As seen at talentzoo.com.
I’ve dabbled in several different areas of the web, navigation, wire framing, site map, HTML, design and even a little WordPress development. At heart, though, I’m an information guy. Normally, I’d say content, but that creates an even smaller pigeonhole.
So, when I talk with people about content strategy affects, navigation, taxonomy, design, and even development, people can’t wrap their heads around it. The truth is that just about every part of web development crosses into another discipline. It’s why web development teams have so many passionate discussions.
In the end, I end up saying, “I write a lot of web content.” The response is something like, “Good thing you don’t get paid per-word,” Or, “I bet that’s easier than writing for print. You have a lot less space to fill.”
Sigh. If I only had more space to fill.
A while back, I did some cross training at an agency where I used to work. I wanted to write for print to make sure I remembered how. It had been going on five years since I’d done so. Now, writers may not always talk a lot, but we’re very verbose on paper. We love to read our own words, much like salespeople like to talk. They’re good at it. So, there I was with a print writer, and the creative director gave us both a crack at the copy for print and online.
The result: my copy was painfully short for print. I didn’t have enough persuasive copy and details of the product features. My response was that nobody would take the time to read that much stuff. The print writer’s response was much more entertaining than mine. When told she had to cut her copy dramatically, she responded with something along the lines of, “You can’t cut THAT much copy. It won’t make any sense!”
Therein lies the rub, my friends.
Regardless of how cool your site looks or how fast it loads, I still believe that information (or “content,” if you enjoy alliteration) is king. It wouldn’t make an impact without design or graphics but it could survive on its own. The funny thing is that, with every waking moment, the room for content is decreasing.
Writing web content is, in some cases, just short of a miracle. You have to make sense, be compelling, and get a complete thought across in five words or less.
Aside from new design theories and the desire to add white space on the page wherever possible, there’s the looming technology of the mobile device. Readable or not, mobile browsing is the future, so you and your reading glasses better get used to it. Even larger screen browsing has shrunk, thanks to the tablet fad.
So what’s a content lover to do? Well, as Steve from that kids’ show Blue’s Clues would say (yes, I have a two-year-old), “Sit down in your thinking chair and think, think, think!” Content is even more crucial now that you have less space. So you’d better make sure it’s right.
The secret for me is usually not in the creation, but in the editing. While I’ve gotten better at hitting the mark on the first try, I usually write as much as any regular print writer would. Then, I start cutting. The first time, I cut for superfluity. The second time, for extraneous words. Then I check the word count and the delicate surgery begins. The final edits are a slow process involving a single question: “Is this REALLY necessary?”
With mobile content, the limbo bar is even lower. According to my friends at Jakob Neilson, when reading from an iPhone-sized screen, comprehension scores for complex Web content were 48% of desktop monitor scores. You can try to be detailed, but you’re probably wasting your time. With mobile, it’s all about the essentials. Say it. Directly, simply, and without adjectives, if possible. If you’re even on the fence, it’s out. Mobile involves a thesaurus and sometimes hours of comparative analysis. You have to see what other sites are using, to see the content in context. Sometimes, the only way to see if it works is to try it yourself.
In the end, content strategy is a lot more than just the words, but if the words aren’t right, you can forget the rest.