That’s why organizations that use gobbledygook business terms or industry jargon on the web decrease the value of their message by failing to connect and engage with audiences online.

So when we talk, in business, in terms of “verticals” or, in government, in terms of “branches”, and then structure websites to mimic this approach to organizing information, the potential for even greater dissociation with our target audience exists.

Now you aren’t just using words that hold no meaning for your target audience, you’re also labeling important navigational elements in a way that provide little context within your target audience’s frame of reference.

The tricky part about meaning is that what is significant to you may not be significant to all. Significance is determined by background, experiences, culture, values, etc.

Words Are As Much A “Signifier” As They Are A Conveyer Of “Significance”

Last September, Jeff Parks of i.a. consultants inc and I put on workshops in Jamaica through the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce. Jeff asked participants to organize colored candy pieces in any way they liked as a way of illustrating how organizational bias can influence how website’s are structured and navigational elements labeled.

It’s amazing the many different ways you can organize the same six colors!

In a conversation between two people, both have the opportunity to clarify ambiguities to derive meaning and understanding. Unless organizations are willing to do their homework up front to properly identify their target audience, and then research and define the vocabulary they use when referring to, and finding, specific products and services online …the messaging on their website will always be a one-sided conversation. Organizational bias is just one of the reasons many companies hire web content strategists and writers to bring a fresh perspective to their company’s website.

If you are interested in learning more about how to structure and label information in a way that is valuable to your target audience and your business, Jeff and I will be putting on similar workshops to those we conducted in Jamaica last year. Find out more at http://www.followtheuxleader.com

Show! Don’t Tell!

Just like gobbledygook business terms, a corporate mission statement holds no more value in the eyes of your customer if the vision expressed can be applied to any company within any sector. Naturally, your company aims to be #1 …in your industry …with the best customer service …and the most fantastic products around. You wouldn’t be in business if it wasn’t!

Trust and Engagement Online Are Predicated By What Users Want and Value

When customers go to an About Page online, they want to know more about your organization through the lens of what matters to them.

About Page Do’s

- Do include background information on your organization to affirm credibility. Tell a story if possible.
- Do post pictures of the business and key personnel to establish rapport and build trust.
- Do keep the tone engaging and light.
- Do answer key questions that your customers might want to know about your organization.
- Do get creative! Borrow from magazine-style interviews or create a narrative through imagery.
- Do use internal links to other sections of the website to illustrate quality products and customer service.
- Do start most sentences with “You”.

About Page Don’ts

- Don’t write in 3rd person.
- Don’t rely on gobbledygook business terms.
- Don’t use corporate or industry acronyms.
- Don’t transpose content from print sources like Quarterly or Annual Reports.
- Don’t include “A Message from the President”.
- Don’t embed a video of yourself “Welcoming” people to your website.
- Don’t provide statistics that are only meaningful to the company …not the customer!
- Don’t start all sentences with “We…”

Mission and Vision statements are a way for organizations to communicate corporate culture, values and objectives in a few short sentences. In theory, they serve as a beacon for which to guide all future business decisions. In essence, mission statements are both for you and about you.

…the difference on the web is that the About Page itself isn’t really about “you” at all!

Finding the perfect word, or string of words in traditional marketing was typically left in the hands of the creatives whose manipulation of the poetics of language could sway even the most unfavorable of arguments in support of their pitch.

But for the countless “power words” that drive enterprise, there are many more that have become so ingrained in the established lexicon of business that they have lost all meaning …and influence.

In the words of marketing strategist and author, David Meerman Scott, these cliched terms are nothing more than “Gobbledygook“.

And let me tell you, as a writer, Gobbledygook is what business leaders are conditioned to look for when determining “good”, “quality” content. The more hyperbole, the more professional and “business-like” the content sounds …or at least that’s how it used to be.

The problem with Business Gobbledygook, of course, is that it’s generic, bland, overused and speaks at the customer …not with them, in the terms that they use and value.

Dow Jones Analysis Of Gobbledygook

“The folks at the Factiva Reputation Lab used text mining tools to analyze news releases sent by companies in North America. Factiva analyzed each release in its database that had been sent to one of the North American news release wires it distributes. The news release wires included in the analysis were Business Wire, Canada newsWire, CCnMatthews, Commweb.com, Market Wire, Moody’s, PR newswire, and Primezone Media network.”

