H2, and on down.)

Include the most relevant keywords in your headings and subheadings, and make sure you cover the main point of the content.

Use title case, unless the heading is a punctuated sentence. If the heading is a punctuated sentence, use sentence case. Use sentence case for subheadings regardless of end punctuation.

Provide a link whenever you’re referring to something on an external website. Use links to point users to relevant content and trusted external resources.

Don’t include preceding articles (a, an, the, our) when you link text. For example:

If a link comes at the end of a sentence or before a comma, don’t link the punctuation mark.

Don’t say things like “Click here!” or “Click for more information” or “Read this.” Write the sentence as you normally would, and link relevant keywords.

Links should look different than regular copy, strong text, or emphasis text. They should have a hover state that communicates they’re interactive, and should have a distinct active and visited state. When setting the hover state of links, be sure to include focus state as well, to help readers using assistive technologies and touch devices.

Lists

Use lists to present steps, groups, or sets of information. Give context for the list with a brief introduction. Number lists when the order is important, like when you’re describing steps of a process. Don’t use numbers when the list’s order doesn’t matter.

If one of the list items is a complete sentence, use proper punctuation and capitalization on all of the items. If list items are not complete sentences, don’t use punctuation, but do capitalize the first word of each item.

Use title case for main or global navigation. Use sentence case for subnavigation.

Navigation links should be clear and concise.

Radio Buttons

Use title case for headings and sentence case for button fields.

Sometimes a long piece of copy lends itself to a list of related links at the end. Don’t go overboard—4 is usually plenty.

Related articles should appear in a logical order, following the step down/step up rule: The first article should be a step down in complexity from the current article. The second one should be a step up in complexity to a more advanced article.

If you can, avoid repeating links from the body text in related articles.

Titles

Titles organize pages and guide readers. A title appears at the beginning of a page or section and briefly describes the content that follows.

Titles are (you guessed it) in title case.

Don’t use punctuation in a title unless the title is a question.

SEO

We write for humans, not machines. While we wouldn’t want to resort to keyword stuffing just to bump up search results, we also want to make it easy for people and search engines to find and share our content. Here are some not-icky ways to do this: