Web Content

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How Valuable is Good Content?

Back in the "Home Page Effectiveness" section of this series of articles on Website Design, I made the following analogy.

"A website is like a magazine sitting on a newsstand. It's surrounded by other magazines and the only voice it has is its front cover.  Every potential buyer coming to that newsstand will initially only see that cover. If that front cover is eye catching, if that front cover has appeal, then a potential reader will pick it out of the rack and quickly scan the content, focusing on those articles that originally caught his/her attention on the front cover. During this process, the potential reader will evaluate the contents against the front cover, making decisions about whether the content lives up to the billing it received on the front cover. If, after scanning through the content, the level of interest is still there, then the potential reader may decide to buy a copy."

Let's take this analogy to the next level. Let's assume that the potential reader found enough interest in the magazine to buy a copy.  How many times will the reader go back to the same issue and read the same articles over and over again?  Knowing that the content of the issue he/she just purchased will never change, chances are that after reading the magazine once, the reader will either add this issue to a growing stack of issues that have been read, or throw it out.

However, what if through some "magical" process, the magazine's content changed each month. And the new content was as good as or better than the old content. What would the reader do with this issue now? Chances are, it wouldn't end up in the recycle bin.

This same concept applies to your website. If your website rarely or never changes, chances are that your list of repeat visitors will include only one name...yours. In terms of attracting repeat visitors, nothing will ever beat good, fresh content. Good content RULES!

So what is good content? Where do you get it? And most importantly, where do you get it again, and again and again?

The Good, the Bad and the Useless

The rest of this article will address the following five forms of content.  (I have purposely listed these items in order of best to worst based on my assessment of what's good and what's bad).

Tutorials and Articles

 

"The more relevant the information your website offers, the more valuable your site will become."

Let's begin with the assumption that your website should be an accurate and reliable source of information not only about your products or services, but also about your industry.  Only a limited number of products have brand recognition.  For those of us whose products/services are relatively unknown, it is safe to assume that your visitor's comfort and trust in your products will be closely related to your level of expertise.  The challenge will be to demonstrate that you are an expert in your field.

The need to demonstrate your expertise is the single most compelling reason for offering "how to" articles and tutorials.  The more relevant the information your website offers, the more valuable your site will become and, the more likely that your visitors will bookmark your site.  

If you're uncomfortable with your ability to write, a short writing refresher may be in order.  If that's the case, try http://www.junketstudies.com.  They offer a section called the "11 Rules of Writing" that addresses some of the most common writing, grammar and punctuation mistakes.   

Bulletin Boards

Developing and building a Community environment around your website is one of the most rewarding (and challenging) aspects of web design and management.  Bulletin boards are a tool for facilitating that environment.  Bulletin boards can be used to satisfy numerous applications. The most common use is for discussion forums, but I've also seen them used quite successfully for applications such as customer service, technical support, support groups and even newsletter archives.

Adding a bulletin board to your site can be as easy as signing up for a free service, such as the one offered at The Forum Co, or a pay service, such as the one offered at bulletinboards.com.  However, for a more integrated look and feel, CGI/Perl is a much better choice.  If you're comfortable with CGI, I would strongly recommend a FREE product called Ikonboard from a website with the same name.  

Keep in mind that adding a bulletin board to your site is only about 10% of the battle. The other 90% deals with promoting your bulletin board and building a community around it. I am definitely not an expert in Community building but I can recommend a very good resource.  For anyone who is interested in pursuing this further, I highly recommend a book titled "Community Building on the Web" by Amy Jo Kim.  Amy Jo does a fantastic job presenting a nine step strategy for developing, maintaining and supporting a web community.  "Community Building on the Web" is written in a very easy to understand format with lots of real world examples.  This book is a definite must for anyone that is contemplating a message board for their site.

Links

Links are an inevitable aspect of every website.  Show me a business website without links, and I'll show you a lonely website.  Offering links to other sites is an accepted and expected feature.  However, the important characteristic about links is that in order for them to add value to your site, they must be relevant. So very often I see sites that have links to unrelated sites, just for the sake of filling up a page.  My advice is "don't do it."   Anything that strays from your site's theme should not be included.

If managed properly, your site can become a "mini-portal" for your business.  Try to consolidate your links into an organized presentation.  I use (and highly recommend) a product called Links V2.0 from a company called Gossamer Threads.  Links V2.0 is a CGI/Perl script that is relatively easy to setup and integrate into your site's design. Links V2.0 simplifies the process for adding new links by eliminating the need to deal with HTML.  Visit my Links Page to see a sample of Links V2.0

Guestbooks

When it comes to guestbooks, I really have mixed emotions.  I am slowly moving toward the opinion that the primary benefit of guestbooks is to stroke the website owner’s ego. Speaking from personal experience, I love it when someone makes a positive entry in my guestbook regarding my site or my services. However, from a content perspective, I don’t see a real value to having a guestbook on your site and would not include guestbooks in the list of strong content that brings visitors back to your site.

Banner and Affiliate Ad

  In general, I am completely against affiliate ads and consider them to be for the most part, flashy filler. However, just like links, if they are targeted, they can add value to your site.

For example, if your site’s theme is Web Design, I strongly urge you to only partner with affiliate programs that offer web design related services. However, from personal experience, I have found that very few visitors will click on an affiliate ad regardless of how related it is to your site’s theme. Unrelated affiliate ads are quickly recognized as filler and will be ignored by 99.99% of your site’s visitors.

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