One of the top questions new content strategy practitioners have — as I did when first introduced to the discipline — is how do you sell it? How do you make the case for content strategy and convince web stakeholders that their content needs a better plan (assuming a plan currently exists — eek!)? It’s easy to get discouraged. Have you ever had an experience like the following? "I told my boss (or HiPPO [Highest Paid Person’s Opinion]) … [Read more...]
Google Says Users First With Lengthy Page Content
September 21, 2011 by
The simple secret to search engine optimization (SEO): focus on your users. In Google's latest attempt to improve search for web users, they have prioritized single-page versions of multi-page articles (if a single-page version of the article exists) in search results. This is a relatively minor tweak on Google's part, but it's a good reminder to create web content for people first and search engines second. Search engines aim to deliver … [Read more...]
Prioritize: Less Content, More Action
September 16, 2011 by
This week, Tim Nekritz, director of web communication and associate director of public affairs at SUNY Oswego, discussed the need for less talk and more action with web content. In the process of revising the SUNY Oswego Admissions page, he pared down the existing content. He focused only on essential admissions information and included a compelling video describing the SUNY Oswego experience. Nekritz’s revisions are a good example of … [Read more...]
Web Analytics for Content Planning
September 14, 2011 by
We commonly associate web analytics (including Google Analytics) with web governance and measurement, using it to evaluate content performance and user interaction post website launch. But web analytics can do more than report progress: it can inform process. A lot of content work happens before we have a governance plan in place, including content research and discovery. We need to understand business objectives and website goals, who our users … [Read more...]
The Future of Content Strategy In Five Minutes
September 12, 2011 by
Last week I attended and had the pleasure of speaking at the Content Strategy Forum in London. It was an amazing conference chock-full of web content professionals helping to move the industry forward. One of my favorite moments of the event was a series of "lightning talks"—by Shelly Wilson, Matthew Grocki, Nicole Jones, and Sara Wachter-Boettcher—discussing the future of content strategy. Each of them crammed tons of … [Read more...]