Tiering the Web: A Practical Framework for Governing Web Sprawl

Abstract:

When we inventoried our web ecosystem at Penn State, we discovered over 2,000 distinct public subdomains and over 100,000 active WP sites across multiple environments.

Over time, institutions accumulate hundreds, sometimes thousands, of sites across multiple CMS platforms, themes, and hosting environments. The result isn’t just brand inconsistency. It’s governance gaps, accessibility risk, analytics fragmentation, duplicated spend, and organizational fatigue.

This session presents a practical, field-tested approach to managing web complexity at scale: a tiered web strategy.

Instead of treating every site as equal, we’ll explore how to classify and manage web properties across three levels:

Tier 1 – Strategic / High-Impact Experiences
Enterprise-level sites requiring composable architecture, personalization, advanced analytics, and formal governance.

Tier 2 – Managed / Departmental Experiences
Structured CMS environments with guardrails, brand alignment, and centralized support.

Tier 3 – Self-Service / Low-Risk Publishing
Lightweight publishing with clear lifecycle policies and defined risk boundaries.

We’ll cover:

- How to inventory and assess your full web surface area
- The political realities of centralization in decentralized institutions
- Governance models that enable instead of police
- When to invest in composable architecture — and when not to
- How tiering reduces institutional risk while increasing strategic focus
- How AI-driven discovery changes the stakes for your top-tier properties

This session is for web leaders navigating scale, complexity, and internal resistance — and looking for a model that balances autonomy with accountability.

Attendees will leave with:

- A replicable tiering framework
- A decision matrix for classifying sites
- Governance principles that work in practice
- A roadmap for evolving from web support to digital strategy