Web Content Really is King

In and around the entreaties to use clear, concise coding techniques, our textbook writer John Allsopp mentions again and again the importance of good content. Before we dive into the design-intensive side of this course, I think it’s time to expound on that point. What is good web content? How do you know it when you’re looking at it?

The best and normal content test happens when we (the users) are searching for information. For instance, this evening I went looking for details on an event happening in town that I had seen on an electronic billboard. Following a normal course of action, I googled the business to find get more information about the event from their website. Talk about a disaster!  The site was disjointed with links pointing here and there and product information in oddly spaced columns. I clicked on the “In the News” link expecting a press release site/blog or event detail list, but it took me to an article on the company in Texas Monthly. There was nothing else on the site I could find that looked like it would have event details.

Next, I searched for the company on Facebook, often the place where the most up-to-date details are posted. I finally found their page, but the link they posted about the event took me back to their site where I learned even less about the event. It contained only a bio of the person who was coming and no specific time/place/date details. DEAD END!

In my world bad web content happens when a user searches for something and cannot find it on your site. Or, they find it but it doesn’t give full details, contains incorrect or misleading information or just flat out doesn’t make sense to them. Content like code should be clear, concise and intuitive. It reinforces the entire purpose of the page itself. Why would you create a page without content or with bad content?

As a writer, I’ve learned how to identify bad writing, but what should good writing/content include?

• Information users can’t get anywhere else
• Details on a particular subject that have been aggregated and distilled into what’s most important
• Specifics on event information or statistics or news in a clear, concise, easy-to-read format
• A purpose; a reason for existing and taking up valuable pixels on your screen

Not only should sites focus on the importance of good content, but the coding and design should flow out of the purpose of the content as well. That’s because users are after the content. According to an excellent article in Smashing Magazine by Michael Aleo, design should make content better, but it cannot totally make up for bad content.

“The user is after content, not your gradient-laden design and CSS3 hover effects. Your job is to get them there as painlessly as possible. At the same time, great design can enhance content and take a website to the next level. Great design not only gives a website credibility, but it can lead to a better experience. Mediocre design and great content lose out every time to great design and great content. It just makes for a better overall experience, where content and design both play a role.”

Just as Allsopp says we should make our code as easy for browsers to read as possible, the content on our web pages should have the same goal. For designer/developers, that means not allowing design to get in the way of the message that needs to be conveyed, and for content producers and writers, that means creating clean, important copy and leaving out everything else.

Past these revelations is the even more intriguing work of strategic web content (anticipating what users are looking for and making it easier for them to get), which I will not expound on here. There are some great blogs devoted to strategic content including: http://blog.braintraffic.com/, http://lucidplot.com/ and Content Strategy Week on http://johnnyholland.org to name a very few.