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1. Because you always have access to your content

Managing content using flat-XHTML and a code editor means you ALWAYS need a code editor. Even if you have a team running a round-the-clock service there will always be gaps. A good Content Management System or CMS means an authorised user can nip into any cybercafé in the world and change stuff to their heart’s content.

2. Because you can keep tabs on who’s doing what

Flat-XHTML is anonymous. A good CMS will include an “audit trail”, a clear record of who’s done what to which. This means sources of error can be pinpointed; ageing content can be freshened up or removed; differences in individual workloads can be managed; and weak areas can be highlighted. This may seem a little Big Brotherish but, in reality, it’s about spotlighting excellence as well as under-achievement.

3. Because you can maintain a style

Even with the world’s best-written style manual, bespoke additions to flat-XHTML content produce differences: it’s human nature to squeeze and poke things into position and cumulative, piecemeal changes can be difficult to roll back. A good CMS enforces style by limiting changes to content to those sanctioned by content managers.

4. Because it helps you to delegate

A good CMS allows access at different levels; from the Site Manager who can do anything, to the writer who can only enter and revise text. Now your website can be built by people with no internet skills, which is most of us.

5. Because things change

A good CMS allows you to change the way your site as required in the least harmful way. So, if your company totally rebrands, then the website can totally rebrand (and at much less cost). And if new rules or ways of thinking come along, you can meet the challenge easily because your content is held as raw data by the CMS.

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Sometimes you could almost believe in gremlins, the evil little creatures Second World War airmen used to blame for errors which cropped up inexplicably from time to time.

Every so often something breaks on a web site like JWC. It happened again “recently”: I can’t be more specific because I only noticed it this morning when I went to use one of the site content tools, the Unicode Converter: type in characters and it converts them to their unicode, hexadecimal or decimal NCR equivalent.

Only it didn’t. Type in something and the only conversion it made was to Unicode UTF-8. There were no error numbers, no warning messages. It just didn’t work. I spent an hour poring over the PHP but couldn’t find the error. Eventually, I went back to square one and copied the code afresh from sceneonthe.net, the web partnership where we originally developed it.

The content tool is back but I’m still none the wiser as to how it went wrong.

Why You Should

Broken pages are a content manager’s nightmare. They may be the result of a programming error or code innocently altered by authorised site admins, or they may be the result of something more sinister. Then there are dead hot links caused by unexpected updates and the rest.

Errors are bad for SEO; they imply lack of attention to detail or even lack of updates and the least updated sites are dead ones. So part of your routine as content manager must be in finding — and fixing — broken stuff, perhaps with a link-check program or browser plug-in or indeed some outside assistance.

Users of TIME’s web site were always pointing out broken links, or worse, broken code (there is a kind of elation when pointing out errors to organisations who should know better).

But don’t shy away from such feedback and encourage it: ask your visitors to report any errors they see. And remember that someone who has never made a mistake has never made anything.

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Repeat after me: “Tables are evil, and must be destroyed”. Now, lest you think I’ve got a vendetta going here against IKEA, let me assure you that the tables I’m talking about are those first defined in 1994’s guidelines for HTML 2.0 as a means of displaying data content in an ordered and helpful manner.

Of course it was all downhill from there. Some clever dicky worked out that tables could be used to display complete pages in an ordered manner. (Note I did not say helpful.)

By the birth of HTML 3.2 almost all websites were infested with tables, nesting content to within a pixel of their existence. I’m just as guilty as anyone of thinking in a completely obsessive-complusive way that tables were the only way to fly.

Today, in the era of XHTML and CSS and the accessible Sematic ideal for content, we all know better. Tables are evil, and must be destroyed!

But hang on. The introduction of tables in 1994 was for a reason. There are times when we need to display data content in an ordered and helpful manner. So, as a content expert, how do you do tables in an accessible way?

Read the rest of this entry >

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In Britain, newspapers will design whole pages around a killer headline: indeed, a very thin story can be sold by a few well-placed words, especially if a big “sexy” picture is thrown in to the mix. On the internet, which is generally no friend to big “sexy” pictures, a killer headline is even more important for good SEO-friendly content, backed up of course by a homicidal first paragraph.

You’d be wise to spend at least half your production time on this important word partnership. It is, after all, a fine juggling act. On one hand, you must grab your reader’s attention (and factor in lots of keywords to grab the search engines’ attention, too); on the other, you don’t want to overload anyone’s brain.

In reality, even the most interesting words on the web seldom hold peoples’ attention beyond two or three paragraphs, and thereby lies the killer intro’s importance. Get it right and you’ll have passed on the content you need to before the reader drops off; you might even have grabbed their attention enough to make them read on.

So how do you grab that attention? Try these …

• Start with a quote, best of all some funny words from somebody famous. It gets straight to the point and establishes a common frame of reference with the reader.
• Quote a relevant, surprising statistic, and make sure it’s as clear as possible. New information is naturally interesting and will draw the reader in.
• Draw a word picture in the reader’s mind. Invoking their imagination gets them involved in the content from the get go.
• Ask a question (preferably one which your content will answer). Questions — even ones that need no answer — make people think and lead them to seek solutions.
• Tell them a story. Storytelling is something humans do instinctively, and listening to stories is just as natural.

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People often say: “There’s no point in me writing content, I can’t write.” Yet, paradoxically, these same individuals are often the most fluent people I’ve ever met, especially when it comes to their specialist subject.

I’ve recently been advising a mate on ways to increase his site traffic and suggested a blog. “I’m not sure how interested people will be,” he said. “I’ve never read a blog nor has anyone mentioned one to me but I do often see a small surge in sales when the site gets talked about on forums.”

I told him the best blogs were those with real opinions and real information. And it didn’t need to be groundbreaking content either: one of the web’s biggest problems is that most of us don’t have the time (or the inclination) to wade through the waffle to find the nuggets of fact.

So here is some handy advice for would-be content writers

Write From The Heart

Use the sort of words you’d say to a friend who shared your passion but beware of jargon in content

Keep It Short

Write it in 250 words or less: any shorter and your reader will think: “Why did he bother?” Any longer and he’ll ask himself: “Can I be bothered?” .

Keep It Relevant

If your chosen keyword density is less than 3%, consider writing another posting.

Don’t Be Afraid to be an Explainer

If content can be better put, put it. Stephen Hawking wrote a guide to his A Brief History of Time because he realised it went over the heads of most people.

Don’t Be An Impulsive Publisher

After you’re written what you’ve written, read it again R