Web standards

• Use up to 80 characters in page or file titles
• Description between 110 and 160 characters
• Do not use acronyms or jargon
• Do not use symbols or punctuation other than: - ? ', ( ) ! . : " £ $ €
• Make titles and description meaningful to boost search engine results
• Only the first letter of the first word is capital

For more information, see Web standards for page and file titles and Web standards for adding descriptions

• Use H2 headings and H3 sub headings to break up long pages into subject areas
• Use headings in order, H2 before an H3
• Format using the headings button in Squiz Matrix
• Do not use jargon and only use abbreviations or anonyms if they a explained in full in the first instance
• Do not use symbols or punctuation other than: - ? ', ( ) ! . : " £ $ €
• Only the first letter of the first word should be a capital letter
• Do not use bold
• Do not use headings as links

For more information on headings, see Web standards for headings (H2) and sub headings (H3).

• Use anchor links for long pages, starting with a 'Page contents' H2 heading
• Use bulleted lists for more than one link or list of text
• Do not use tables to create columns or position image

For more information on page layout, see Web standards for page layout.

• Format text as Paragraph style.
• Paste text from a Word document or a webpage as 'plain text' .
• Do not use block capital letters or italics
• Check spelling and grammar and use the English and not the American spelling of words.
• Follow the council's house style (on Our Surrey)
• Explain abbreviations acronyms and avoid jargon
• Format dates, times, distances and money correctly

For more information on formatting text, see Web standards for text.

• Do not use 'click here' or other generic terms for links
• Check all your links work
• Internal links should be via The ID number of the page and not the URL
• Make sure all external links are https (secure and won't be blocked in some browsers)
• Make sure you link to all sub (child) pages in 'In this section' or in the body of main (parent) page
• Ensure your link text reflects the name of the webpage, web site of file they are going to
• If two or more links lead to the same destination, the same link text should be used.
• Link email addresses
• Do not add links to third party PDF's, discussion sites or forums.

For more information on using links, see Web standards for links.

• Images should complement text, not replace it.
• Images should be smaller than 30 kilobytes
• Sized to a standard dimension ( in pixels)
• Use .jpg or .png format
• Use meaningful and short Alt text for all images.
• Include a text description for any images that contain data
• Make sure you have copyright permissions

For more information on using images, see Web standards for images.

• Do not add file types other than PDF
• PDFs must meet legal accessibility standards
• Attachments need to be smaller than 2 megabytes (MB)
• PDFs should be at least five pages in length, if less they should be a web page instead.
• Use lower case for filenames
• No punctuation or special characters in asset titles
• File asset titles and descriptions are grammatically correct and meaningful
• Do not link directly to third party PDF's, but the webpage they are sitting on
• Always add attachments as 'Files available to download'.
• Link via the ID number of the PDF and not the URL
• When linking to attachments in body text, the link text should say document title and file type, for example: Example: Self directed support leaflet (PDF).

For more information, see Web standards for PDFs and other file types and the council's accessibility guidance on Our Surrey.

Tables should be used to display and compare data. Column headings allow people to quickly locate and understand information within a table.

Do not paste in tables from Microsoft Word or other programs as these can cause technical problems. Instead create a new table in Squiz Matrix and enter your information into that.

For more information, see Web standards for tables.

Do not include phone numbers on a webpage other than the contact centre phone numbers, nor individual staff email addresses unless agreed with the Head of Customer Services.

For more information, see Web standards for contact information.

Our web development standards are intended for use by in-house website and application developers, and for third-party suppliers that provide web-based products or services to the council.

For more information, see Web standards for developers and suppliers.