Web Content Problems Content Management Support Team
Poor / Duplicate Page Titles • User experience: - “Is this the right place?” - “This has the same name as that other page • University risk: - Lack of site user engagement - Increased pressure on telephone / email • Possible causes: - Not understanding the importance of page titles on web - Poor consideration of SEO - Poor web writing skills (not same as writing skills) • Solutions: - Use your site visitors keywords - Create unique page titles - Write heading that match your URL - Keep it short (up to eight words) - Use page summaries - Verb phrases
Broken links • User experience: - “Can I trust the rest of the site?” • University risk: - Loss of credibility - Missed opportunity to engage with user - Increased pressure on telephone / email • Causes: - Poor site maintenance - Unmanaged site changes - Poor archiving • Solutions: - Link to sites that are unlikely to change - Linking to a navigation page may be better choice than linking to the destination page - Check links regularly (at least once a year)
Inappropriate voice and tone • User experience: - “Not for me” - “Not very friendly / Too familiar” • University risk: - Loss of reputation - Reduction in return visitors - Waste time of site user who has to decode copy • Possible causes: - Not understanding the need for a consistent voice and tone. - Multiple updaters - Lack of overview / guidance • Solutions - Engage with the site user (You and We) - Rewrite with a positive, active voice - Seek clarification on voice and tone guidelines
Bloated web pages • User experience: “can’t find what I want” • University risk: - Lack of site user engagement - Reduction in return visitors - Increased pressure on telephone / email • Possible causes: - Poor copy writing - Lack of review/editing/proof reading - Not understanding the importance of patterns • Solutions: - Chunking (break text into smaller paragraphs) - Challenge yourself to rewrite the page with half the words and then do it again - Using headings and sub headings - Get help from an experienced editor - Remove needless words and vague phrases
Poor copy • User experience: - “Too much hard work” - “If they can’t write, what are their services like ” • University risk: - Lack of site user engagement - Waste time of site user who has to decode copy - Reduction in return visitors • Possible causes: - Multiple updaters - Lack of workflow/overview - Poor web writing (even by good writers) • Solutions: - Get someone to proof read copy before publishing / get advice from experienced copywriter - Be concise and use plain English - Sentence: 20 words or fewer - Paragraphs: 70 words (roughly 4 sentences)
Bad navigation (too much / too little) • User experience: - “where do I go from here?” - “What do I click first?” • University risk: - Poor site user engagement - Distract and waste time of site user • Possible causes: - Poor navigation/destination design - Poor information architecture - Not understand how site users categorise subjects • Solutions: - Develop a linking strategy - Categorise your site user keyword to create a taxonomy on which to base navigation - Follow link writing guidelines - Consistent navigation patterns
Duplicate pages / contents • User experience: - “which page is right?” • University risk: - Loss of credibility - Loss of reputation - Wasted staff time/resources • Possible causes: - Creating a replacement page and not deleting the original - Replicating colleagues pages - Poor archiving • Solution: - Content inventory - Update existing new pages rather than replacing pages
Inaccessible page • User experience: - “Where is that page?” - “I give up” • University risk: - Missed opportunity to engage with user - Loss of credibility - Wasted staff time/resources - Increased pressure on telephone / email • Possible causes: - Poor SEO - Poor linking strategy - Poor information architecture • Solutions - Write a meaningful URL that reflects the purpose of the page - Use site visitors keywords in the title - Use page summaries to support SEO
Duplicate documents • User experience: - “download here or there?” - “Which is the right copy” • Strategic context: - Frustrate the site user - Loss of credibility - Wasted staff resource • Possible causes: - Poor CMS resource management - Poor naming • Solutions: - Place the resource in one location on the web server/CMS and link to it from multiple locations - Content Inventory/Audit - Replace existing document rather than uploading new and deleting old
Out of date documents • User experience: - “Is this the latest version?” - “Should I take action on what is says?” • University risk: - Loss of reputation - Users acting on misinformation - Legal liability • Possible causes: - Poor version control - Poor naming conventions - CMS resource management • Solutions - Don’t use dates in resource names - Use same name each year to replace old version
Deleted pages • User experience: - “it used to be here” - “is the University site working?” • University risk: - Missed opportunity to engage with user - Loss of credibility - Increased pressure on telephone / email • Possible causes: - Not understanding how the CMS deletes and updates resources - Not informing people who link to your site of changes • Solutions: - Follow the content retirement procedure - Check the popularity of a page before deleting - Update existing new pages rather than replacing pages - Review referral traffic and back links before removing pages
Inappropriate use of images • User experience: - “I’ve seen this before” - “What does that mean?” • University risk: - Distract and waste time of site user - Legal liability • Possible causes: - Poor image sourcing / selection - Not matching image to message • Solution: - Make sure images use is not copy write - Use images only when they are critical to the success of a web page
Inappropriate Image size/format • User experience: - “Too big/small” - “What’s that supposed to be?” • University risk: - Lack of user engagement - Distract and waste time of site user • Possible causes: - Lack of adherence to naming conventions - Lack of usability testing - Not understanding format implications - Feel-good images are largely ignored • Solutions: - Use images only when they are critical to the success of a web page - Match photos to your messages - Provide big photos only when they are requested - Make sure images do not severely decrease download speeds - Follow guideline to good practice of using images
Poor document naming • User experience: - “can’t find document” - “take too long to type this URL” • University risk: - Lack of user engagement - Wasted staff resources • Possible causes: - Not following naming conventions - Filename not matching document title • Solutions: - Use short URLs - Link to page containing download rather than download directly
Download size • User experience: - “When will this finish downloading” - “Far, too long to read” - “Can’t be bothered to wait” • University risk: - Lack of user engagement - Waste time of site user waiting for download • Possible causes: - Poor content planning - Poor formatting of images / pdf • Solution: - Reduce size of download (e.g. remove images) - Inform user of download size / time - Convert download to a screen copy
Low readership • User experience: - “Important but hidden” • University risk: - Lack of user engagement - Increased pressure on telephone / email - Wasted staff time / resources • Possible causes: - Irrelevant (to site visitor) content - Poorly written copy - Copy that is not engaging • Solutions: - Evaluate content - Write engaging content using visitors keywords - Place page in high traffic area (especially news stories)
Risks to the University • Loss of credibility - site user will not believe your message and will not return • Lack of site user engagement / missed opportunity to engage with user - you are no going to get your message across • Loss of reputation - Site visitor has a increasingly negative view of the University because of the web • Frustrating, distracting and the site user - Unlikely to get your message across • Reduction in return visitors - Site visitors will use other sources of information phone, email, visit, friends • Legal liability • Increased pressure on telephone / email • Wasted staff time / resources - Developing resources (page copy, downloads and images) that are not going to be used
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