IMD09117 and IMD09118 Web Design and Development

Content for the Web.

The 5 Planes Model

Last session we looked at Accessibility.

We considered users with impairments ofVision, Mobility and cognition.

This session we will be looking at content.

Content is King

Never forget that the Web was designed to share information. If you have nothing to say then no-one will want to read your pages.

The Web is so populated now that whatever you’ve got, someone else has it too.

The big question is, how do you make yourself noticed.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

SEO is the art of writing to target search engines and gain ranking in the top ten on the results page.

It is known that most people rarely go past the first 10 in the list and so that prized position can be fought over.

What is a search engine?

Without search engines, the internet would be virtually impossible to navigate. You would have to know exactly where you wanted to go and what the address was. There was a time when it was like this.

Anatomy of Google

“Natural”

Results

Paid forResults

Anatomy of Yahoo

Same layout, different results.

What’s the differenceConcentrates very much on search. Uses an algorithm (computer

program) to decide on ranking. Looks at things like how often external sites link to yours, how often you mention that search term, how often the page is updated as well as a whole host of other points. The algorithm is secret.

Uses algorithms as well as human indexing which is where teams of people help rank pages. Yahoo concentrates more on providing a community and service. Yahoo.com is the most visited page on earth.

How do you get to the top?

This is the biggest question on the Web at the moment and here’s the dichotomy:

You want your site to be number 1 in the rankings (usually because you want to make money).

Search engines want to keep their reputation by providing credible and reliable search results.

There are thousands of people employed to manipulate the search results of websites so if you don’t join in the game, you won’t be seen.

What’s your phone number?

I am staying at the Hotel Royal Montparnasse in Paris, my train is late and I want to make sure my reservation is still ok as I’m arriving at 1a.m. All I want is their phone number. I search in Google and this is what I get.This is the official site,

with the ‘phone number

Keywords

It’s all about this box.

. If someone looking for a Paris citybreak, will they type in “Paris citybreak”, “Citybreak Paris”, “Paris City break”, “Weekend in Paris”.

Images that do not attract attention

Generic/stock artOff-putting, cold, fake, too polished or

"set up”Not related to contentLook like advertisementsLow contrast in terms of color -- not

crispThis information is from poynter.org and is based on research carried out by the Nielsen Norman Group.

Images that do attract attention

Related to page content Clearly composed and appropriately

cropped Contain "approachable" people who are

smiling, looking at the camera, not models Show areas of personal/private anatomy

(Men tended to fixate on these areas more than women -- really!)

Items a user may want to buy.

Don’t make me wait

Although most people have broad band, bandwidth is still an issue. Impatience is your enemy and a user’s escape is only a click away.

Too many large images, videos or flash files will send users away in droves.

Make sure you economise as much as possible on images. If it’s larger than 30 - 40 Kb, have a good reason.

Who owns the content?

This is not a clear cut question. If you write the content, you may have copyright, it is something you should negotiate with your client.

If you use images that are not your own, ensure that you are allowed to use them.

If a client provides you with content and images, make sure that they have permission to use them for a website.

Content Management

Website content is not static.

A strategy needs to be in place for keeping it up to date.

You do not want to be the strategy.