content

Why do so many organizations waste the opportunity to hook their email subscribers with the first line of the email message? I hadn't really noticed this sooner because of the way I consumed email: through a series of complicated email aliases and gmail filters.  Honestly, in Gmail, I was basically ignoring most solicited bulk email (organization email lists). But since I've been taking a first look at my email through my iPhone and iPad using the iOS mail app, I've begun to notice this shocking fact.

Here are some facts about viewing email via the iOS mail app:

• Approximately 35 to 40 characters of a subject are displayed
• Approximately 100 characters from the top of the email message are displayed

Two lines at 50 characters, and a subject of 35 to 40 characters. That's basically a Tweet.  And that (plus the "from" name) is all you have to get your reader's attention and convince them to open the email message and read on.

Why do so many emails waste this space with something like:

• "Click to view this email in a browser" (37 characters)
• "Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser." (64 characters)
• "If you're having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online." (68 characters)
• "Web version | Edit your subscription | Unsubscribe" (55 characters)

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This article covers some common tips to improve the quality of your content both for your audience and for search engines.  It expands on our earlier Content Strategy and SEO Strategy articles.

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Employing a content strategist in your organization may be beyond your budget. So how can you reap some of the benefits of having someone to look after your content while exercising fiscal restraint?

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In "How to Create Effective Personas for Your Projects, Part 1" I wrote about the three main components of effective personas: A name, a face, and an ecology (biographical data, lifestyle, and preferences).

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I had a page open from NPR in another window and forgot to mention in my previous post, but NPR also has an API as part of their Open Content Strategy. In keeping with NPR's mission of "a more informed public" allowing public access to content and allowing developers to mash up and revolutionize how people consume NPR content.

"There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts."

In the first article of this series ("Creating An SEO Strategy, Part 1: What Is Search Engine Optimization?") we talked about what search engine optimization means and introduced the three foundational elements of a great SEO strategy: content, coding, and community.

SEO Foundation #1: Content

Simply stated: Content is why visitors come to your website. Oh, you may entice your visitors with your standards-compliant layout and shiny logo. But after these basic introductions content will make your site sticky, and it is often what attracts your visitors in the first place.

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Website Redesign Glossary - Entry 5 Breadcrumb: An element on a web page (usually directly below the page title) showing the click path a user traveled to arrive at the current page. For example: Home > About Us > Our Staff Usually the terms are active links, which enable the user to retrace their click path (or skip back several clicks). Breadcrumbs, especially in deep sites with multiple levels of navigation, improve usability because they help users understand where they are now as well as the overall structure of the site, and navigate back to the pages they've visited. The term "breadcrumb" comes from the trail Hansel and Gretel left to try to find their way back home.

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Website Redesign Glossary - Entry 4 Related Content: Content that is related to the main topic featured on the page. These links may be manually determined (by the content editor) or may be populated by the content management system based on predefined tags (e.g. a particular issue or region). Links to Related Content are often displayed on a narrow column to the right of the main body copy on the page. The idea is "If you are interested in the article on this page, you may want to read additional articles on similar subjects." This is in contrast to "Read More" which usually refers to "reading more" of the article you are currently reading, by going to a page with the full article.