Recently, they have been running a series about website content (if you have a little time, check it out). Since the content of your website is the vehicle for engaging your users, we wanted to post some general information about developing your site’s content.

We’re all familiar with the phrase, “content is king.” Even though that’s the way it’s supposed to be, we all know that it’s not always so.

In reality, the majority of content that’s written for the web today is really pretty awful.

The reason is simple – most of the people writing content today really have no business doing it. In a lot of  cases this particular task was foisted upon someone who simply couldn’t come up with a good reason not to be selected.

Developing good content for your site is a discipline, just like running your enterprise is a discipline. It takes time, energy and the right skillset to be successful.

And it requires a plan.

Setting out the goals for your content should be the starting point of your online presence. Decide first of all just exactly what it is that you want to say or accomplish with your site.

In the case of a commercial venture, your goals may include keeping your clients and readers informed about news and developments associated with your field. Or, possibly, the goal of your site may be to sell a product, encourage readers to sign up for your newsletters and announcements or your site could serve as a public relations platform.

Personal sites may, on the other hand, have an entirely different set of goals. Perhaps you want to establish an online blog presence to voice your personal views, chronicle an event or series of events, or have a site geared towards social networking.

Authors may want an online presence to highlight their work, offer a continuing dialogue with their readers, promote new work and use their site to enhance their visibility and interact with their readers.

Regardless of the goals that you set for your site, you’ll find it more than helpful to take the time and draft a plan to help in accomplishing your objective.

This could be as simple as a single handwritten page that details how often you want to update your site, the general topics you want to develop and a brief statement about the audience you want to reach.

Or the plan could be as elaborate as you need, including outlines, topics and categories of interest and detailed explanations of your approach to each area.

In defining your goals and then assigning priorities to each of the different areas of content development, you can implement a winning strategy for developing your site’s content.

Just following these simple steps will place you in the top of your particular area. Over time, you can begin to increase your focus and put yourself at the forefront of your chosen field.

In setting out our design strategy for a new website, we focus on keeping the user experience primary. This always begins by addressing  the purpose of the site and never forgetting that the site will be used by real people.

All too often all of us have come across websites with stunning designs and graphics that are all but impossible to navigate. Somewhere along the way, the simple fact that websites are used by people got lost.

Keeping the site user-friendly and logical gives us a much better chance of winning a return visit and building loyalty with visitors. The result is simple: visitors that return.

This becomes all important whenever one of the objectives of the website is to encourage the visitor to take action. All too often, the process of getting the visitor to take this action (buy our product, submit information, sign up for a service or newsletter) simply does not occur on the initial visit.

Repeat visits are often necessary in order for the visitor to reach the comfort level needed to take action. Site design should encourage the visitor not only to explore – it should create an environment that the visitor will want to re-visit over and over.

An effective strategy will also include  layout that encourages building that comfort level and  also follows some general guidelines.

When someone visits your site for the first time, they tend to have certain general expectations. As an example, they expect the site to have a name and they expect to see that name in one or two general locations.

Frequently when we make too radical a departure from these general expectations, we can lose that visitor. They will simply hit the “back” button and most likely never return.

There are exceptions to this example, of course. If you’re building a personal site, then pretty much anything goes. After all, it is personal.

Receiving unsolicited comments from visitors concerning the ease of use and overall appeal of our sites has been a distinct highlight of our work.