Planning and developing web content
Your research should have provided you with a clear picture of your target
audience.
Now you can develop your web site's content to benefit that audience.
Put yourself in their shoes and ask, "What will I come to this site for?” You must:
- work out what will make the site appealing to potential users
- provide useful content that the user may want and even expect
- think of ways to keep users at your site and entice them back
You must also:
- make a good first impression
- establish need, honesty and reliability
- make the content (information) clear and concise
- provide good organisation, so that the user can easily find the information
- make the site interesting
Staring at a blank sheet of paper or word processor
screen is perhaps not the best way to get started. So why not see what
is out there
already? The saying ‘there’s
nothing new under the sun’ is very apt in this case and it
is likely that your site’s content is already being addressed
by someone, somewhere. Make a note of a few key words and phrases
you would use to describe your
site content, load them into a search engine and study the results.
The outcome of this exercise is not to copy information but to
observe how other sites offer and present their content. During
this process
you should
study each site to find out:
- what it offers
- the layout and structure of its content
- its navigation, how it functions and the logic behind it
- how it engages its audience
- its links to other complementary sites
You should conduct this exercise from the point of view of a site user rather than a researcher. This will allow you to find out if the site:
- makes a good first impression on you
- better informs you with its content
- addresses and answers your questions and needs
- uses clear and concise language
- conveys honesty and friendliness
- makes it easy for you to find what you were looking for
- offers reasons and incentives to return to the site
This list suggests some of the points to research. There may be others that suit your web site project. The important thing is to collect ideas and information that can be integrated with your own site to provide the right content.
Summary
- Develop content from the user’s point of view.
- Research web sites similar to your own.
- Review content regularly.
