Web Content Problems Web Content Management
Poor / Duplicate Page Titles - Is this the right place? - This has the same name as that other page - Lack of site user engagement - Increased pressure on telephone / email - Not understanding the importance of page titles on web - Poor consideration of SEO - Poor web writing skills (not same as writing skills) - Use your site visitors keywords - Create unique page titles - Write heading that match your URL - Keep it short (up to eight words) - Use page summaries - Verb phrases
Broken links - Can I trust the rest of the site? - Loss of credibility - Missed opportunity to engage with user - Increased pressure on telephone / email Causes: - Poor site maintenance - Unmanaged site changes - Poor archiving - Link to sites that are unlikely to change - Linking to a navigation page may be better choice than linking to the destination page - Check links regularly (at least once a year)
Inappropriate voice and tone - Not for me - Not very friendly / Too familiar - Loss of reputation - Reduction in return visitors - Waste time of site user who has to decode copy - Not understanding the need for a consistent voice and tone. - Multiple updaters - Lack of overview / guidance Solutions - Engage with the site user (You and We) - Rewrite with a positive, active voice - Seek clarification on voice and tone guidelines
Bloated web pages can t find what I want - Lack of site user engagement - Reduction in return visitors - Increased pressure on telephone / email - Poor copy writing - Lack of review/editing/proof reading - Not understanding the importance of patterns - Chunking (break text into smaller paragraphs) - Challenge yourself to rewrite the page with half the words and then do it again - Using headings and sub headings - Get help from an experienced editor - Remove needless words and vague phrases
Poor copy - Too much hard work - If they can t write, what are their services like - Lack of site user engagement - Waste time of site user who has to decode copy - Reduction in return visitors - Multiple updaters - Lack of workflow/overview - Poor web writing (even by good writers) - Get someone to proof read copy before publishing / get advice from experienced copywriter - Be concise and use plain English - Sentence: 20 words or fewer - Paragraphs: 70 words (roughly 4 sentences)
Bad navigation (too much / too little) - where do I go from here? - What do I click first? - Poor site user engagement - Distract and waste time of site user - Poor navigation/destination design - Poor information architecture - Not understand how site users categorise subjects - Develop a linking strategy - Categorise your site user keyword to create a taxonomy on which to base navigation - Follow link writing guidelines - Consistent navigation patterns
Duplicate pages - which page is right? Strategic context: - Loss of credibility - Loss of reputation - Wasted staff time/resources - Creating a replacement page and not deleting the original - Replicating colleagues pages - Poor archiving Solution: - Content inventory - Update existing new pages rather than replacing pages
Inaccessible page - Where is that page? - I give up - Missed opportunity to engage with user - Loss of credibility - Wasted staff time/resources - Increased pressure on telephone / email - Poor SEO - Poor linking strategy - Poor information architecture Solutions - Write a meaningful URL that reflects the purpose of the page - Use site visitors keywords in the title - Use page summaries to support SEO
Duplicate documents - download here or there? - Which is the right copy Strategic context: - Frustrate the site user - Loss of credibility - Wasted staff resource - Poor CMS resource management - Poor naming - Place the resource in one location on the web server/cms and link to it from multiple locations - Content Inventory/Audit - Replace existing document rather than uploading new and deleting old
Out of date documents - Is this the latest version? - Should I take action on what is says? - Loss of reputation - Users acting on misinformation - Legal liability - Poor version control - Poor naming conventions - CMS resource management Solutions - Don t use dates in resource names - Use same name each year to replace old version
Deleted pages - it used to be here - is the University site working? - Missed opportunity to engage with user - Loss of credibility - Increased pressure on telephone / email - Not understanding how the CMS deletes and updates resources - Not informing people who link to your site of changes - Follow the content retirement procedure - Check the popularity of a page before deleting - Update existing new pages rather than replacing pages - Review referral traffic and back links before removing pages
Inappropriate use of images - I ve seen this before - What does that mean? - Distract and waste time of site user - Legal liability - Poor image sourcing / selection - Not matching image to message Solution: - Make sure images use is not copy write - Use images only when they are critical to the success of a web page
Inappropriate Image size/format - Too big/small - What s that supposed to be? - Lack of user engagement - Distract and waste time of site user - Lack of adherence to naming conventions - Lack of usability testing - Not understanding format implications - Feel-good images are largely ignored - Use images only when they are critical to the success of a web page - Match photos to your messages - Provide big photos only when they are requested - Make sure images do not severely decrease download speeds - Follow guideline to good practice of using images
Poor document naming - can t find document - take too long to type this URL - Lack of user engagement - Wasted staff resources - Not following naming conventions - Filename not matching document title - Use short URLs - Link to page containing download rather than download directly
Download size - When will this finish downloading - Far, too long to read - Can t be bothered to wait - Lack of user engagement - Waste time of site user waiting for download - Poor content planning - Poor formatting of images / pdf Solution: - Reduce size of download (e.g. remove images) - Inform user of download size / time - Convert download to a screen copy
Low readership - Important but hidden - Lack of user engagement - Increased pressure on telephone / email - Wasted staff time / resources - Irrelevant (to site visitor) content - Poorly written copy - Copy that is not engaging - Evaluate content - Write engaging content using visitors keywords - Place page in high traffic area (especially news stories)
Risks to the University / Student Services Loss of credibility - site user will not believe your message and will not return Lack of site user engagement / missed opportunity to engage with user - you are no going to get your message across Loss of reputation - Site visitor has a increasingly negative view of the University because of the web Frustrating, distracting and the site user - Unlikely to get your message across Reduction in return visitors - Site visitors will use other sources of information phone, email, visit, friends Legal liability Increased pressure on telephone / email Wasted staff time / resources - Developing resources (page copy, downloads and images) that are not going to be used