Managing Web Content: Retain Website Behind-the-Scenes

Website content that must be retained for legal or business purposes can be stored behind the scenes unpublished from public view while still being preserved for the length of the legally required retention period. This approach ensures compliance without displaying materials that are outdated, obsolete or not within ADA compliance.

When web content is unpublished and no longer made publicly accessible from users outside the UW, it still needs to be retained for the legally approved retention period. This ensures compliance with state and federal requirements while keeping outdated, superseded or irrelevant information out of public view. Units should feel encouraged and empowered to make changes to their website when necessary. The methodology of how content is unpublished but retained will vary based on the content management system being used, whether that’s editing the status to be in an unpublished state, or changing it from public to private view. The intention is that the page can be searched for by website Admin behind-the-scenes.

Web materials should only be retained out of public view, if they have remaining retention value. This would mean that the retention period has not yet been fulfilled and therefore the information cannot be disposed of yet. Once it has met the legally approved retention period, the content could either be forwarded to the UW Archives or permanently deleted. Visit our common retention examples related to web content to determine how long you should retain your content and whether content should be sent to the UW Archives before deletion.

Examples:

Annual Reports

Your department or unit publishes annual reports summarizing accomplishments, statistics and future plans. These reports may be unpublished from the public website but should be retained out of public view for 6 years after the end of the reporting period and then transferred to the UW Archives for review.

Policies and Procedures

Your department or unit publishes policies and procedures on a publicly accessible website. You may unpublish superseded policies from the public website and store them out of public view for the duration of their 6-year retention period and then transferred to the UW Archives for review.

Visit our common retention examples related to web content for a more extensive list of examples.