Kristeen Bullwinkle

One problem many websites share is outdated content or content that’s no longer relevant to their visitors. An article will reference a person long gone from the organization, a current event that few now remember, or numbers and figures that are no longer accurate. Often over the years the focus of the site will change or more is learned about the interests and needs of a target audience, but the content on the site doesn’t reflect those new goals or understanding.

Why does this happen?

Usually this comes about because no one actually owns the content once it’s been published. Reviewing pages days, weeks, months, or years after publication is in no one’s job description. The task of reviewing content seems overwhelming so it’s not even attempted. Content originally created for a newsletter is often written with current events in mind and sometimes without complete details. Then that content is moved to the Web and may get a lot of traffic from search, but is never reviewed.

How to keep content updated

• Know which of your pages get the most traffic and make it someone’s job to periodically review those pages. They don’t have to review the entire site, just the pages that are most likely to embarrass you or not perform at the level they should.
• Know when to run a search on your site. When someone changes their name, run a check to see if they were listed somewhere. When pricing changes, be sure to run a search for instances of that price. In large organizations this can necessitate getting an editor onto several distribution lists and scanning all those memos or emails.
• Date your pages. While it’s not critical that all pages have dates, for a large site with many contributors, it makes it easier if most do. Then someone can search your site for “my product April 2009″ and quickly see a list of pages they should review. It also helps orient the reader. If I see a reference to Louisiana, it’s helpful to know if the author was referring to the state before or after Katrina (and before or after the oil spill.)
• Understand your site’s organization. Make sure you know where pricing information, contact information, phone numbers, sales figures, etc. reside. If you’re a large organization, know what other units might be publishing content that refers to your people or services.
• Listen to others in your organization. Make it easy for someone to send you a quick note letting you know of an update or error. Respond quickly and thank them. If Marketing owns the site, people in Sales might know of several updates that are needed but aren’t sharing that information because there’s a lack of good communication between the two units. Receptionists often know about errors but don’t know who to inform about them.
• Review pages with surprisingly high bounce rates. People might be leaving your page because they see something outdated and immediately lose trust in your entire site.

How to handle updates

Some updates are no more than swapping out one piece of data for an updated piece. Sometimes it’s more complicated. I’ve seen the following techniques work well.

• Add an editor’s note at the beginning or end of an article. This could update readers on the status of a project referenced, refer to new accessories for sale, or note that in light of new data the argument made in the article is even more strongly supported. Date the document so it’s clear when the editor’s note was added and when the content was originally published.
• Add a more informal author’s note. This could state that the article has been so popular over the last ten months that the author decided to revisit the topic and completely rewrite the article based on new information or experience.
• Update the article, but add a date of original publication. Consider adding a link to that archived document.
• Don’t update the article; instead provide links to newer content on the same subject.

How to keep content fresh

• Review what others are publishing in your content area, especially the content that’s being shared through social media. Consider if you can add to the conversation by writing a new article or updating one already published. Perhaps you’ll be able to share your current content with a short introduction like “Expert’s argument is spot on. See my article for another great example.” Or “My experience differs. See my article.”
• Focus. Determine what content you want your site to be known for. If there’s someone out there doing a better job than you have the resources for, then create different content. Go with your strengths. Or be more targeted toward your particular audience. Or be the compiler or curator of excellent resources. Or say it all with video. Focus on the content you do best.
• Share. If you’re about to share your content through social media, you have an additional incentive to review it once more. And those you share it with are likely to respond with their ideas and challenges. You can use that feedback to update and improve your content.

This template is meant to guide you in developing your own set of editorial guidelines. Having these in place will make life easier for all your content producers and editors. It might even make things easier for the people who post your content. Having guidelines in place will mean you don’t have to re-consider an issue over and over. And if you want to break a rule, you’ll have the thrill of knowing that’s what you’re doing.

Editorial staff

I highly recommend that one person be the point person or managing editor for your website. That person will have the big picture view and be the point person to go to with questions. The editor can take care of pages like the 404 error page, the privacy notice, etc. that tend to be forgotten during site reviews. Just like a newspaper or magazine, a website is a regularly published medium which needs oversight. Consider if you have enough staff to create the website you need to meet your business goals. Perhaps your business is so small you need to find a way to take on all tasks.

Various models of staffing are possible. Here are just three.

If you don’t have a proofreader, determine who will be doing that task. Writers could do it for each other or the editor could do it. The person posting your content should know if you want him or her to correct typos or alert you to them. You don’t want your credibility questioned because you didn’t ask someone to proofread your document.

• Do content ideas need to be approved?
• Once a writing assignment has been given, how much latitude does the writer have with the content?
• Does the editor and/or proofreader need to sign off on a document before it is posted?
• Do different types of documents or content require different approvals?

Content/topics

Content needs to promote the goals of your site, whether those are to make a sale or inform or encourage an action. It needs to match the interests and needs of your audience and be written in a manner that your target audience will accept and enjoy.

