Building Business Websites

Lesson 3: More on Graphics and the Like

A Very Few Words About Content

This course is certainly designed as a "do-it-yourself"-er, and I am hoping to provide you with all the tools you need to get the job done right.

That being said, how many of you building the site are professional writers? I thought so, not many. Providing the content for your site is a fine balancing act. You want to provide the customer with enough information to know what they're buying, but at the the same time, not bore them to tears. Not an easy task.

Let's start with some basic guidelines for content before I show you some examples of what's good and bad.

1. Your page needs to load as quickly as possible. Don't overload your page with intensive graphics and images.
2. Think about what YOU would like to see and read if you were coming to the site for the first time.
3. Don't use small fonts. Those of us over 30 would like to be able to read the site too.
4. Your written content should be clear, concise, and concise. Did I mention concise?
5. Keep your content current. There's nothing worse than old prices and out dated verbage.
6. "Make every page of [your site] independent and explain its topic without assumptions about the previous page seen by the user" (Sun Microsystems, "The Difference Between Paper and Online Presentation", copyright 1994-2002).

According to Jakob Nielsen, most people accessing the Web scan pages for important information. In other words, they don't really read per se, but pick out sentences that give them the information they want. Now you can see why good navigation is so important--the nav links are like little sentences to which users can attach their attention.

I find it quite ironic and funny that the example I'm using of bad content on the Web is an article about how to write for the Web. We'll cut the author's some slack though since this article was written for print and not for online use. Still, it's a perfect example of what NOT to do online. Go here to check it out.

And go here for an example of good content.

See what I mean about good vs. bad? Let's try another example. In the movie "A River Runs Through It," there is a scene in which a young boy is writing an essay for his father. The kid brings his first draft to his dad, and the father marks up the paper, telling the kid to use half as many words. The kid goes away, writes some more, then brings back his essay and gets the same response from his dad--again with half as many words. This keeps up until the essay passes muster with the old man. This is a good way to approach writing for the Web.

Earlier in these lessons I mentioned a file type called "PDF" or Portable Document Format. This file type allows you to post a document to your Web site, and anyone with Adobe Acrobat Reader (a free plug in) can read it. This is handy if you have a professional paper brochure created for your company. Let's say it was created in design software such as Pagemaker. With Adobe Acrobat you can save the file as a PDF and now anyone can read it. The end user does not have to have Pagemaker installed on his or her machine. Adobe Acrobat currently costs $250. If you decide to PDF some of your documents, then Adobe requests that you provide a direct link to their site so that users can download the Reader. Check their site for any other requirements. www.adobe.com

Next lesson we'll discuss the ins and outs of finding a host. Questions? Problems? You know where to find me! kim@violetlizard.com

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