Many people who run government and corporate websites have misconceptions about how websites work. As a result, they’re often fighting the wrong battles!
Here are four commonly held – but erroneous – beliefs.
Fallacy 1: Appearance is most important
Read books on website publishing and attend some training seminars about the web and you could end up believing it’s how the website looks that’s the single most important factor to get right. You know – is your font right and page layout correct and the colours work in subtle, psychological ways? Have you tracked reader eye movement in focus groups and is your line and paragraph spacing just so?
Of course, all these things are certainly points to consider, but the bottom line is that people look at your website for the content it has!
To put this another way, it’s easy to find websites that show all the latest and greatest in website design. (In fact they’re often done by private consultancies showing off their web design skills!) But you know what? Many of these websites have extremely poor reader numbers!
People do not read websites for the latest in design; they read websites for the content.
Fallacy 2: The home page is the showcase of the site
Got newsworthy content? Put it up on the home page. Want to make an impact with site design? Concentrate on getting the home page looking good. Want to impress your boss with the site redesign? Just show her the home page.
But the trouble is most readers do not enter your site though its home page. In fact, depending on the site, up to 90 per cent of your readers never see your home page! Ninety per cent….
This fact means it’s vital to ensure navigation is excellent on every page, and that pointers to the best content (for example, the latest newsworthy material) are widely dispersed. The latter’s easy to do if your site design runs three columns – you can use the right-hand column to show ads directing readers to your most popular content, to your latest news, and so on.
Remember – your home page is not where it happens…
Fallacy 3: To get material read, you just put it up on the site
Many people not directly involved with websites believe that to get your content read, all that you need to do is put it on the site. You know how it goes: “This report has just been released – can you put it on the website, please.” Or: “We need to consult with some stakeholders about this. Put a note to that effect on the website.”
But “putting stuff up” is completely ineffectual if (1) the navigation to that material isn’t intuitive, (2) the material is not placed in a context where the reader can understand it, and (3) the reader isn’t able to get the gist of the page in well under 10 seconds.
When confronted with the “just put it up” request, ask these questions:
- Who is this material aimed at?
- How will those readers find it?
- How will they quickly understand it?
Fallacy 4: Websites are about written content
When preparing web content, nearly everyone starts in Microsoft Word. That is, they look at a blank screen, think for a while and then start typing content that will appear on the site.
But the trouble is, the most successful web pages are not those that contain just text; instead they use a mix of visuals and text that complement each other and work effectively in communicating the required message.
So rather than start off with the blank Word doc, think of how visuals can be used to also communicate the content. What images – photographs, diagrams, graphs, maps, cartoons – can be used? There is not a web page in existence that cannot use one or more of these visuals to better communicate with the audience.
Websites are never solely about written content; they are about communicating with the person sitting on the other side of the screen. If you have web pages that comprise just text, you are losing a lot of your potential audience.
A one-day course by Julian in Writing for the Web is available through Acorn Training and Consulting.
Filed under: Articles on preparing web content