Business goals

• List only a handful.

Audiences

• Be as detailed as you need. If you use personas, refer to them here.

Calendar

• If you have an editorial calendar, place it here. Consider if one would help motivate your writers or keep them focused.

General content guidelines

• Be of interest to our audience or have a hook which will entice them to read.
• Be timely and relevant.
• Be useful to our audience. (Note: A joke or a chart could each be useful.)
• Be user friendly. (Easy to scan and to understand.)
• Present information in an original manner.
• Have a specific message. Multiple messages should go on separate pages.
• Content should be able to live on its own as its own page. If you’re separating a long article into multiple pages, consider that a reader might enter on page three. Make it easy for that reader and make it obvious that there are preceding pages.
• Consider include a value-added element or additional content. This might be a graphic, a video, a set of links, or an opportunity to signup for a newsletter, an inspirational quote.

Content types

• When will you post a PDF? Only for an article with multiple mathematical equations? Only for white papers your require viewers to register to receive? Do PDFs need to be coded for reading order or other accessibility issues? Do they require tables of content?
• When do you include a video? Are there requirements for the title or credit slides? Do you also post to YouTube?
• How should a slide show be formatter? Do you also post to SlideShare?
• Are forms produced and posted as PDFs, as Word forms, or are they taken care of by your technical staff?

Required page elements

Meta data

Do you have an existing metadata schema or search engine optimization strategy? If so, refer to that here.

• Title. (This is what shows up in search results and at the top of the web browser.)
  • Is the title always the same as your page heading? Does it always need to include an identified keyword from your search engine optimization campaign? Does it need to include your product name, your business name, a reference to media type, or other information?)

• Description of the page. (This information assists people in selecting your page in listing of search results. Make the viewer want to click on your link.)
• Do you have a set of categories or tags you need to identify (typically only for blog entries.)

Example of required elements.

• Date spelled out so people in the U.S. and in Europe will read it the same. Example: June 7, 2009.
  • What type of content needs a date? Is a month and year sufficient?
• Author credit with link to author’s contact page or blog.
• Headings every 2-4 paragraphs.
• References.
• Pull quotes for longer articles.
• A question or concern of your audience. This may be an actual question or simply a good thesis statement.
• A photo or image.
• A testimonial.
• Pricing.
• A call to action.
  • Do calls to action vary from page to page, or section to section? Who writes the calls to action?

Tone

Consider your brand guidelines as you write this section.

• Do you want to appear light-hearted, practical, serious, academic, jocular, clever, supportive, challenging or friendly?
• Are first person references allowed? Only in blogs?
• What acronyms are acceptable?
• Are there internal buzzwords you want to list and ask people not to use? Or are there terms that your audience will understand and feel part of a community because you used them?

Length

People will read online but they prefer to skim. Encourage your writers to take the time necessary to write something clearly and concisely.

• Does your audience expect some types of content—like technical reports, for example—to be long?
• Should other content—such as a review—be around 300 words?
• Does longer content require headings or pull quotes or images to keep the reader reading?
• Is it the writer or editor’s task to determine if a longer document needs to be separated into shorter pages?

Linking

What are your rules for linking to other sites? It is almost always better to write an informative link able to stand on its own rather than a link like “click here” or just providing the URL.

• Are there sites to which links are always permitted or even encouraged?
• Are there sites that have tacit approval and need to be formally approved?
• Are there sites, like commercial or political sites, which can be linked to as long as a disclaimer is provided on the page?
• How do you link within your site? Are there standard ways to refer to pages? For example, a link to the widget page must always be written as “wonderful widget X .”
• Are links allowed in the main text or do they need to be listed at the bottom of the page? Are links repeated at the bottom of the page?

Embedding

• Do you allow embedding of YouTube videos, calendars, slides, etc.?
• Do you allow the importing of RSS feed from other sites?
• How do you credit the source?

Endorsements

Testimonials and endorsements can be powerful for sites that use them. They can be about your product or services or you could be providing them within your own content.

• How should testimonials by your users be formatted or included in a page?
• If a writer refers to a specific brand or business, is a disclaimer required?
• Can photos include actual products? How about when a competitor’s product is visible?

Translations

Translations require some finesse to avoid misunderstandings or embarrassment.

• Who reviews translations?
  • Does the translation match the idiom, social norms and values of the target audience?
  • Does the translation accurately represent your goals?
  • Are examples or testimonials or case studies relevant and meaningful to your geographic audience?
• Do translations run side-by-side or below your standard language content? Does it live on another page? Does it live on another section of the site? (If they reside in different locations, consider how you will be sure to review them both when needed.)

Content contributed by readers or visitors

• Do you need a policy for your contributors to follow?
• Do you need to monitor their uploaded content? Who will do that monitoring and how often?

Content pulled from a feed

• Who has the responsibility for reviewing feeds to be sure they function and serve your goals?
• Who need to approve a new or replacement feed?

After publication

Creating a plan for reviewing content will put you ahead of many website publishers.

