Thinking About Web Content

June 8, 2009 | by Carrie Hane Dennison | Posted in Web Content, Web Strategy

I think it’s finally starting to sink in! Businesses and individuals are realizing (albeit slowly) that to have a valuable website they need good content, written for the web and for the visitors. What can you do if you are not a web content expert but want to have good content on your site? Here is a starting point. Follow these guidelines and visit the references and you’ll be on your way to having a website people want to return to for their needs.

Do only what you can

More does not equal better when it comes to website content. It is better to do less content well than more content poorly. Figure out the confluence of

1. what your visitors want to accomplish on your site;
2. what you have to help them accomplish their tasks
3. how much time you have to administer the content.

On the web, old content diminishes the value of a website. If content is old or inaccurate, people will not return to your site. Remember that your website is always evolving, so you can add to it as your resources expand.

Additional references:
How to Fix (and Evolve) Your Corporate Website
How Many Webpages Can One Person Manage?

Write What Your Visitors Want

People who visit your website have certain tasks or goals in mind. Everything you put on your site should support the completion of these tasks. Further, people do not actually read on the Web; they scan until they find what they need or decide that it’s not there and leave. Of course, once they find the information they are looking for, they’ll take the time to read it, but you need to make it easy for visitors to decide if you can help them. Because people are looking to accomplish a task, think in terms of verbs when writing your content. Give them verbs that lead to accomplishing tasks. Don’t beat around the bush. Get rid of introductory text, unnecessary words, as many adjectives as possible and just get to the point. Other things to keep in mind when developing your content:

• A correctly formulated Call to Action combines an imperative verb with an implied benefit, both in that order and with both parts underlined/hyperlinked. Example: Learn more about the quality of our care
• Instead of having a FAQ page, address and answer all frequently asked questions within the copy itself.
• Be clear, compelling, concise, and always focus on what your customers really care about. And remember, what your customers really care about is very often not what you really care about. (From: Writing Killer Web Headings and Links)
• People will grow fond of a website where they can accomplish their goals without having to think. Users’ mental energy should be spent on solving their problems, not figuring out how the website works. (From: Taking the Guesswork Out of Design)

Keep it simple

This is the bottom line. People read slower and skim. Extra words just slow them down more. And when people decide whether a site is worthwhile in mere seconds, you can’t afford to slow them down. Think about the sites you like best and visit most. Do they make it easy for you to accomplish your tasks? Is the site free of clutter? By keeping your site as simple as possible, you make it the site your visitors think of when they need to do something related to your organization. Think about these ideas when committing your thoughts to paper/screen:

• Put bottom-line information and bullet points at the top of the page. These appeal to fast decision-makers.
• Dense blocks of text can be intimidating to readers and should be avoided through proper formatting. This can include intentionally breaking up longer paragraphs – especially those that format so that there are more than 5 vertically stacked lines.
• There’s only one good reason why you should learn how to write clear, concise and compelling copy for the web…To get noticed. Everything should be simple, succinct and scannable. (From: The Disgustingly Simple Rule for Web Writing That’s Often Hard to Swallow)
• “...a web page can do only one of two things: either it contains the content the user wants or it contains the links to get them to the content they want. If a page doesn't follow this rule, then the users stop clicking...” From “The Right Trigger Words,” by Jared Spool