Overview
When your website is ready for publication, you must submit a Request to Go Live for review by the Web Governance Committee. This ensures your site meets Queen’s web standards for quality, accessibility, branding, and technical compliance before launch.
Before you submit
Before requesting go-live, ensure your site is complete and ready for review:
- Content has been reviewed and approved by all required stakeholders
- Accessibility issues have been addressed
- Site structure and navigation are finalized
- All required revisions have been completed
- The site follows Queen’s web standards and guidelines
- You have identified a preferred URL (if applicable)
- Content is free of broken links
- Content is optimized for web reading:
- Content is left-aligned and follows an F-pattern layout.
- The homepage clearly explains the site's purpose and includes a strong value proposition.
- Sentences and paragraphs are concise
- Key information appears near the top of each page
- Lists and tables are used effectively
- Acronyms and initialisms are defined on first use on every page
- Content adheres to Queen’s writing style
- Content is free of spelling and grammar errors
- Issues identified by the on-page Sa11y accessibility tool have been resolved
- Issues identified in Siteimprove accessibility report have been resolved
Overall compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA requirements and applicable legislated accessibility standards, including:
- Use of proper semantic HTML, including a logical heading structure
- Meaningful alt text provided for all informative images
- Accessibility of all linked PDF documents
- Information not conveyed by colour alone
- WCAG-compliant colour contrast
- Minimal use of all caps; when used, capitalization is applied through the CSS text-transform property
- Web-optimized images
- Descriptive image captions, where applicable
- Captions and/or transcripts provided for video and audio content
- Descriptive link text, unique to the page
- Tables built with proper semantic HTML and used only for tabular data
- Logical site structure
- Clear and descriptive navigation labels
- Sort, concise URLs with no repeated words
- Properly nested URLs that reflect the site structure
- Mobile-friendly, responsive page layouts
- Images optimized and appropriately cropped for responsive viewing
- Clearly labelled form fields
- Site-specific footer content
- HTML is free of proprietary code
- Design adheres to brand/visual identity standards
- Pprivacy and security requirements are followed
- Content and metadata are optimized for search engines
- Copyright and permission are secured for all multimedia content
Governance review process
Once your request is submitted, the following process takes place:
- The Web Governance Committee reviews your site
- Feedback is provided within 2–3 weeks
- You complete any required revisions
- The Committee reviews revisions if needed
- Final approval is granted
The review timeline may vary depending on:
- Site size
- Site complexity
- Volume of required revisions
Site launch
Once your site is approved and a URL is confirmed (if applicable), your site will be scheduled for launch.
You will be notified when the site is live.
URL review and approval
If you have requested a website URL, it will be reviewed during the governance process.
URL approval is based on:
- Queen’s domain naming policies
- Consistency with the existing Queen’s web structure
- Clarity, usability, and best practices
Final URL decisions are made by Web Governance to ensure consistency across Queen’s web environments.
After your site launches
After launch, you are responsible for ongoing site monitoring and maintenance.
Monitor site performance and quality
- Use to identify accessibility and quality issues
- Use Google Analytics to review traffic and user behaviour
Maintain site information
- Ensure content remains accurate and up to date
- Update pages as needed following Queen’s web standards
Administrative requirements
- Submit your site’s contact information to the