~ The Gobbledygook Manifesto

The Top 10 Gobbledygook Words and Phrases in 2008

Dow Jones Insight Ranks Most Used Gobbledygook Terms

“Another major drawback of the generic gobbledygook approach is that it doesn’t make your company stand out from the crowd. Here’s a test: take the language that the marketers at your company dreamed up and substitute the name of a competitor and the competitor’s product for your own. Does it still make sense to you? Marketing language that can be substituted for another company’s isn’t effective in explaining to a buyer why your company is the right choice.”

~ David Meerman Scott, The Gobbledygook Manifesto

While the business community continues to speak “gobbledygook” offline, there is no value in puffing up websites with language that does nothing to connect with target audiences online. If you only have 150 words to work with on a web page before users click the back button, that leaves little room for “angel food fluff”.

Search Engines Put The Words Back Into Customer’s Mouths

Search engine optimization changed the rules of the game a number of years ago when businesses fought for page rank using search engine results for keywords and keyword phrases. Except what search engine marketers did was the opposite of what traditional marketers do – they looked to the vocabulary of their target audience (not the gobbledygook of corporate speak) to saturate their content with the very words they knew their customers used to find the products and services they were selling.

Keywords Are Big Business

“Around half the companies (49%) are reallocating budgets to search engine marketing from print advertising. More than a third (36%) are shifting money away from direct mail, and almost a quarter are moving budgets from conferences and exhibitions (24%) and web display advertising (23%)”

~ 2010 State of Search Engine Marketing Report, BusinessWire

Until Search Engine Optimization came along, it was very hard to place a dollar value on words alone. While SEO was good for writers to finally be able to justify the importance of their role to the business community, the downside was in compromising the readability (i.e. usability) of content at the expense of optimization (i.e. keywords).

A Fine Balance

“SEO copywriting ‘techniques’ – as they are commonly understood today – represent a bastardized version of copywriting that’s not good for customers, not good for users and serves up pure schlock… Sadly, most people never talk about the second half of the SEO copywriting equation – the half that’s even more important than keywords. And that’s writing compelling, interesting and persuasive content designed to communicate with your customers.”

~ SEO Copywriting is Dead, Long Live SEO Content Marketing

The bygone era of Madison Avenue and martini lunches may have set corporate America on the path to respecting the influence of words, but the information age has solidified that relationship with the need to provide quality content using the researched vocabulary of an intended target audience.

“Consider this: While 30-second Super Bowl commercials cost $2.6 million each and reach 80 million people, the One Times Square tower draws 211 million pairs of eyeballs when the New Year’s Eve ball drops … According to media sellers, the rental prices for ad real estate varies widely depending, in part, on size and — like everything else in Manhattan — location.”

~ Advertising Age, The Cost of Advertising on Times Square

While the CPM model does apply to online advertising campaigns, the effectiveness of web content as a whole can’t be measured by the number of “eyes” landing on a web page alone.

So why do so many people focus their ROI on the number of “Hits” and “Page Views” their website receives?

Anyone who has visited Times Square can tell you the barrage of billboard advertising can lead to a sensory overload of colors, lights and imagery. So much so, that although you might see an ad, you probably don’t entirely absorb its message. The same applies to the web:

Web Pages May Be Viewed But Not Read

Most web content writers will use the “Average Time On Page” from Google Analytics as a rudimentary way of determining the effectiveness of their web content. I know the statistical “before and after” results garnered from web content projects I have worked on show convincing arguments towards professionally written web content.

A generally accepted Google Analytics target-result in my industry takes “Average Time On Page” from seconds (before) to over 2 minutes (after).

The ambiguity of the results, of course, leads us to assume in our favor. We choose to believe that the web content we have written is connecting and engaging with its intended target audience. But the increased time on page could just as easily be doing otherwise.

Web Content Is An Incredible Marketing Opportunity!

While Google Analytics may only be able to report broad results similar to the CPM of a billboard in Times Square, web content offers something print content can’t:

Web Content Is Bolstered By Technology

What this means is that interactions with a web page – clicks, scrolls, and mouse movements – can be tracked to determine the effectiveness of the web content on it: video, audio, images and copy. These results (both individual and aggregated) give organizations invaluable feedback on whether their website is working or not …and how!

