Governance information for Siteimprove users

Sites

Sites to add to Siteimprove

  • All live (production), public-facing sites on the UC Berkeley subdomain (ex. dap.berkeley.edu) must be in Siteimprove (any URL).
  • Development, QA, sandbox and staging sites may be added at the owner’s request. These should be removed when no longer in use.
  • Berkeley subdomains (on berkeley.edu), that are, student-managed sites may be added.
  • Berkeley-affiliated sites that end in .org or .com may be added .

Sites to exclude

  • Please refrain from requesting  instructional or Berkeley course websites ending in .org or .com to be added at this time. Please use Berkeley’s supported, accessible and secure bCourses Learning Management System for your digital course materials.
  • Third-party platforms (SaaS), applications, services, domains not owned by UCB (social media sites, Asana, Mural, YouTube, EdX, Smartsheets). The only exception is service-now.com.
  • Google Sites
  • Open Berkeley development sites
  • Redirected URLs; “vanity” URLs
  • Printer and scanner pages
  • URLs for specific pages (AKA subdirectories / subsites) that are part of a larger site will NOT be added as sites. (Example: sitename.berkeley.edu/page23) Options if the page or subsite isn’t linked to from the parent site::
    • Create a sitemap. The DAP team will ask Siteimprove to add this as an extra index URL.
    • The DAP team can add the page manually as an inclusion to the parent domain instance in Siteimprove.
  • Sites that are not live yet

URLs to use

  • The site’s home page should be used as the indexing URL in Siteimprove. (Example: sitename.berkeley.edu)
  • On rare occasions, a site’s home page may redirect to another site, but there is still active, public content on the site. In these cases, please create a basic html sitemap page (Example: sitename.berkeley.edu/sitemap) to act as your indexing URL. This page should link to all the sections of the site that are still active. (An xml sitemap is also acceptable.) Submit the sitemap page to the DAP team for set up in Siteimprove.

Users

  • Users must have a CalNet ID (Berkeley bMail) to access Berkeley’s Siteimprove account.
  • Outside vendors and contractors may gain access if the sponsoring department provides them with a Berkeley affiliate account, which will provide a CalNet ID.
  • In the new Berkeley account, all users have access to Siteimprove reports for all sites immediately upon login. (This greatly reduces our support burden and frees resources for more valuable tasks. Information about the accessibility of sites in Siteimprove can be obtained through other means; there is nothing in Siteimprove that needs to be kept private.)
  • SPA accounts may be used for User accounts, but not Power User accounts.

User access levels

User

  • Primarily a “view only” role
  • Can create “Favorite” sites to elevate them in site lists.
  • Can send and export reports.

Power user

Please submit a power user agreement to obtain this role.

  • Can create and manage Groups for their own sites.
  • Can create and edit policies for their own sites.
  • Can apply spelling decisions to their own pages and sites.
  • Can ignore broken links.
  • Can request deeplinking.
  • Can create custom Dashboards.
  • NOTE: SPA accounts may not be used for Power User access.
  • New requests for the Power User role must be approved by the division’s existing power user(s) and/or digital accessibility liaison.

Administrator

  • Has API authorization.
  • Can add and delete sites.
  • Can add or delete Tags.
  • Can assign new Admins and Power Users.
  • Can add inclusions, exclusions / remove links
  • Can dismiss issues, report false positives.
  • This role will be limited to DAP team members.

Tags

  • All Berkeley.edu sites that are in scope of the Consent Decree must have an L3 Department Tag. These Tags may be used by end users to filter for data about their sites, but they are also used by the DAP team for legally mandated reporting.
  • Sites outside the scope of the consent decree may be tagged with L3 division tags upon request.
  • Additional Tags may be provided upon request for users with a legitimate need. Five or more sites are required for a new Tag.
  • View the L3 Tag list

Dashboards

  • Shared dashboards may be created by Admins.
  • Unshared dashboards may be created by Power Users, who may set up automated scheduled reports to share data using their personal dashboards.
  • If you require a shared dashboard with functionality not available in existing shared dashboards, please contact DAP.
  • Shared dashboards should have readable names (not acronyms) that describe their content and purpose, and if relevant, the L3 Division.

Groups

  • Groups may be used to segment data within a single website.
  • Admins and Power Users can create Groups. Generally, it is the responsibility of the L3 division’s designated Power User(s) to set up Groups. DAP may assist, but it is not within the scope of expected support tasks.

Inclusions and exclusions

  • An exclusion is a URL or URL segment that Siteimprove’s crawlers ignore on a specific site. These are used when search filters, event calendars, or other features result in a huge number of repetitive and/or auto generated pages being crawled by Siteimprove. This may burden the site’s server or result in very long crawls (up to 30+ days).
  • An inclusion is a URL of an external page that Siteimprove’s crawlers treat as an internal page of the site.
  • An extra index URL is an additional entry point for the crawler. These are used when sections of a site are not linked to from a home page.
  • The “remove links” feature tells the crawler not to check or follow a specific link (no content check on these pages and no HTTP status checks).

Only Admins may remove links, or add exclusions, inclusions, or extra index URLs. Users and Power Users who require these should submit a support request and work with an Admin to set them up.

Support tasks

DAP provides the following support for Siteimprove end users at Berkeley:

  • Add new, active sites to Siteimprove.
  • Delete sites that are inactive and experiencing crawling failures.
  • Act as a liaison with Siteimprove’s support team to troubleshoot issues that end users are experiencing.
  • Create and apply new Tags.
  • Provide guidance and assistance.

Power User responsibilities:

  • Set up and manage Groups for their sites.
  • Set up and manage scheduled (automated) email reports.