Why content before design is good

The argument for developing content before design for a new website is nothing new. I just want to explain why, showing what can happen when the content is defined later. Read the rest of this entry »

Why you NEED an ‘About’ page

The first page I look for on most companies’ websites is their ‘About’ page. It’s also the first page I look for on any individual’s website. Why? The reasons are the same: I want to find out who’s behind the website, get to know them and feel like we’ve met. Read the rest of this entry »

Fix-It Friday (No. 3): Energy Institute

Fix-It Friday is a series of posts where I show how a website page can be improved by applying a few web copywriting principles. My primary aim is to make visitors’ lives easier.

Within just an hour, it’s possible to make a page more readable, accessible and search friendly. I also explain what else I’d do if I had more time. Look at the difference a web copywriter can make!

The Energy Institute (EI) is the professional body for the energy industry. It develops and shares knowledge, skills and good practice, while supporting over 14,000 individuals and 300 companies across 100 countries.

The EI website looks great — modern, fresh, professional and easy to navigate. I’m going to look at its ‘About us’ page from a web copywriting perspective.

• Web page before (image)
• Good points
• Could do better
• Web page after (image)
• Fixes made in one hour
• If I had more than an hour, I’d…

Web page before

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Good points

• Individual <title> tags for each page
• Use of H1 tag for page heading
• Contains plenty of well-written information, including who the EI serves and its purpose
• Some links to other pages on the website
• A web-friendly list is used
• The page URL is descriptive
• ‘Skip to content’ link included for accessibility
• Alt tags used correctly on images that contain information, e.g. the EI logo

Could do better

• No sub titles used to break up the text, which is wordy and dense in appearance
• Copy would benefit from better formatting, such as shorter paragraphs and more lists
• Key phrases need highlighting in <strong> tags for both reader and search benefits
• No alt tags for primary-level navigation; it disappears when images are disabled!
• The “description” and “keywords” elements exist but haven’t been used
• Image alt tags used in places that don’t need them, e.g. “Banner” on banner image (no information is contained within)
• The <title> tag could be tweaked to greater effect

Web page after

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Fixes made in one hour

• Simplified and shortened sentences for easier reading and to be more ‘web friendly’
• Cut out some text duplicated on other pages
• Improved the layout and presentation of the copy
• Added sub titles in appropriate H2 header tags to clearly identify the main sections
• Added further links from key phrases to both internal and external web pages
• Highlighted other key words and phrases in <strong> tags
• Placed suitable information into proper lists

If I had more than an hour, I’d…

• Further review and simplify the language used (e.g. ‘share’ instead of ‘disseminate’) — ‘plain English’ considering the EI’s global audience
• Write “description” and “keywords” tags
• Review image alt tags
• Make sure links are also underlined (not just highlighted in a different colour) for accessibility reasons
• Review the <title> element slightly
• Maybe add anchor links from the top of the page to each H2 header, as the page is quite long

Do you want me to make over a page on your website? If you’d like to suggest a site for me to consider, get in touch!

Fix-It Friday (No. 2): World Economic Forum

Fix-It Friday is a new series of posts where I show how a website page can be improved by applying a few web copywriting principles. My primary aim is to make visitors’ lives easier.

Within just an hour, it’s possible to make a page more readable, accessible and search friendly. I also explain what else I’d do if I had more time. Look at the difference a web copywriter can make!

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an independent, not-for-profit and international organisation. Its aim is to improve ‘the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas’.

I’m going to look at the WEF’s ‘Social media: Twitter’ page from a web copywriting perspective.

• Web page before (image)
• Good points
• Could do better
• Web page after (image)
• Fixes made in one hour
• If I had more than an hour, I’d…

Web page before

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Good points

• Individual <title> tags for each page
• Sub titles are used to break the text up
• Clearly describes what users can expect (including benefits) if they follow the Twitter feed
• Good number of links to both internal and external web pages
• The page URL is descriptive

Could do better

• Header tags (H1, H2, etc) haven’t been used for title and sub title elements
• The text is wordy and dense in appearance
• Copy would benefit from better formatting
• Key phrases need highlighting in <strong> tags
• There doesn’t appear to be a “description” or “keywords” element
• The <title> tag could be tweaked to greater effect

Web page after

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Fixes made in one hour

• Simplified the language — ‘plain English’ (considering the WEF’s global audience)
• Improved the order, layout and presentation of the copy
• Placed all titles into appropriate header tags
• Added additional sub titles to break up text
• Added further links from key phrases where appropriate
• Highlighted other key words and phrases in <strong> tags
• Placed suitable information into proper lists
• Moved the image and added a greater margin

If I had more than an hour, I’d…

• Write “description” and “keywords” tags
• Review the <title> element

Note: Within the copy, I did not change ‘organized’ to ‘organised’ because this appears to be the WEF’s house style.