I believe that web content is a valuable business asset. I have worked in traditional marketing, communications and advertising, and the reason I love the web is because it is the only medium that can deliver reports and results based on concrete data.

Until now, I’ve only been able to “tell” clients about the value of web content based on what I know as a web professional working in this industry since 1999. Thanks to the generous support of ClickTale, however, I’m now going to be able to show you. ClickTale has given DigitalWord a free three-month subscription to track, analyze, and monitor this website and blog as a means of “showing” results. My goal is to be able to share with clients and readers alike, how

- mouse move heatmaps
- attention heatmaps
- scroll reach heatmaps
- click heatmaps
- link analytics

can give us contextualized data that will help to create better online experiences, and in turn, demonstrate the ROI of a quality web content strategy and professionally written web content.

Many thanks to Shmuli Goldberg, Director of Marketing and Communications at ClickTale for believing in and supporting this approach to illustrating the business value of web content

…and to Jeff Parks of i.a. consultants inc. for making this important introduction and connection between DigitalWord and ClickTale.

Perhaps it is how we conquer new frontiers, by staking claim of what is known, before we explore the infinite possibilities of what is not. As the sunset period of Web 2.0 is upon us, it stands to reason that we yearn to solidify definitions before we charter the organic fringes of the Semantic Web …where “relationship” defines meaning over “explanation” and “description”.

Definitions, by their very nature, distill explanations into their simplest form and in doing so often overlook precious nuances of interpretation and opportunities to gain broader perspectives beyond literal meaning.

We can’t always explain things within the compartmentalized reality of what we know.

This past week Jason Schubring at Six Revisions posted The Web Content Strategy Pyramid as a means of explaining the structure of a well-balanced content strategy.

I, myself, have used the familiar pyramid approach to visually explain Web Content: The Anatomy of 150 Words or Less and The Four Kinds of Web Content. In fact, everyone from Maslow to the FDA’s Food Pyramid (the source of inspiration for Schubring’s illustrative definition) have relied upon this basic shape as a rudimentary infographic for their ideas.

The problem with the pyramid is that it applies structure to a structure-less effort. Connecting and communicating with people cannot be delineated by shape. Proportionately it can …but for a strategy based on “the purpose of the website” or the “goals of an organization”, the nuances are too easily lost with a cut and dried approach.

I’m not saying Schubring intended the pyramid to exclude the nuance of strategy …and the 579 people who re-tweeted it obviously felt it was of value (and it is!) however, the very nature of a strategy means individualization.

My fear, as we strive to define the essence of what it is that we do is that we stop looking at possibilities for inclusion.

“I’m frustrated with the characterization of content strategy as “good writing” or “operational issues.” They are unnecessarily limiting, even if taken in the context of the web. I know there’s a design component here, a newly emergent set of  challenges that comes with preparing information to be delivered online.

Content strategists are designers, just like I am. And like me, the information architect, the “stuff” content strategists design is somewhat more abstract, somewhat less defined than a couple million pixels. But, aside from the composition of content, content strategists haven’t (to my satisfaction anyway) defined what it is they design, what’s the output of their work.”

~ Dan Brown, Letter to a Content Strategist

The Web Copy vs Web Content Debate

Alice and Rachel over at Contented recently wrote a blog post outlining the difference between web copy and web content. In Web Content or Web Copy: What’s the Difference? they put forth “Over time, the two words have come to refer to different kinds of writing.” And they’re not entirely wrong given the two opposing tracts of web content development: marketing-driven and usability-driven.

My thoughts (which were graciously published as an addendum to the post), is that we need to start looking at the broader definition of “Web Content” as the vehicle that conveys meaning and message. This includes video, audio, copy and graphics.

If Content Is King, Context Is The Kingdom!

The key in an industry that is focused on the expanses of the Web is in broadening our definitions so that they remain inclusive over time …not precise narratives of exacting detail.

I argue that, in time, as we strive to further define our roles as Content Strategists we will, in fact, find ourselves boxed in by the very title we have given ourselves. Because, in reality, we are Context Strategists – extracting, deriving, interpreting, and conveying meaning regardless of the technology at hand.

