our creative process : web insight

MORE TO LEARN:

content guidelines

Content Is King! — that should be your mantra when developing your site. We could build the best looking, most functional site in all of webdome, but if your content is lacking, you will lose credibility in the eyes of your audience.

According to Forrester Research, the top four factors that make people return to their favorite web sites are:

75% High-quality content
66% Ease of use
58% Ease of download
54% Updated frequently

These are some powerful figures and ones we don't take lightly. That's why we always recommend one of our copywriters be involved in the content development of your site.

If, however, you choose to provide your own copy, please read on..

According to Rachel McAlpine, author of Web Word Wizardry:

"To write successful web copy you need to travel far beyond the rules for effective business writing. You need to switch from 'think paper' mode to 'think Web' mode.

Thinking Web means being aware of the specific demands and opportunities of the Web, which are quite different from those of the old media. Certain factors unique to the Web ought to influence the way you write web copy. You will need to remember to:

1 think web culture
2 think context
3 think screen
4 think skim-reading
5 think fluid format
6 think keywords
7 think search engines
8 think links
9 think interaction
10 think international

Never assume your home page is the only entry to your site.
"One of the chief errors of inexperienced web writers and designers is to assume that everybody enters a site through the home page, and therefore knows the context of all other web pages on that site. Nothing could be further from the truth. The text of every web page should be self-explanatory and make sense by itself."

This is not a book — it won't be read like one.
"Few people actually read every word on a web page. Instead, their eyes skate over the surface, grabbing for clues about the content."

Your 5th grade teacher was right, you NEED an outline!
"Before you start writing, you need to know about the site’s structure; which web page is connected to which web page. It’s useful to have a chart of the structure or architecture handy as you write content."

How people read on the web:
1 people jump around on the web
2 people skim-read on the web
3 many people read only the link text
4 people scroll on the web - sometimes
5 people look at text before images on the web