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Before uploading a PDF, ask yourself: could this content work as a web page instead?

Here's why we recommend web pages whenever possible:

• Accessibility: Web pages work better with screen readers and other assistive technologies. They're also easier to navigate for users with disabilities.
• Mobile experience: PDFs require pinching, zooming and awkward scrolling on phones and tablets. Web pages adapt automatically.
• Search visibility: Search engines rank web pages higher than PDFs, which means your content is more likely to be found.
• Maintenance: Updating a web page is straightforward. With PDFs, you have to upload a new file, update links and hope no one bookmarked the old version.
• Analytics: You can track how people use web pages through Google Analytics. PDFs only show downloads, so you can't evaluate how users actually engage with the content within.

If your content is text-heavy, gets updated regularly or is under a few pages long, it should almost always be a web page rather than a PDF.

Now is the time to audit the files on your site. Determine who in your department will lead this effort and who will contribute.

How to Get Started

1. Request a content export by .
2. Evaluate all PDFs and other files on your site.
3. For each file, ask: Do I need this?

Decision Tree

¹ú²úÂ×Àí archive options 

1. The DOJ rule includes exceptions for archived web PDF content, meaning older documents that are no longer actively used can be preserved for historical reference without full remediation if they meet all four exceptions. This allows us to focus accessibility efforts on current content while maintaining access to historical records through the upcoming website PDF/Document Archive.
2. Alternatively, webmasters can review . If the file(s) qualify, work with their team to transfer and then delete the file from your website, as well as any links leading to that file that is removed.

What's changing: As of Dec. 1, you'll no longer be able to upload files directly using the "Insert Media" button in the WYSIWYG editor.

Standard process: Create a new "File" content item and upload your document there. This has always been the recommended method in Drupal - we're just removing the alternative option to promote consistency and support accessibility compliance.

Remember: All files uploaded to the website should meet accessibility standards.

If your site isn't hosted on (e.g., custom applications or subdomains), it won't be included in our Siteimprove contract. However, there are free tools you can use to check for accessibility and SEO issues:

A free, built-in tool in Chrome DevTools that evaluates accessibility, performance and SEO. It provides scores and actionable recommendations for improvement.

• How to use: Open your site in Chrome → Right-click → Inspect → Click "Lighthouse" tab → Run audit

A free browser plugin that scans for accessibility issues and highlights them directly on your page.

• Note: This tool focuses on accessibility only and doesn't include the customized dashboards available in the full Siteimprove product.

Step 1: Create a New Policy in Siteimprove

1. Open Siteimprove.
2. Navigate to the Policies section in the left-hand menu.
3. Click the purple "Create Policy" button.

Step 2: Open the Content Policy Category

1. Once you are on the Policy Categories page, locate the "Content" tab at the top.
2. Select the tab labeled "Content."

Step 3: Add a Rule to Your Policy

1. Click the purple box with a "+" in the center to add a new rule to your policy.
2. From the drop-down menu that appears, select Link URL.

Step 4: Identify and Copy the URL Segment

1. Locate the full URL you want your policy to search for.
2. Copy only the part of the URL that comes immediately after kent.edu.
3. In this example, the portion you would copy is: /s3fs-root/s3fs-public/file/Weigle_ALISE%202016%20Poster.pdf

Step 5: Add the URL to Your Policy Rule

1. Paste the URL segment you copied into the Link URL field in your policy.
2. Set the first condition to "contains."
3. Set the second condition to "is exactly."
   • Using "contains" is usually sufficient, but I usually double-check accuracy by also adding the "is exactly" condition.

Step 6: Name and Create Your Policy

1. Enter a name for your policy in the Policy Name field.
2. Click the purple "Create Policy" button located in the bottom-right corner of your screen.

Step 7: Open Your Policy

1. Once your policy has finished running, locate it in the Policies list.
2. Click on the name of your policy to open it and view the results.

Step 8: Review Policy Results

1. After opening your policy, review the results that appear.
2. Click on any of the results to view more details.
   • In this example, there is only one result.

Step 9: Locate the Link in the Page HTML

1. Sometimes Siteimprove won't show the exact location of a link if it's embedded in text.
   • This is the case in this example.
2. To find the link on the page, click the "View HTML" button.
3. The HTML view will show exactly where the link exists on the page.
   • The text that the link is attached to is usually displayed just above the actual URL in the HTML.

Step 10: Make Adjustments on the Page

1. Navigate to the actual page where the policy result was found.
2. Make any necessary adjustments, such as removing the linked text or updating the link.

Sometimes a PDF is the right choice - for example, forms that need to be printed and filled out or official documents that require specific formatting.

When that's the case, make sure your PDF is accessible:

Before Converting to PDF

• Be sure your document has a relevant title
• Run accessibility checker in your source application
• Use proper heading structure (H1, H2, H3)
• Add alt text to all images
• Ensure text is searchable (avoid image-only scanned PDFs)

Content Requirements

• Use readable fonts and maintain good color contrast
• Write descriptive link text instead of "click here" or bare URLs
• Save with meaningful filenames that describe content
• Create tagged PDFs when exporting

Accessibility Resources

Software-Specific Guides

Standards & Testing

More Questions?

Register for ¹ú²úÂ×Àí trainings using the buttons at the bottom of this page.
 

Follow these steps to ensure files are completely removed from your site and won't still appear in search engine results:

1. Unpublish or edit any web page that links to the file.
2. Remove the file from your page content.
3. Delete the file node in Drupal.
4. Confirm that no other pages link to the file.
5. Contact us by submitting a ticket if you need help or if the file appears across multiple sites.