Website Requirements and Guidelines

Publishing a Website at Lehigh

Lehigh provides a number of options to publish and maintain official websites for university offices and academic departments, or to create course-related blogs and sites for individuals and projects.

University Communications uses Drupal to develop and manage priority websites such as the Lehigh homepage, Undergraduate Admissions & Financial Aid site and the News Center, and produces a variety of Drupal-based digital communications in the form of strategic plans, online publications and campus visitor information to meet the emerging needs of the University. UCPA also provides a web style guide in alignment with Lehigh’s Branding initiative.

Web and Mobile Services (ITS) uses Drupal to develop sites for official Lehigh entities, such as administrative areas, university missions, academic departments or colleges at Lehigh. WMS also provides assisted web development with WordPress; classic ‘static’ web hosting; and a free, self-service option with Google Sites. Learn more about the various services offered and the teams that support them

All website development requests should be be submitted through the centralized form: Request for support for a new or existing website

Requests for custom work – whether in the context of a new website or an existing website – are reviewed by the Web Council. The purpose of the Web Council is to clarify and simplify the process for requesting a website and clarify the requirements and expectations for a Lehigh website. In an effort to better understand the campus’s web-related needs, we have created a Web Council to serve as a central channel for web project requests – especially those involving external vendors. When submitting a Website help request, selecting “New Drupal website” will direct your request to this group for review.

Lehigh Website Requirements

The following requirements and guidelines ensure a successful implementation of a Lehigh website.

Drupal and the Lehigh.edu Subdomain

Build the site within the University’s established web development platform Drupal in order to benefit from the strategies Lehigh uses to amplify visibility. The site should also be hosted at Lehigh to benefit from the domain authority of the lehigh.edu domain, the secure hosting and support provided by ITS, and access to official branded design templates and resources. Determining the proper subdomain is part of the general consulting process that takes place when a request for a website is initiated.

(Note: We strongly recommend hosting your website by Lehigh so you can benefit from a Lehigh.edu subdomain, but if you contract the development and hosting to an external vendor, there may be options available that include redirects but do not include the ability to have a Lehigh.edu address. A “.com” domain will not identify your site as part of an accredited higher education institution and will require additional management and fees.)

Link to Lehigh Homepage

Clear link to Lehigh University Homepage (www.lehigh.edu/home)

Header and Footer

Full list of Lehigh Footer Links

Lehigh’s Instance of Google Search

To provide consistency and the best user experience, utilize Lehigh’s instance of Google Search. For example, if a user searches on “Applying to Lehigh” – they wouldn’t get “Your search yielded no results” if there was not that specific content on the individual site. (UCPA can provide code)

Web Accessibility

WCAG 2.1 standards ( University Accessibility Website )

As a starting point, reference WebAIM’s web accessibility evaluation tool for details about the site’s accessibility errors and recommendations on how to resolve them. Items that need to be addressed may include:

  • Contrast errors: There needs to be adequate contrast between text and background colors.
  • Link text needs to be descriptive. Avoid "read more" links or buttons. Link text should make sense on its own without the surrounding content. For example "Read more about Wildfire Risk" is more descriptive on its own than "Read more".
  • Images missing alt text: Alt text should be added to provide a description of the image. It helps visually impaired people understand what the image shows, helps search engine bots understand image contents, and appears on a page when the image fails to load.
  • Keyboard usability

Assets, Resources and Guidelines for a Successful Website Implementation

Assets (Including Brand and Visual Identity Guide)

  1. Lehigh’s logos, wordmarks and brand colors are available in the Brand and Visual Identity Guide
  2. A library of campus, student, research, department images are available in Asset Bank

Traditional Search Engine and AI-related Search Optimization

  1. Optimize site so that it displays correctly in search results and ranks well for desired keywords

Visibility, Awareness and Integration with the main Lehigh Website

  1. Promote across Lehigh websites, social media, etc.
  2. Make sure the link to the site is included on relevant websites. Ask owners of other relevant Lehigh sites to incorporate links on their sites.
  3. Submit program-related events to Lehigh's events calendar. Events submitted can be included on the site through an events feed, provided by UCPA.
  4. Work with University Communications to share stories of research, student success/research involvement and other newsworthy/timely events for sharing, coverage or pitching. Content developed through this work can be included/embedded on the site through a news feed provided by UCPA.

Hawkwatch Emergency Alerts

  1. Using feed provided by UCPA, integrate the Emergency Alert banner at the top of site pages.