Unpublishing

To keep the content management system clean and usable, content that is no longer needed should be unpublished and deleted from AEM.

Pages

Unpublishing Scenario

Options for Unpublishing

Risks to Content Management Governance

Unpublishing Scenario

When page is 100% approved to delete

Options for Unpublishing

  • Address the Live Copy page
    • Unpublish the Live Copy page
    • Delete page in Live Copy
    • Verify the URL is removed from the live site sitemap.xml
    • Verify the URL is removed from the live site sitemap webpage
  • Address the language-masters page
    • Delete page in language-masters

Risks to Content Management Governance

Lowest risk from publishing perspective

Recommended and preferred method

Unpublishing Scenario

When page needs to be kept temporarily in the AEM backend (if page needs to be reactivated, it can be re-rolled out from language-masters to Live Copy)

Options for Unpublishing

  • Address the Live Copy page
    • Unpublish the Live Copy page
    • Delete page in Live Copy
    • Verify the URL is removed from the live site sitemap.xml
    • Verify the URL is removed from the live site sitemap webpage
  • Update the language-masters page
    • Basic tab:
      • Mark language-masters page as "ARCHIVE -" at the beginning of the CMS Title field
    • Site Configuration tab:
      • Mark as "No Index"
      • Mark as "Hide from Coveo"
      • Mark as "Hide from Sitemap Webpage"

Risks to Content Management Governance

Making edits in the language-masters page helps to mitigate risk in case the language-masters page is accidentally rolled out and re-published

Unpublishing Scenario

When page is approved to be unpublished, but waiting for permanent redirect to be made

Options for Unpublishing

  • Update the language-master page
    • Basic tab:
      • Mark language-masters page as "REDIRECT -" at the beginning of the CMS Title field
    • Advanced tab:
      • Enter a termporary redirect (optional)
    • Site Configuration tab:
      • Mark as "No Index"
      • Mark as "Hide from Coveo"
      • Mark as "Hide from Sitemap Webpage"
      • Rollout the page
  • Update the Live Copy page
    • Basic tab:
      • Mark Live Copy page as "REDIRECT -" at the beginning of the CMS Title field (break inheritance to do overwrite)
    • Advanced tab:
      • Enter a termporary redirect (optional); redirect will not rollout from language-masters and needs to be manually added
    • Site Configuration tab (these settings should have rolled out from language-masters):
      • Mark as No Index
      • Mark as Hide from Coveo
      • Mark as Hide from Sitemap Webpage
    • Publish the Live Copy page; the page will be removed from the sitemap.xml and Coveo search results, and the redirect will take users to the new location (the page may still appear on the sitemap webpage until it is unpublished)

Risks to Content Management Governance

Once permanent redirect goes live on the live site:

  • Unpublish and delete the Live Copy version of page
  • Update the language-masters version from "REDIRECT" to "ARCHIVE", or just delele the language-masters version as well (recommendation is to delete)

Sitemap Web Page and Sitemap.xml

When Live Copy pages are unpublished and either archived or deleted, verify the following:

  • Page is removed from sitemap webpage
  • Page is removed from sitemap.xml

Sitemap Web Pages

External Sitemap.xml

Internal Sitemap.xml

Tags

Delete a Tag

If a tag is no longer needed, unpublish it and delete it per the Tag Management governance.

Special Notice for Product Tags

If a Product Name tag is being deleted from AEM because the product is no longer being sold or promoted, then confirm with the stakeholder if the product should be removed from the Contact form under the Product dropdown:

If the product does need to be removed from the Contact form, then do one of the following using the Martech and Operations Wrike form:

  • Submit a ticket on behalf of the stakeholder
  • Request the stakeholder to submit the ticket

We may need a new Wrike workflow for page retirement/redirects that includes option for product name removal from Contact list as an option with separate task for other team

Tag Naming Conventions

Do not use any naming conventions (DEAD, ARCHIVE, etc.) for tags. There is too much risk in the naming convention being exposed on the front end due to the number of pages referencing the tag and needing to be republished. 

Remove a Tag from a Facet, But Keep the Tag

If a tag should no longer display in a front-end facet, but it should be kept in the AEM backend, then move the tag under Personalization.

Refer to Tag Management for more info.

Experience Fragments (XFs)

If the page includes XF(s) that are no longer needed, then unpublish them, and either archive or delete them.

Refer to page types that typically use XFs.

Assets

If an asset is no longer needed, then move it to either the ARCHIVE or DELETE folder in AEM Assets.

  • Move asset to ARCHIVE if no longer needed for EN site, but still needed for international site(s) until those pages can be re-synced with the EN master
    • Keep the asset published
  • Move asset to DELETE folder if no longer needed for any of the sites and also has no references
    • Unpublish the asset

Reports and Audits

  • Run an Oncrawl report to identify any 301s or 404s generated on the site as a result of archiving or deleting a page.
  • Run an ACS Commons report to identify any Card Carousels or Card 2x2 Section Layouts that likely have broken as a results of the tag being unpublishished and deleted. (A copy down from Prod to Stage may be needed to access the latest data.)