Get excited! We’re talking HTML meta tags. Yes, today these annoying details we love to ignore are front and center. Metadata is not a sexy topic for most people, and HTML meta tags even less so. But they’re on our web content checklist — or they should be — so let’s have a plan. HTML meta tags are used to inform search engines about your webpage content. What is this page about (meta description element), and what are the subjects … [Read more...]
Elements of Editorial Style for the Web
August 4, 2011 by
Last week, while sitting at Starbucks, I overheard a guy tell his friend, "Making websites is so easy these days. You just buy a template and move text around." I joked with Georgy about asking the guy to do a Meet Content guest post on "Cut-and-Paste Content Strategy." Although most people don't describe the process as being that easy, many do have an oversimplified understanding of what is involved in creating effective … [Read more...]
On-Brand SEO Keywords for Meaningful Search
July 20, 2011 by
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential component of content strategy. If audiences can't easily find or discover your content through search, its value and usefulness is diminished. We need to understand the words our audiences associate with our content so that we can cater to their search habits with relevant keywords. This is a fundamental task for SEO. However, people often confuse valuable SEO keywords with the right SEO … [Read more...]
Web User Experience Starts Here (And So Does Your Content)
June 13, 2011 by
There's more than one doorway to our websites. People come in through the garage, basement, window, chimney — well, you get the picture. Colleges are learning that their website user experience doesn't always start on their homepage. Sometimes the first web content people see is a blog post or a student handbook PDF or an inquiry form. Or is it? Actually, the user experience never starts on your website. The doorway to your site is … [Read more...]
Prioritize User Goals, Again
June 7, 2011 by
Measurement plans often focus on the website, including content and design. Seems logical at first, except your website is only part of the measurement equation. The other parts consist of your business goals and users’ needs. As those elements change, so does the effectiveness of your web content and design. Louis Rosenfeld, coauthor of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, posted a handy scorecard for prioritizing and evaluating … [Read more...]