Editorial Style for Inline Links

The power of the web is its ability to connect, or link, people with ideas and information. Inline links — links within a body of text — enhance usability and comprehension by enabling readers to find valuable information, made relevant by the surrounding content. However, links are not made valuable by "click here." Without an editorial plan for using inline links appropriately, your greatest usability asset can become … [Read more...]

Stakeholder Support Is Key for Content Strategy Success

Content strategy depends on strong stakeholder relationships. You need stakeholders not only to help inform your content strategy but also to help implement and maintain it. Without involving stakeholders in the planning process and prioritizing their needs, competing objectives will compromise success. Meghan Casey of Brain Traffic offers great tips for gaining stakeholder support, as well as suggestions for group song. "Kumbaya," … [Read more...]

The Bounce Rate Myth

For advanced web analytics users, bounce rate is quite possibly the most popular stand-alone metric — analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik suggests it’s the sexiest web metric ever. It's certainly at the top of my list. Google defines bounce rate as "the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page." It’s great because it tells you right away that something is wrong … [Read more...]

User Feedback, Where? Right There!

Understanding our users’ needs and evaluating the efficacy of our web content is an ongoing challenge. But sometimes the most relevant, valuable insights are right in front of us. In her post, "Revisiting the cliché, 'the customer is always right,'" Tara DeMarco reminds us to make use of everyday user feedback. Just like customers, our web users are always right when they respond to our content — such as a visitor … [Read more...]

Information Is Not Inherently Useful or Usable

A common perception in higher ed is that the role of content owners is to simply publish information. If it's on the website, they’ve done their job. How many times have you been told, "Well, did you look on our website? It's there"? As part of a collection of humorous cartoons on content challenges, Bruce Ryan of 4 Syllables highlights the importance of content owners, contributors and publishers taking responsibility for conveying … [Read more...]