• Who sends out requests for links?
• Who sends out a social media notice that a new page has been added?
• Who reviews content? (If it is the site’s writers, don’t forget navigational pages, error pages, policy pages, FAQs, etc.
• When is content reviewed?

Checklist

• Review for ROT (redundant, outdated, or trivial)
• Is the information correct?
• Does it still meet business goals?
• Does it use current trademarks, nomenclature, titles, etc.
• Are copyrights still valid?
• Do links work?
• Is the content still of value to your readers?
• Is content ready for archiving? Where do your archives live? Are they printed or online? (If you’re a large company or a university with a library, you might want to contact the librarians about their interest in your archives.)

I’ll be writing my next few entries about the type of content that is often left out of the editorial guidelines companies create for their online content.

Macro content

A blog post, a web page providing directions, and a product description all count as content. These are the types of content that show up in your editorial calendar. These are the types of content you make sure get proofread. And this is the content you worry about showing up well in search engines. But what about other less visible content?

Error pages

Your 404 error page is not one you really want your visitors to see, but it’s likely that a few will. You can’t prevent a blogger from providing a link with an error in the URL. (You’re watching your logs and analytic reports for these instances, right?) The 404 error page is important and one your writers or editors should be writing and reviewing regularly. Here are a three examples. One is almost useless, one is clever but not particularly helpful, and one provides useful navigational assistance and search. Not a lot of writing is involved, but you want the tone of this page to match your brand.

A hosting site’s default page:

From Apartmenthomeliving.com:

And from Heinz:

If you don’t have access to your logs or to analytics, you might want to ask your visitors for some help in tracking down the source of an error. I’ve had good luck asking people for the URL of the page they were coming from when they tripped on my 404 page. Just be sure to thank those visitors ASAP.

Help and instruction pages

Programmers aren’t always great writers, not do they really want to read your editorial guidelines. But they do know understand common errors how to resolve them. So let them help you write the content and let them review your final draft. Get a technical write or a usability professional involved if you’re still having problems with how well the help page actually helps. Get a designer involved if no one even notices your help page options. But be sure that the tone, style and standards for writing the main pages of your site are applied to these pages, too.

Confirmation or thank you pages

Once someone has made a purchase or signed up for an event or submitted a form, you’ll want to let them know that their action worked, that it was appreciated, and what to expect (an email, a link to a white paper, a phone call, etc.) The tone of the page should match the rest of your site, so you’ll want to write this page. You’ll want to consider adding additional links or options for your readers, too, so you’re not leaving them at a dead end. You might even suggest that they follow you through your social media or suggest your offer to a friend or colleague.

Legal notices

You’ll want your privacy and other legal notices to be more readable, friendly and reassuring than legalistic. But your still have to meet the legal requirements. Do what you can to at least make these statements easy to scan. Write it as a FAQ or break it up into bite-size pieces. Try providing a summary of your intent in providing the page and then let the specialists write the full notice to cover your legal needs. Lead into the legalese with a few sentences that show you understand your readers’ concerns and interests. Add a very short statement to a page where you’re collecting data and link to the full policy statement if you can. And when you find five words being used when one would suffice, ask for that edit to be made.

PDF or not?

I was recently asked to explain why or why not someone should publish content as a PDF.  I’ll try to offer some insights. At a few very large institutions it is often easier to send your web lackey a PDF of a document than a Word or HTML document. Ease and a sense of control are major enticements for publishing a PDF, but let’s look at a few other issues.

• It’s really hard work to make a PDF ADA compliant. It’s really easy to make an HTML page accessible.
• PDFs require an extra step on the part of the visitor. Visitors are lazy. They don’t like taking extra steps. You’ve just changed the way they have been reading and navigating and that’s likely to upset them just a little bit.
• It’s another thing that can break. PDFs are very stable and Acrobat Reader is installed on almost everyone’s PC. But things can break and it’s possible that if a document won’t open the user will blame you.
• PDFs usually lack navigation. You don’t want dead ends on your site. You want people discovering new and wonderful things on your site.
• PDFs are harder to update and edit than an HTML page. Unless your document is meant for an archival copy, you will need to update it at some point.
• The person posting a page that needs to be converted into HTML is more likely to notice your typos or errors than someone simply posting a PDF file.
• PDFs are easily stolen or borrowed and posted elsewhere. Even if your content is part of the public domain, you probably want readers to see your branding and your navigation.
• HTML style sheets make it easy to create a style sheet for printing that will make your document pretty when printed.
• If you must post a long document as a PDF, then please use the indexing or bookmarking feature within Acrobat.

Do these examples matter to SEO?

You don’t really need the search engines visiting your error pages or legal notices. You can ask for them to be excluded from search engines indexes by using the robots.txt file.

Search engines can index your PDF files, but they also point out that your file is a PDF. They do that so their users can elect not to visit such a page, or ask to see it in HTML (Yahoo) or in Google Docs (Google).

What content have I missed?