Designing
For Content
By Kelly
Paal
We've all been told that a successful website has great content.
The problem that I've discovered is what do you do with and
how to you organize all this great content?
Below are some of the things that I've learned in the time
I've had my own site. Now my particular situation is one where
my site is constantly growing in content. I didn't start my
site with all sorts of content at my finger tips. So the tips
below are from that perspective.
1. Keep your content concise and simple. Of course make sure
that there is enough there for your customers but don't write
pages and pages of information. People are not going to sit
there for an hour reading off of a computer screen, no matter
how good the information is.
2. Keep your content relevant to your site. Do not start
putting unrelated content on your site. It will be confusing
and won't help you draw customers into your site.
3. Organize, organize, and oh yes organize. Keep everything
organized. I don't know how many photography sites that I've
been on have these huge lists of how to articles, hundreds
of them which is great, but they are completely unorganized
and I guess they expect you to scroll down through all these
articles to find what you want. So organize your content.
Make it easy to find things. Whether that's through a search
option or carefully organized subheadings. Make it easy for
people to get what they need quickly.
4. My site has grown steadily but more than I ever expected
and that created a problem that I didn't foresee in the beginning.
As you add content and I assume new pages be aware of where
you place these pages in the grand scheme of your web design.
Just don't add new pages to the bottom of list of links. As
the web site grows the list of links to your other pages could
be quite long so keep some sort of pattern of organization
so that as you add pages it will seem to fit in with the rest.
5. Out of date information. With all this content we're all
adding watch for out of date information. Remove content with
information on technology that is not longer used. And cycle
out old information that just isn't read or was not very popular.
These are just a few things that I've learned in designing
for content on my site.
If you have some specific questions please visit my Photography
and Design Forum at: http://kellypaalphotography.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php
and post your question there.
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About the Author:
Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer,
exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started
her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com).
She has an educational background in photography, business,
and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and
photography principles to her web design.
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