Thursday, March 28, 2024

Web Site Content, What to Include

It surprises me how often I hear it. 
Someone has decided to get themselves a web site, whether its
for business or personal, and they say but what should I put on
it?  Put on it whatever you want to, I think to myself
outwardly I try to be a little more helpful!  It is an
interesting thing, though, because the moment you try to reply
you find yourself fumbling: Umm, I dunno..  maybe you
could  I thought Id try a semi-formal approach that can help
to define content for starting a site.

Information is the key.  A website is to
inform.  When it comes to effectively informing somebody about
something there is a tried and true formula: Who? What? When?
Where? Why?  The five Ws.  This old formula will work just as
well for a website as it does for anything else.  Lets take a
closer look as we compare the application of this thought
process thats really what this formula is all about to the
website for a small business and to a family website.

Who?  When it comes to the family site
theres not much doubt as to the answer!  We do need some
clarification though.  For example, in my case I might need to
explain that my site is about the family of Vince Barnes of
Central Florida, not the Vince Barnes of Oshkosh Wisconsin (even
though he has a really cool name and lives in a town with one of
the coolest names in the US!)  For a small business this is a
very important matter.  Jacks Bits, inc. may be clear enough
to somebody in the horse business but could be confusing to a
tool and die person or even a computer memory manufacturer.  Who
we are talking about on this website needs to be explained very
clearly, right away.  We now have start of the content for the
first page.

What? A small business offers products,
services or both. We need to tell our visitor what we have. 
From Goldfish and other snacks to rocket fuel to accounting,
what we have to offer must be clearly explained next.  If our
visitor is looking for bar snacks, they dont need to hang
around if our goldfish are the kind you put in water.  On the
family page, what do we have to offer?  Do we have a family tree
that goes back to Adam?  Are there photos of that episode up at
the lake? (I do hope so!)  Can we take a look at Ted and Alices
new baby?  You get the idea. Our business site will likely
involve more What? than everything else combined.  It is
critically important that our potential customers fully
understand our products and services.  For our family site,
dont forget what are our plans?  Some form of calendar of
events can be very useful in deterring Aunt Mabel from one of
her surprise visits.

When?  When can we deliver your rocket
fuel?  When is our new book coming out? When are we open?  When
will we see the results?  Business runs by the clock and
calendar.  Explaining all timing options lets our customers know
that we can provide that what they need within their schedule.

Where?  Geography is important too.  If our
site is to offer well drilling services our service area is
likely to be fairly small if our wells supply houses with water
but may be much larger if we drill oil wells.  For a retail
store or a restaurant its important that potential customers
know where the store is and how to get there.  Maps are great
try using a link to mapquest.com or a similar mapping site.  I
explained earlier the importance of location in defining which
family we are talking about on our family site.  There can also
be a down side.  It is probably not a good idea to have your
website say that you live at 123 4th street and
youll be on vacation in Aruba for the first two weeks in
September.  You may not have much furniture on your return!

 

Proceed to
The Non-Technical Intro
Part 6

Go to
The Non-Technical Intro
Index

 


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