In many ways, Context Strategy welcomes nuance and interpretation and better positions us for the information/relationship of the coming Web 3.0

Sadly, however, even by that very definition it might just box us in…..

As I’ve talked about before in this blog, content for most organizations hasn’t evolved past the online brochure paradigm adopted from the print marketing collateral days. An organization’s content is still driven by information pertaining to the products, services, about/history, and contact/location of the organization itself.

Problem: It’s Always About You!

Using this approach, website traffic arrives from search engines (or directly) to a website that PROCLAIMS everything it thinks you need to know about the business through the lens of its marketing department.

What’s Wrong With That?

The problem with this method is it fails to take advantage of the technology behind websites that make them so much more than just static brochures. We talk a lot about conversion online, but few websites actually take the time to recognize that a lot of what converts website traffic into paying customers is, in fact, the content …and the functionality of that content.

(This is also why generalist writers often end up writing web content that reads more like a brochure. Their lack of technical understanding of content functionality can impede the user experience-focused interaction necessary for a successful website over the long term.)

Functional Content

Here is a model I use to describe the four kinds of web content that should exist on every website in order for it to be successful. Hat tip to Gerry McGovern who is a passionate advocate of Task-Based Content.

The inverted pyramid is a figurative approach to funneling website traffic leads into customers. Of course, a website’s audience is not only SEO driven but also (hopefully) an online representation of your business as a value-added service for existing customers as well.

Reality Check: The kind of content you have on your website will not only increase its functionality but its overall value to your business.

To borrow from a typical sales model – In order to move from lead generation -> qualified leads -> paying customer, your web content must encourage repeat website visits from both organic traffic and existing customers.

Web Content Ideas For Layered Content Delivery

Here are just a few ideas of the kinds of content that might exist on your website. Bear in mind that the purpose of your website will always trump the type of content and the proportions that are present.

For instance, a government research lab will probably be heavily weighted towards providing mostly information-based content, whereas an e-commerce site might be less inclined to focus on substantive details.

Information-Based: Great source for search engine optimized keywords. Provides general information about the organization to establish credibility and trustworthiness. More does not necessarily equal better.

Task-Based: Great way to build a customer database. Encourages repeat visits through functionality and bookmarking. Asks the site visitor to interact with the website in a way that gives them what they need/value i.e. Download the PDF, complete the form, sign up today, try our online calculator etc.

Community-Based: (or Conversation-Based) A great place for reputation management and encouraging feedback. A source of inspiration for new products/services and evergreening of web content. Social media tools like blogs, twitter, facebook, youtube are an easy addition provided an overall strategy is involved.

Retention-Based: Convenient approach for 24/7 customer service. Password-protected area may be required. This content is most linked to offline business strategy as it provides online value to existing customers. Closed-loop marketing campaigns with offline tactics (i.e. promotions, coupons, give-aways) would be one application of this kind of content.

Unlike print brochures, web content is a two-way conversation between an organization and its customers. That’s not to say that brochure websites aren’t going to deliver results, it’s just that it’s time to make our online conversations more engaging to target audiences by providing content that is interesting, entertaining, and of most value to them.

Sadly, the same holds true on the Web. Businesses often overlook the value of web content as being both a driver of new business and a vehicle for customer service. Since most web projects are still managed the same as print publications, web content is very much an after-thought both in scope and budget.

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, web content writing looks deceptively simple and straight-forward on the surface. How much time could it possibly take to write 150 words? Even as a writer I often fall into that trap, failing to remember my own rule:

The problem with forgetting about all of the “stuff” that goes on below the surface, is that companies fail to accommodate and invest in the time it takes to do the proper homework necessary to create websites that deliver long-term value.

Here is the dollar breakdown of two recent web projects with total project budgets equalling CDN$20,000 or higher.

New Website Project:

Website Redesign Project:

The problem I have with this kind of project budget breakdown is that it UNDERVALUES the longer term business value of the website.

If the purpose of your website is to attract, engage and retain customers, then why are you investing less than 15% of your website budget to the very thing that drives over 80% of your business?

