Developing quality content for your web site
Remember the following: content is key, in most cases this is the only reason people visit web sites. If the information they find is poor quality or out of date then you will soon lose them as a site visitor.

When developing content for your web site you need to consider the needs of the audience for whom the site is aimed. Put yourself in their shoes, when they visit your web site what type of information will they want and in how much detail.

We have put together a sample case study to help you understand the process of developing quality content for your web site.

ABC Engineering Ltd.
ABC provide a range of engineering solutions to the aerospace industry. Their main strength is helping companies with the design & production of complex parts for aeroplane engines. They are based in the UK but their target audience is worldwide, they intend to use their web site to attract new business. In particular they hope to provide detailed technical information to engineers from their target audience with a view to showing off their technical excellence.

Bearing in mind the objectives of ABC and the needs of their target audience ABC decide to provide the following information via their web site:

• Top level introductory information: this will allow their audience to see, at a glance, the range of services available from ABC. Users entering their site at this level will be able to access all 'generic' information both about the company (i.e. history, existing customers, about the staff, how to contact them etc.) and the range of services they provide (i.e. 3D/CAD development, engineering solutions, quality control etc.
• Level 2 information: this is the next level down from the top level, users will have selected (i.e. clicked on) an area of interest from ABC's home page and ended up here. This level will provide users with information relating to whichever area they selected from the home page, at this point the information is nothing more than a detailed overview and will consist of a mix of textual and graphical information. For areas like product/service description this level will provide links to full technical information, for the 'generic' areas of the site (see above) this is as far as this level goes.
• Level 3 information: for ABC this is the final level of information, to get to this point users should have clicked no more than 3 times to find full and detailed technical information relating to the specific service or product of interest. In the case of ABC, this level will provide users with access to detailed technical diagrams and documentation (perhaps in downloadable format i.e. Adobe Acrobat), it may also provide 3D/CAD drawings of past or sample projects. This would also be a good level to provide potential clients with details of past work or case studies.

While ABC is a very simplistic view of how to develop different levels of information relative to the users position within the web site, we hope it highlights some of the issues that need to be addressed when developing your content. As a guideline we would suggest you consider the following points when thinking about content:

• Positioning: remember where users will be in relation to the overall structure of your web site, don't write full detailed descriptions or provide complex diagrams or large graphics on the home page because at this level users haven't expressed a specific interest in any one area.
• Clarity: write and re-write your content and get as many people to proof read it as possible, make sure the content is appropriate to the audience, easy to understand and follow. Provide plenty of links to other areas within your site that might help the user understand the topic or issue fully. Provide plenty of highlighted bullet points within your text, this allows user to scan the page quickly and 'jump' to a section that might be of particular interest to them.
• Detail: where appropriate (i.e. level 3 in the above case study) provide as much detailed information about the product or service as you can. Remember, users will view your site at their own speed with a view to collating the right information that will enable them to make an informed & educated decision. If the end result in the decision making process is that the user will buy from you or request your services in some way then the detail could swing the decision your way so don't scrimp on it.
• Spelling, grammar & punctuation: sounds straight forward but it's often overlooked, make sure you use a spell-checker and ask people to proof read it.