Ever since our launch last week we’ve been slowly making changes, fixing errors and taking care of bugs. Most of these were minor but I’d really like to thank all the great people who helped out by letting us know.
Launching a web site is a big deal. I’ve yet to see one launch without a few problems. It’s one of the reasons why I usually urge people to launch when then think they’re close, as opposed to trying to make things perfect.
Aside from the fact that I honestly don’t think there is a “perfect” web site, it seems that no matter how sure you are you’ve taken care of everything, something always pops up. For us maybe a few somethings, but that’s the reality of the web.
One of the things we knew we’d have to work on after launch was our content. We’d done quite a bit of work on it, but we knew there was more work to be done. You see, that’s the thing about content on the web. It’s a job never-ending. By getting it out there we figured we’d be able to identify more quickly where we needed re-work, where our messaging wasn’t working and where we needed to cut to the chase.
In the main, thanks to all the people who sent in feedback, we’re improving our content right away and will continue to hone it over time. Feedback is important when it comes to web content also. The best web content is, to some degree, two-way.
Web content is hard.
Especially if you want really good web content.
It’s harder than mapping out the information architecture. It’s harder than the visual design, development or programming. By hard I mean it takes time, effort and skill. And lots of it. All three.
It’s not all about writing. It’s much more than that. It’s about writing, and editing, and knowing what your readers want. It’s about clearly communicating to your audiences which can sometimes have totally different goals. Good content is about listening and responding to feedback.
Web content is an ongoing process.
Good web content isn’t something that is written, put into a Word doc, handed off, put on the web and left unchanged. It takes time and needs to be constantly monitored, pruned and adapted. Great web content is fluid, and allows for a conversation to take place.
It’s hardly ever perfect, but it gets better over time and adapts to the needs of the people who read it and the people who produce it.
When we launched this site we knew full well we had a ways to go with our content. We thought it best to get it out there, in front of people who would actually read it, and make adjustments based on feedback. Sure, we launched with a few typos and a few passages that didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but in the process we learned quite a bit about our audience.
We also learned quite a bit about ourselves, our company and where we want to go. We know what we do and what we want people to take away, we just need some help in figuring out how to say that. The feedback we received is invaluable and we plan on doing something with it.
Keep the feedback coming.
We really do appreciate all the feedback we’ve been getting. We want not only to help our clients provide the best experiences possible, we’d like to do that ourselves and provide a web site and resources that can be used as an example of how things should be done on the web.
What that means when it comes to content is constant work and engaging our visitors in a feedback loop that’s acted upon. Thanks again to everyone who’s been talking in the last week. We really appreciate it.
Nice article Keith. I agree Web Content is hard and it will definitely take time. I have a question though, what if you are just starting out and don’t have that many readers or at least people who give feedback? How are you to know how to make your content better without that feedback?
Yannick — That’s a tricky question to ask. Feedback definitely helps make your content better.
This is the one of the reasons why we do usability testing with real people. If you don’t have readers, or a current customer base, you can still get your site in front of people to have them read, use and give feedback.
It kind of depends on the site. For a blog or journal, you’ll need to promote your content to get those readers and then solicit feedback from them. For a professional Web site though, you can hire people to help you and look to your customer’s for that feedback.
Developing an audience and/or getting people to find and use your content are hard as well, and a topic for another post. ;0)
Thanks Keith, your response was helpful. I wish you and the rest of the team at Blue Flavor all the best and much success. :)
Peace and God Bless.
It is really about exit criteria. You have your strategy defined, your objectives spec’d out as requirements, and a timeline. But what should also have is an exit strategy. What sign-offs do you need when you reach the go/no-go milestone? You have to be realistic in starting off a project on what you (or your client) is willing to accept for new/redesign/campaign webpage. A new site shouldn’t have 404s yet may have some lightly covered informational areas. A redesign should cover the items mandated by the redesign (e.g.; items that have to be removed for legal reasons that may not have collateral to replace given a certain timeframe). A campaign should be 100% complete. Every beast is of a different color.
Oh, forgot to say something about blogs. They are the vehicular vanity plates of the internet.