Reality Check:

- Web Content Is Your Primary Driver of Website Traffic – Keywords and Organic Search Engine Optimization are Critical

- Web Content Makes the Sale and Closes The Deal – Clear Headers and Calls To Action Are Key

- Web Content Provides Information, Facilitates Usability, Connects and Engages With Customers, and Supports Brand Messaging – Web Content Strategy Is Paramount

Don’t get me wrong. The back-end of a website is just as important as the front end. The web development portion of any web project budget will always be the most weighty. However, to simply throw what’s left of any budget towards the content portion of the project in the hopes that it will deliver “some” value is not only short-sighted …it’s just plain dumb!

How Much Do You Think These Companies Value Their Business?

The following is a screenshot of freelance web content writing projects posted on elance.com.

The scary part isn’t that web content writers are willing to work at an hourly wage equal to that of the Great Depression (perhaps the undervaluing of content is one propagated within our own ranks…), it’s that companies are willing to risk their future sales and potential viability as a business in an effort to save a few bucks!

Web Content Is A Business Asset

Here is some feedback that I received on a recent project for a company that took the time to properly investigate how web content could help grow and solidify their business. Their investment in properly researched and written web content paid off within a week of launch. Here is a direct message that I received on Twitter from agile coach, Dave Rooney

Web content is intrinsically tied to a company’s overall business strategy. If a web content writer cannot convey the value of your business in a meaningful way that delivers results, then all you have invested in is pretty copy that is lovely to read and nothing more.

Companies: Understand and value web content in a way that will cause you to seek out the best content writers and engage them accordingly. You will assuredly reap the rewards of your investment (ROI) both in website traffic and in sales.

Writers: Mind your worth! How is anyone going to value what you do if you do not place value on it yourself? Stand up for what you are worth and others will value that worth in turn.

“Would you go to the gas station and ask for free gas? Would you go to the doctor and ask them to take out your spleen for nothing? How dare you call me and want me to work for nothing?

They always want the writer to work for nothing and the problem is there’s so many goddamn writers who have no idea that they’re supposed to be paid every time they do something they do it for nothing.

I sell my soul but at the highest rates.”

~ Harlan Ellison

As Kristina Halvorson, president of Brain Traffic and author of Content Strategy for the Web, proclaimed in February of this year:

“Content strategy will soon be getting more attention than social media… Content strategy is more or less on the same trajectory as social media was three years ago.”

I knew that.

But few businesses do. Most know that the web development process doesn’t go as smoothly as they’d like …and even more recognize the need for an editorial process or publishing schedule after their websites go live ….but the majority don’t even know where to go to find a solution.


The Solution Is In Education and Awareness
…but how do you learn more about a burgeoning field like web content strategy?


Sign-Up For A Training Workshop!

Follow The UX Leader is a professional development workshop series created for organizations looking for hands-on knowledge in managing and supporting their corporate websites through content strategy and user experience design.

These aren’t the typical web courses you’d find at a local college or online. They’re hands-on, interactive and designed for non-technical people who often find themselves in roles where the web is also their responsibility. The goal is to give you the basics of web content writing, design and management – in one day – with practical experiences and knowledge you can bring back to your office and apply right away.

Workshops are currently scheduled for September/October 2010 in Ottawa, Canada, with additional locations and venues coming soon.

[disclosure: Follow The UX Leader is a joint initiative of Digitalword and its partner company i.a. consultants inc.]



Join A Local Web Content Strategy Meet-Up!

Web Content Strategy Meet-Ups are springing up all around the world on the heels of this year’s very successful Content Strategy Forum 2010 in Paris. If you are unable to attend the upcoming Web Content 2010 in Chicago in June, a local Web Content Strategy Meet-Up will initiate you into the benefits and challenges of this burgeoning discipline.

Local Ottawa professionals seeking to connect with other web content strategists, information architects and web content writers are invited to attend the inaugural Web Content Strategy Meet-Up Ottawa on May 18, 2010 with regular meetings to follow monthly starting in September.

[disclosure: Web Content Strategy Meet-Up Ottawa is sponsored by Digitalword]

Web content strategy isn’t a passing fad. It’s here to stay. As websites balloon to ten times their size and ever-changing social media campaigns are continuously added-on as after-thoughts, it’s time we got serious about the information organizations present online.