Do you want me to make over a page on your website? If you’d like to suggest a site for me to consider, get in touch!

Fix-It Friday (No. 1): Dulas

Fix-It Friday is a new series of posts where I show how a website page can be improved by applying a few web copywriting principles. My primary aim is to make visitors’ lives easier.

Within just an hour, it’s possible to make a page more readable, accessible and search friendly. I also explain what else I’d do if I had more time. Look at the difference a web copywriter can make!

Dulas provides professional renewable energy services from its base in the heart of Wales. I like its website; the design’s fresh, modern and uncluttered, with clear navigation.

I’ve decided to look at the ‘About Dulas’ page from a web copywriting perspective.

• Web page before (image)
• Good points
• Could do better
• Web page after (image)
• Fixes made in one hour
• If I had more than an hour, I’d…

Web page before

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Good points

• Individual <title> and <description> tags for each page
• Use of H1 tag for page heading
• Well written, interesting information
• Sub titles used to break the text up

Could do better

• There’s too much information: the page is very long
• The text is wordy in places and there are a couple of errors
• Copy needs better formatting
• The sub titles are in <strong> tags; they’d be better in H2 headers
• Text contains no links to other pages within the website or externally
• The page URL is not descriptive
• The <description> tag needs a bit of tweaking

Web page after

(Click on the image for a larger version.)

Fixes made in one hour

• Lightly edited the copy to simplify wording and ‘front load’ the text
• Removed some information that could sit better elsewhere
• Placed current sub titles into H2 header tags
• Added additional sub titles to break up text further
• Added links from key phrases to relevant pages both within the website and externally
• Highlighted other key words and phrases in <strong> tags
• Placed listed information into proper lists

If I had more than an hour, I’d…

• Edit or rewrite the text to simplify it, focus the information and reduce page length considerably…
• …and/or add in-page links at the top of the page to jump to relevant sections (visitors can see straight away the page content without scrolling, plus the usual benefits)
• Rewrite the <description> tag
• Add more links from the text to help users navigate throughout the website
• Consider the page and its section as a whole, and as an integral part of the complete website

Do you want me to make over a page on your website? If you’d like to suggest a site for me to consider, get in touch!

Learning languages online

As if I needed another distraction, this week I discovered Busuu.com. It calls itself a ‘language learning community’ and is basically another social network with a twist: you create a profile for yourself and add details of the languages you’re learning.

Busuu.com offers courses in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian at the moment. As well as providing units in vocabulary and grammar, it also prompts you to submit a short writing exercise that other members can then check and correct.

Improved site tools and features

This is a great little tool for language learners and much better than anything else I’ve found online so far. I’m not sure how old the website is, but I’m guessing it will of course be further developed.

A few things that I’d like to see are:

• an improved search tool that lets users search using a keyword — I’d like to make ‘friends’ with people in my locality, not just my country
• downloads (PDFs and podcasts) with more detail and exercises than just those found in that unit — these are ‘premium’ content that do not offer anything additional at the moment
• the different languages to have different scripts — at the moment, the script is exactly the same in each unit for different languages, so if you complete ‘weather’ in German and then do it in Spanish too, the information isn’t new
• recognition on your profile that you’re a premium member — I keep needing to remind myself that I’ve upgraded because I’m still being urged to do so!

Grow your ‘language tree’!

However, it’s an excellent start and I’m currently hooked! It’s great to chat to native speakers and the features that Busuu.com has introduced to keep you working are simple but inspired: your ‘language garden’ grows for every unit you progress and you collect ‘Busuu berries’ for every activity you perform.

There’s also a fabulous mix of fellow learners of all ages, and you can chat to people from Mongolia to Chile.

(Wondering what Busuu means? ‘Busuu is a language spoken in Cameroon — based on an ethnological study conducted in the 80s, apparently only eight people are able to speak this language’.)