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Websites

Guidelines and requirements for all websites representing Rutgers. 

Policy Information

The university website policy governs all websites representing Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and any entities that conduct official university business or that provide official university information to its constituents. These include, but are not limited to, websites under the domain umbrella rutgers.edu.

What Does the Policy Do?

  • Ensures that all websites representing Rutgers present a consistent, professional image of Rutgers and are accessible to those with disabilities, accurate, easy to find and navigate, and timely.
  • Provides standards for use and content maintenance of websites that provide official university information to its constituents.
  • Provides guidelines for website administration and management.
  • Establishes an annual website certification by members of the Rutgers Administrative Council.
  • Defines the process for the assignment of domain names for Rutgers websites.

Web Domains Governed by the Policy

The university’s rutgers.edu domain is a valuable asset of the institution, and all websites falling under that domain umbrella—any website that includes .rutgers.edu in its name—are governed by this policy. ​

This policy also applies to rutgers.com, rutgers.org, rutgers.info, and all other domain categories of websites that represent any entity of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and that are used to conduct official university business.

Domain names on a 3D rendering

Exceptions to the Policy

This policy is not intended to affect the activities of faculty members and their freedom to conduct and share research and other academic and scholarly work. 

This policy is not intended to affect student organization websites. 

Accordion Content

Required Website Certification

Learn about the annual certification process for Rutgers websites.

  • Annual website certification is the process through which units confirm that they have assessed their websites according to the requirements and guidelines defined in the University Web Policy and have developed a remediation plan to address any categories that do not comply with the standards defined in the policy.

    The members of the Rutgers Administrative Council must annually certify the websites within their areas of responsibility. Certification is required annually for all Rutgers websites except faculty personal webpages, individual faculty research websites, websites for faculty research labs, and student club/organization websites.

    The certification process will be managed through a web application developed by the Office of Information Technology. 

    View the website certification training video.

  • There are three steps to the website certification process: 

    1. Inventory
      The inventory will provide the university with a much-needed listing of websites at Rutgers. The inventory asks for information about the technology used by a website (CMS, database, programming languages) as well as information about a site’s audience and metrics (number of visitors, pageviews). If information is not available at the time of the inventory, N/A or TBD can be used so that the inventory can be completed.
       
    2. Assessment
      The assessment will indicate the current state of websites at Rutgers and provide a roadmap for remediation. It asks yes/no questions that relate to the new Rutgers Website Policy such as whether the university logo is at the top of each page, whether the site has a link to the university search function, whether it contains restricted data, and whether it has been reviewed for accessibility.
       
    3. Status Report
      The status update page summarizes the assessment and includes fields for entering a remediation plan for any areas that do not comply with the new website policy.  Specific steps that will be taken can be added and updated as websites are improved. The status report also provides a method for sharing the assessment and any remediation plans with colleagues, supervisors, and the administrative council member. 
  • Administrative council members are responsible for selecting certification coordinators who will ensure that inventory and assessment information is entered in the database for each website within the council member’s area of responsibility. 

    Certification coordinators are responsible for entering, or assigning others to enter, information about each website into the database. 

    Information for the inventory and assessment database may need to be gathered from various people within an area. For instance, technical information about the website infrastructure may come from one person, while information about the content may come from a different person. 

    If you have been asked to be a certification coordinator, please go to the Certification Coordinator Submission Form and provide your Name, NetID Username, Email Address, Unit. 

    To find your unit, you should select the highest-level unit in your area. 

    • Central administrative units should select the highest-level unit in their reporting structure (i.e., IP&O for Transportation Services). 
    • Divisions/Chancellor-led administrative units should select the appropriate division. 
    • Academics units should select their school or college.

    A full guide to the inventory and assessment web application is available

Contact Us

If you have questions, email webintegrity@rutgers.edu