SITE CONTENT

What are the most successful pages on the internet? The answer is "search engines" and daylight second. Why? Because that's how people look for things. Without search engines, finding anything useful on the internet would be like searching for an invisible needle in the world's biggest haystack.

Search engines work by cataloguing the content of your web pages -- and that means words, words, words. There is no effective means of cataloguing images into a searchable index.

This makes the written text the most important part of your web site. Without the words that describe you accurately, words that successfully convey who you are and what you do, they'll never find you.

That said, your visual content is just as important, because it creates the impression your visitors get when they find your pages. Good web sites are well written and professionally designed with a clear, navigable look-and-feel, and quality illustrations.

Here are a few pointers that help our clients gather the content for their web sites.

Remember that the web is a new medium. Entering written material for use on the web is a very different prospect to entering for typesetting. The writer has to be aware that characters may be interpreted differently by different formats and everyone has their computer configured differently.

Don't use fancy characters like smart quotes, ellipses and funny looking bullets because they won't be recognised across platforms.
Don't use tabs, because they will be interpreted differently in different configurations. Use the space bar instead, but it's best to avoid anything too fancy.
Because there are no styles, it's OK to use two returns to create space between paragraphs.
Because there are no styles, it's OK to use all upper case (ALL CAPS) sometimes, especially for headings. Always remember that ALL CAPS is harder to read than upper and lower case.

Write simple English. The key to writing simple English is using words easily understood by the average person.

A good guide to simple words is the daily newspaper. If the word is unlikely to appear in the local newspaper don't use it.
Use simple sentences avoiding excessive use of adjectives and clauses.
Every sentence should be limited to one idea.
Have a clear understanding of the intended audience.
Use active English.
Avoid jargon.

Gather a stock of quality photographs to choose from. Building your web site is often the catalyst to creating the visual resources you need for your entire organisation. A web site is a representation of your organisation online -- it is therefore much more complete than any individual brochure or annual report.

Convert your existing look-and-feel. If you have a corporate identity you are happy with, make sure your web designers have access to the original graphic design files so that they can get the colours and proportions exactly right. This will save you time and money.

If you don't have a consistent look-and-feel for all the promotional material, perhaps now is the time to commission a graphic design. MagNet Media can handle all your corporate identity issues for you.