Web Design Podcast (7) – Content is King
Posted in Podcast on: Tuesday, October 4, 2005 by Paul Boag
We have received a lot of request to look at the subject of content management. So, in this weeks podcast we will be looking at why content is important, how to make your content accessible, give some general advice on copywriting and final how to make the most from your content management system.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (14.0MB)
Below is a brief outline of the things covered in this week’s podcast as well as links to some of the sites mentioned:
Poor quality
Let me just apologise in advance for the poor quality of the audio this week. Due to the last minute death of my motherboard we had to change the audio setup and so things are a little ropey. Back to normal next week (hopefully).
This week’s news
View the new boagworld.com mission statement!
Listen to the Web Essentials 2005 podcast
Try out the new web design podcast at webaxe
Read Jacob Neilsen’s top web design mistakes of 2005
Learn how to use Dreamweaver 8 to create sites built using web standards
Main Feature: All about content
Why is content so important?
- Because users are not impressed by design anymore
- Because content is not always shown in the context of your design (Web feeds)
- Because written content improves search engine rankings
- Because good content keeps users coming back for more
- The accessibility of content
- WAI guidelines insist on accessible content (14.1 Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site’s content.)
- Learn more about making content accessible.
General advice for web copy
- Make it personal because computers aren’t
- Don’t patronize
- Remember the medium (its hard to read on screen)
- Avoid marketing talk
- Avoid jargon
- Remove happy talk
- Read more advice on writing effective web copy
Managing content
- Remember you do not always need a full cms!
- Establish your needs before looking for a solution
- Content management systems wont solve your content problems
- People see updating copy as a unimportant part of their job
- It is important to have a web editor to bully people into contributing and in order to ensure consistency across the site.
- Provide training on more than just your CMS. Cover good design and copywriting too.
- Make sure your training is supported written documentation
- Invest your money in the people that edit your site NOT the technology.
- Learn more about managing site content.
9 Comments
Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email
Another good podcast. Very funny at the end.
Just wondering what you thought of the Solent Youth for Christ web site in terms of usability and the web copy. Thanks.
Good tips!
Good tips. I do feel the “Avoid jargon” tips is a 50/50 since as web designers we have the ABBR, ACRONYM and DT, DD tags to help define terms and offer tooltips of short descriptions.
I’m not saying your wrong, just there are [tag] options that people can use to inform but most aren’t into them much. Dreamweaver (in the Text insert tab) has ABBR & ACRONYM.
Yeah but lets face it, there isnt much of a standard in their use. Okay some sites uses those dotted lines to show descriptions but I bet not many people know what those do. I guess, as usual, it depends on your audience. If you are aiming at people like us who know about such things then sure use a ABBR tag. But if you are aiming at say the average National Trust member then forget it.
Is it only me that seems to have a problem getting this podcast from iTunes?
All the others have been fine but iTunes tells me that this episode is only 7:29 long :/
I managed to download the mp3 manually from Feedburner though.
Just thought I would highlight the problem
That is strange. I have just tested the download through itunes and have encountered no problems. How about anybody else? Has anybody else experienced this?
It seems to be “fixed” today. To be honest I have had to rebuild my laptop so it could have been a software problem on my part.
Cool, glad it is sorted. Its scarey how often you have to rebuild your PCs these days. I am sure windows should be more stable than that!
Yeah but lets face it, there isnt much of a standard in their use. Okay some sites uses those dotted lines to show descriptions but I bet not many people know what those do. I guess, as usual, it depends on your audience. If you are aiming at people like us who know about such things then sure use a ABBR tag. But if you are aiming at say the average National Trust member then forget it.