Ever have that moment where your eyes goes fuzzy while you're skimming a web page. So much small text! We're all suffering from Information Overload (neatly described by Monika Mundell) anyway, so its not surprise that lengthy web content can make your eyes roll back into your head.

We all want our websites to be user-friendly so here are some tips on how to tell what content on your site or blog important. We'll identify two types of information.

Must-Haves

• Answer the "What?" question. Either in your landing or about page, give people the quick and dirty of what your site is about.
• Reader's requests. Ask your readers, via email, twitter or even a blog posts what they want to read.
• Relevance. You know the goal of your site, put information relevant to it up. this includes news, trends, f.d.q.s (Frequently Debated Questions) and your own thoughts.

Superfluous

• Anything written for your ego.
• Long-winded content when something short but juicy will do.
• Out-dated content

With all writing on your website, both blog and site  content take time to identify what things are “must haves” and what things would you “like to have”. The important things have to take priority. There are lots of things you'd like to write, or see on your site, but if its not something your readers say they “must” have, it will have to take a backseat or even be cut.

Keep it short. This goes for web content especially. What you can't fix on your site, take it to your blog. Short, frequent posts are much more effective than one long-winded post a month. This goes back to the point at the top, “must” vs. “like to”. Trim the fat off your site, just post what your readers really need to know.

We've talked about using your audience to gauge the effectiveness of your content, what other ways do you use to decide what to keep or cut?

I'm continuing to write about what I learned from Content Critical. Last post I discussed analyzing your audience, the current one, and the one you wanted. Today I want to discuss evaluating your current content.

Take a look at the content already up on your site. Are you updating your web content on a schedule? Do you blog regularly? Make sure you look at the cost/benefit of your content and schedule. The great thing about web content is that you don't have all the costs that we associate with printing content. However there are different costs that need to be considered, such as, the cost of your time. How much time do you spend on your content, and is that a price that is worth paying? Do you have to go through an editing process with other people? Do you pay someone else to write the content for your site or write something yourself that might be less professional? Compare your current content against your prioritized reader list. What needs to change so you are writing for the right audience?

I challenge you today to read through some of your current content and try to get a feel for the direction its taking. Now, measure that against the direction you want to take. Are they the same?

Image by mshades

I recently finished the book Content Critical by Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton. Lots has changed since this book was published in 2001, but the core principles remain the same. Content forms the foundation of every website. Most businesses write some content on their website. Sometimes they write the actual copy. Others hire a copy-writer but still blog regularly. Either way, they write for an online audience.

I want to spend a few posts on this book and what I learned. First, let's start with a new way to think about who reads your website:

Readers vs. Users
Ever noticed that people who access the internet are called users? We refer to them as computer users. Its actually a unique term. Most people become a variation of the verb they perform. People who ride bikes are called bikes, those who play golf are golfers and people who practice law are lawyers. But when it comes to technology, people are computer users. (Content Critical also went on to point out the other people we call "users" usually have some destructive habit.)

The writers of Content Critical encourage us to think about our audience not as users, but as readers. It makes sense. Reading is the activity that occurs most often online. We open and read our email, we read blogs for tips and fun, we read websites for information about a product or service and we read social media sites to keep track of our friends.

Take a moment to consider this. Do you think of your audience as "readers"? If not, does thinking of them as "readers" change your attitude towards them or your writing? This is the first step to connecting with your audience better, whether you are blogging for fun, for business or just writing the content of your home page.

My next post will deal with Identifying your readers. How do you identify your readers right now?

So I've been invited to speak on SEO for the Dallas Speaker's Co-op. I wanted to share what was talking about.

Listen Here

This podcast just covered some of the basic SEO dos and don'ts:

• First, Google breaks SEO into 4 categories: Keywords, Links, Coding and Content
• Keywords: make sure they are relevant, do research or buy a program or better yet pay someone with SEO background
• Links: Its all a popularity contest. Google wants to know who you know, who knows you and how many people they know. Any link is great, find directories, local searches, organizations and other similar sites.
• Coding: Stay updated, keep your coding clean and well labeled.
• Content: Not too much, not too little. Make sure you use keywords in your copy, but also stay interesting to your readers.
• Don't have a page just of "cool links". This is spam.
• Don't put invisible text on your site. Never. This is bad.
• Don't have a template website. They are very difficult to optimize. Pay for a real website.
• Don't repeat content either on your site or copy text to other sites. It will just be considered a duplicate and won't count for anything.
• Blog!
• Experiment with social media, any traffic, extra links will help your site.
• Think about your SEO goals: what is most important?
• Answer these 3 questions:

1. What goals do you have for your web presence?
2. Why is this important?
3. How are you going to accomplish this?