eBook - ePub
Letting Go of the Words
Writing Web Content that Works
Janice (Ginny) Redish
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- 368 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
Letting Go of the Words
Writing Web Content that Works
Janice (Ginny) Redish
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About This Book
Web site design and development continues to become more sophisticated. An important part of this maturity originates with well-laid-out and well-written content. Ginny Redish is a world-renowned expert on information design and how to produce clear writing in plain language for the web. All of the invaluable information that she shared in the first edition is included with numerous new examples. New information on content strategy for web sites, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media make this once again the only book you need to own to optimize your writing for the web.
- New material on content strategy, search engine optimization, and social media
- Lots of new and updated examples
- More emphasis on new hardware like tablets, iPads, and iPhones
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Information
1
Content! Content! Content!
The theme of this book is content = conversation. My goal is to help you have great conversations through your web site, mobile app, social media, and whatever future innovations encourage interactions between you and others.
People come for the content
People donāt come to web sites or mobile apps or social media for the joy of navigating or searching. They donāt usually come to admire the design. They donāt focus on the technology. They come for the content that they think (or hope) is there.
People come for information that answers their question or helps them complete their task. They want that information to be easy to find, easy to understand, accurate, up to date, and credible.
Content = conversation
Every use of your web site or mobile app is a conversation started by your site visitor.
Thatās true whether your site or app is for e-commerce; a nonprofit organization; a government agency; a university; a city, county, state, or country; a recommender system; or your personal blog or site.
Yesterday, I
ā¢ looked up the same health question on three different sites to build confidence that I was getting an answer I could trust
ā¢ bought a book for my daughter
ā¢ compared prices for a new printer for the office
ā¢ skimmed hotel reviews for a trip my husband and I are planning
ā¢ sent a huge file through an online service
In each case, the most productive way to think about what I was doing is as a conversation.
We converse both by talking and by writing. You may text others more often than you call them. Youāre still conversing with them.
www.yousendit.com
Yesterday, I also
ā¢ tweeted about my next workshop
ā¢ checked my Twitter stream to see what others were saying
ā¢ caught up with a former colleague through LinkedIn
ā¢ participated in a global committee meeting on Skype
ā¢ read a few of my favorite blogs
Do you react well when web sites and mobile apps converse with you? I do. Figure 1-1 is the message I get when I leave my Twitter stream open but get caught up in my work.
Figure 1-1 A conversational message from the site I use to read and send tweets
www.hootsuite.com
Web = phone, not file cabinet
Too many sites still seem to be virtual file cabinets, saying to site visitors, āWeāll let you rummage around in our file cabinets because we assume you are looking for documents.ā āFile cabinetā is the wrong metaphor for most web sites.
Web = phone (whether you use it for voice or for texting). Web = asking people to serve themselves instead of calling or writing.
File cabinets house documents. We use phones to converse. People seldom come to web sites for documents. They come for information. They come because they have questions. And they are happiest when the web site answers those questions.
To create great web content, you must
ā¢ understand the conversations your site visitors want to have with your web site or your app
ā¢ satisfy those conversations
ā¢ engage your site visitors enough to make them want to continue in the site or app and come back again
ā¢ meet your business goals (whether your goal is to sell stuff, to be the major source of information on your topic, or to get more members for your organization)
Online, people skim and scan
Most site visitors are very ...