How to Create Web Content that Works

Ensure that your site meets the needs and interests of your audience

Once you've determined your Web-site strategy and created a clear site map, you will need to collect and organize content for the Web site. Developing content (text, photographs, links, etc.) for your Web site requires some careful thinking and planning to ensure that you meet the needs and interests of your primary audiences.

1. Develop Content Goals

The first step is to develop your content goals - what you want the content of your Web site to communicate to your stakeholders. As you create your goals, you will want to keep in mind that the content you create for your Web site should:

  • Reflect best practices in Web writing.
  • Be informative and engaging.
  • Accurately portray your mission in action.
2. Adhere to Best Practices for Web-Site Content

Content for your Web site may come from a variety of sources - print collateral, an existing Web site, other media. Or, the content could be brand new, generated from Web team meetings to develop your Web-site strategy.

Here are tips to get this collection of content "Web-ready."

Appearance

  • Chunk content in paragraphs of 100 words or less.
  • Introduce key points with descriptive headers and subheads.
  • Include bulleted lists to help readers slow down and make text easier to read.
  • Use embedded links in body text sparingly. Links interrupt flow, and often distract from the main point.
  • Use "printer-friendly" page options when your pages exceed five paragraphs or more than 500 words.

Tone

  • Write in "news style" - put the facts up front. State the main point right away - additional details can follow.
  • Write for your audience - content written for fifth-grade students should be significantly different from content written for donors. Remember to consider the reading level and literacy of your audiences.
  • Reserve "feature-style" writing (narrative, descriptive writing) for testimonials and stories of your mission in action.
  • Be sparing with adjectives. Too much advertising and promotion can affect credibility.

Length

  • Pages one or two clicks away from the home page of a comprehensive Web site should be concise. Pages four or five clicks away can be lengthier. Readers who decide to dig that deep into your Web site are usually committed to a particular topic.
  • Include "Back to Top" links on pages with longer text - especially if the user will need to scroll more than one screen length to read the full text.
  • Overall, don't worry about exactly how long the page should be. Instead, try to gage how long you can keep the reader engaged about the information you are delivering.
3. Engage and Organize Help

Developing content for a Web site is rarely a one-person job. Create a "content task list" to help keep your content providers to task. This list can be created in any popular word-processing or spreadsheet program.

Crucial categories for the content task-list include:

  • Where does the content fit on your Web site? (Use your site map as a guide.)
  • Who is responsible for developing the content?
  • Description (style and length) of the content. Examples are: "250-300 words, paragraph style," "bulleted list of key points," or "testimonial no more than 500 words."
4. Provide Multiple Ways for Users to Locate Content

More choices exist today to help visitors navigate your Web site. A search box appearing on your home page is still a must, but A–Z indexes for larger sites or "Quick Links" are a big help to visitors looking for a very specific item.

Less popular are graphical representations of your site map. If your navigation is intuitive enough, a site map on your Web site is redundant. This is also more difficult to maintain than a site index.

5. Test Your Site

Perform a "scanning exercise" after populating your Web site with the new content to test the readability and user-friendliness.

Handpick individuals for this purpose. Give them the pages to browse and a time limit, since a member or other committed individual may spend longer than a random visitor.

When they are finished browsing, ask them what they recall. What were the key points? How much do they remember? What were their first impressions? What did they "feel" about your organization?

If you've met your goals, your testers will not only remember key points in the text, but they will be more informed about your organization, will have gotten an immediate impression of your organization's identity, and will be able to describe examples of your mission in action.

How to Create Web Content that Works