Doctors HATE these 5 weird tricks to fix your web content before migration

As sites migrate into the new WMS, we're reviewing their content to make sure it aligns with our standards.

The migration is picking up steam, and it's critical for site managers to thoroughly review all WMS websites in their purview. Our recently updated migration checklist not only covers technical problems that could cause things to break as your site moves into the new WMS, but also recommendations for fixing common content issues.

This transition is a great opportunity to catch and fix inconsistencies for a fresh start in the new system.

Here are the top five problems our team is currently seeing and how to fix them on your site ahead of migration.

1. Improper styling of headings

   Check all headings for proper structure and styling to make sure they:

   • Don't skip any levels.
   • Are not in bold.
   • Aren't formatted using big numbers (see how and why to use big numbers properly).
   • Use consistent capitalization.

   Skipping heading levels (e.g., going right to a heading 3 without nesting it under a heading 2) hurts accessibility. In the new WMS, you can adjust the size of your headings for aesthetic reasons without changing the level!

   The McGill brand favours a minimalistic approach to capitalization, in line with current norms and best practices for web. This means using sentence case for headings and menu items rather than title case (see examples of proper capitalization and other language guidelines for web).

2. Spacing issues

   Check all content to remove artificial line breaks or other added spacing, which causes formatting problems on mobile:

   • Remove all <br> tags and unintentionally added non-breaking spaces (which look like   and are often inadvertently carried over from Microsoft Word documents) from the source code.

3. Hidden pages in the main menu

   Check your main menu (either in the site structure or by enabling the "expanded navigation menu" in your settings) to make sure you don't have pages in your main menu that are hidden:

   • If you have too many main menu items, reorganize your content so every page is visible (learn more about designing an effective menu structure).

4. Pages with little or no content (snippets)

   Snippets are pages with little to no actual content, such as a landing page with one sentence that just directs the user to refer to the menu, serving no real purpose other than to group child pages.

   Check your site for these pages and improve them using one of several strategies:

   • If the child pages don't have a lot of content, you can consolidate their content into one page. Use headings with anchors and a table of contents or "on this page" block to improve navigation if needed.
   • If the child pages do have a lot of content, you can use blocks, columns, or an unordered list displayed as a grid to create a visual menu on your landing page to better direct users to explore that section's content.
   • Consider the menu as a whole and whether it makes sense to promote child pages or otherwise reorganize your content to make it easier to navigate.

5. Using tables to format content

   Tables should not be used to structure non-tabular content, such as paragraphs of text or images, because it's bad for both readability (especially on mobile) and accessibility.

   • Reformat content in any misused tables using tools like columns and horizontal lines.

See examples of how to fix these issues and get more pro tips on the site review process from Julie Lapalme, a digital communications professional who's been helping prep tons of McGill sites for migration, in the recording of her presentation at the 2025 Web Services Conference.

Next steps

These quick fixes are a great start, but you still need to use the full migration checklist to comprehensively review all your sites before migration.

Once we get to your site in the migration queue, you will only have two weeks to check for any major issues with your migrated content in the new WMS. Don't redesign your site during this testing period—just check to make sure nothing is broken. You can make bigger adjustments and play around with new features after your site goes live in the new WMS.

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