WHAT MAKES GREAT WEBCONTENT?

GREAT WEB CONTENT SHOULD HAVE SOME, IF NOT ALL, OF THE FOLLOWING QUALITIES...

BE UNDERSTANDABLE

Does your audience literally understand what you’re saying? Are you using their language, phrasing and words?

Or using marketing spiel?

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BE A STORY, OR LIKE A STORY

Nothing grabs our attention or holds it quite like a story.Not all content can be written like a story of course but if it can, it should.

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BE AUTHENTIC AND ETHICAL

Is this really you speaking?Do you say what you mean and mean what you say?

Promises mean nothing until they are kept.

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BE RELEVANT

No one needs a brolly in the bath.

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BE AUTHORITATIVE

Are you a recognised leader in your field?Do people look to your content for guidance?

Does it set the standard?

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BE UNIQUE

Don’t be a zebra. Be a peacock.

If if doesn’t wow, it doesn’t win.

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BE EVOCATIVE

Does it raise an eyebrow?Does it get the heart racing?

Does it inspire action?

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BE SCARCE

Are you the only one saying this?Or are you a me-too?

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HAVE CONSISTENT VALUES

You can’t sell rifles and bibles.

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BE ACCESSIBLE

Whatever device I choose to view your content in, make it responsive to that device.

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BE APPLAUD OR AWARD WORTHY

Your content doesn’t have to actually win an award, just be good enough to deserve one,

or at least a round of applause.

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BE USEFUL

How does your content help me do what I need to get done?

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BE LOCAL / BE CONVENIENT

Wherever I am, you need to be there too.I want your content to fit around me and the things I am trying to do,

not me fitting around you.

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RECIPROCATE

Giving something away encourages me to reciprocate in kind.Gated assets aren’t as attractive the first time we meet because

you have yet to establish you can be trusted with my details.

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BE LIKEABLE & SOCIABLE

Allow me to share your content and let me show my appreciation for it. Let me tweet it, comment on it, like it, or give it a smiley face.

What is “likeable” will depend on local culture too.

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BE COMMITTED TO THE CAUSE

Is the content you’re creating your bread and butter?Or are you just creating it because everyone else is?

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BE TIMELY

Quite simply, give me your content when I need it. Not when you want to give it to me.

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BE DISCOVERABLE

Does your content rank in search?If not, where else will I find it?

Help me find it.

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BE SEMANTIC: EVERYTHING IS RELATED

What is this bird? Where does it live? How fast do its wings beat? What would I want to know next?

What should I know next?What could I know next?

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OFFER JUST ENOUGH CHOICE

Too much choice will overwhelm me and slow me down. It will confuse me. It will lose you a sale. Give me just enough choice so that I feel I have a choice,

then let me compare quickly and easily. Then let me buy.

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BE ENLIGHTENING

Is your content revealing something I don’t already know?Are you saying something old but in a new way?

What will I learn? And why should I invest my time in learning it?

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SOLVE A PROBLEM OR RELIEVE PAIN

What’s my problem? I might not know. What I definitely feel is the pain of the problem. Does your content help me solve the problem

and relieve the pain?

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DON’T OVERWHELM ME, HELP ME FOCUS

The more call to actions you throw at me, the less sense I can make of each one and the more likely

I am to choose “none of the above”.

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AND IF YOU’RE WONDERING HOW TO TURN THOSE QUALITIES

INTO A CONTENT STRATEGY, TRY THIS...

SEND THE RIGHT MESSAGE IN THE RIGHT FORMAT TO THE RIGHT PERSON IN THE RIGHT CONTEXT

THROUGH THE RIGHT CHANNEL AT THE RIGHT TIME.

SIMPLE.

Lee Carnihan. A strategist. A project manager. A writer.

A designer. An entrepreneur. And even once a

developer.

But always a thinker. I love thinking about how to create

great content and how to make the web a better place.

● If you liked this PLEASE TWEET IT

● If you’d like to connect, please join me on twitter.

WHO AM I?

@LeeCarnihan