Context Makes Good Content

December 14, 2009 | by Carrie Hane Dennison | Posted in Web Content

When I recently saw Larry Brooks’ Copyblogger post Why Content is No Longer King, I was prepared for a fight. What could possible overthrow content as the most important thing on the Internet? Intrigued, I read on to find that he had named context as the new king. And it made sense.

The fact that the web is now mature enough to understand that content is more important than the next cool app is wonderful. Now we have to make sure that content is relevant. There is too much information available to create websites that don’t focus on a primary message. Here are some ways you can keep your website’s content in context.

Don’t try to be all things to all people

Pick one (maybe two) things and do it well. You’re an association? Decide what prospective members need to know about you to convert them to members. Figure out what your members want to use your website for. Then stop. Don’t try to anticipate what else they use the Internet for and imagine they’ll go to your site for it. I can guarantee that there is another site that does it better (whatever the other uses are).

Be clear and succinct

Your visitors have a question in mind when they come to your site (no matter how they got to your site). Answer it. Say you’re a library. A typical question library-site visitors have is “do you have such-and-such a book?” Make sure the catalog link or search box is on your home page and clearly labeled. Then provide clear search results. You can follow that even further by making it easy for the visitor to place a hold from the book listing. Don’t throw extra steps in – that will just frustrate the visitor and then he may actually call the library. And if your library is like mine, staff cutbacks have been made, and you want to reduce the number of calls to the library because there aren’t enough people to answer the phones.

Provide ways to get additional information

Link to pages within your site or to other sites that provide additional or complementary information. When you acknowledge that each website and web page is limited, you create trust among your visitors. Don’t be that know-it-all everyone ignores when he talks. Say what needs to be said and then defer to someone else to answer the follow-on questions (whether that is another site or page within your site).

When you put your information and products in context, whether in relation to one another or in a bigger picture, you help build trust. When you have people’s trust, you have a much better chance of earning their business.