“…the world contains an unimaginably vast amount of digital information which is getting ever vaster ever more rapidly. This makes it possible to do many things that previously could not be done: spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on. Managed well, the data can be used to unlock new sources of economic value, provide fresh insights into science and hold governments to account.”

~ The Economist, Special Report On Managing Information, February 2010

That’s when I resorted to using something a good writer should never use – a cliché. Not just any cliché, but an overused, jumped-the-shark, unoriginal cliché that’s so trite it applies to everything from personal growth to objective setting. And of course, the reason it’s so popular is because it works.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present: The Web Content Iceberg Analogy

Many people ask me how I can sit with a client for an hour and get everything I need to write the content for their website based on a simple conversation. What they don’t see is what goes on beneath the surface. My job as a web content writer is to distill hours of research, interviews, marketing information, and strategy into 150 words or less.

If I’ve done my job right, the web content on any given web page should communicate in seconds all of these hours of background work in a way that’s simple …meaningful ….and, easy to understand.

It’s not that hard to do if you know what to look for. The anchor for all content is the purpose of the website. What you communicate on each page and how you communicate that message is founded on who you’re talking to (your target audience). Everything else is content strategy and marketing strategy.

As an organization, what kinds of information can you provide a web content writer to make sure your web content effectively supports the website’s purpose?

- Web traffic statistics (Google Analytic Reports)
- Organizational challenges both internally and externally
- Marketing brochures or offline campaign information
- Communication challenges both internally and externally
- Marketing reports, audits, annual reports
- Product/service features
- Competitor websites
- Keyword research or organizational lexicon
- Target audience or customer information
- Other sources of present or forecasted content: i.e. YouTube videos, Podcasts

Writing is an art. Just like any art-form people erroneously assume that simplicity means easy …or quick …rudimentary …or less skilled.

Contemplation, understanding, and perspective are qualities all artists bring to the creative process. The resulting product of their creation is really just the tip of the iceberg.

The other day I went so far as to tweet: “A hooptie is still a hooptie even with a new coat of paint. It’s what’s under the hood that counts.”

While I’m the first to admit that web content is usually the culprit when it comes to a website not working — and by “not working” I mean little to no website traffic, struggling for page rank on Google, and few conversions from virtual lurkers to bona fide pick-up-the-phone-and-call customers — I am also the first to remind clients that the purpose for having a website is to connect, communicate and engage with website visitors in a way that makes sense to them …not you.

What this means is that if the client didn’t do their homework prior to launching the website, no amount of web content copy editing will be able to “fix” the underlying problem – a website that was designed not strategized.

Consider the many elements you’ll find on any typical website:

When you think about it, at the center of all of these elements is the content. The words on your web page determine everything from labeling the parent-level navigation …to the images used to provide context …to the key messages communicated in support of your corporate brand.

Would it not stand to reason, then, that when designing a website you should first consider what, how much and where the content will go before you get down to the business of design and development?

Websites are a 3 to 5 year investment. Properly forecasting how the website will grow in support of organizational and customer needs is part of the initial web content strategy. By thinking of all of the ways you might need to account for new content will make managing that content (adding and deleting pages) far easier in the future.

That’s not to say that professionally written web content can’t extend the life of an existing website. Just like on the popular MTV show Pimp My Ride, new or rewritten web content can make an old site fresh again. However, if the existing navigation structure needs an overhaul or the design can’t support the proposed content layout it may just be time to take the site to the scrap heap and start again.

Reality Check:

- If your website is already nearing five years old, it’s time to start anew.
- If your product/service has changed drastically or the vision for the company is targeting a new audience segment, it’s time for a new website.
- If the specific wording for your product/service has changed or a widely accepted term has taken its place, it’s time to get back to the drawing board.
- If you are implementing an SEO campaign and the keywords you are optimizing for don’t mesh with the existing navigation labels, it’s time to revisit the design
- If the website structure and navigation no longer supports the offline services or customer support you offer, it’s time to look at a redesign.

Web Content Strategists work in tandem with User Experience Designers to create Website Strategy Blueprints that clients can use to identify their content requirements before the design and development phase takes place.

A recent video on the blueprint concept of wireframing presented at the Interaction10 conference illustrates just how much planning should go into your web design or redesign project, so that you too can avoid the limitations of Square Peg, Round Hole Web Content.