Melius Weideman
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Content Writing
COPYRIGHT: Melius Weideman 2014 c-WebVisSE-7-ContentWriting
I need to know about car rental
companies in cape town
I need to know about car rental
companies in cape town
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The Weideman Model – Positive Elements
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Whitehat Content???
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The Weideman Model – Negative Elements
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Blackhat Content???
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http://searchengine
land.com/introduci
ng-the-periodic-
table-of-seo-
ranking-factors-
77181
Compare the Sullivan & Weideman Models
vs.
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DO spend time on …
… obtaining valid Inlinks
… writing relevant keywords and keyphrases, etc
DON’T get involved with …
… buying or otherwise obtaining spammy links
… using keyword stuffing or otherwise using them in an unnatural way
In other words – spend you efforts on writing natural, good content!
In other words – stay away from any form of unnatural excess!
So, what does this mean for me?
Focus on the first few from each model…
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WEB vs PRINT content
It is difficult and expensive (but safe…) to get content of value written,
published and printed in a readable format on paper,
BUT …
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http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/
http://theworldsworstwebsiteever.com/
http://www.worlds-worst-website.com/
WEB vs PRINT content
… it is easy and quick to get low-quality content written and published on the Web!
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Content written for traditional print media CANNOT be used as is for the Web!!!
If you pay Kc400 for a book, you are likely to read it word-for-word, but …
Information on the Web is “free” - USERS DO NOT LIKE READING TOO MUCH – they
will simply not read your paragraphs of copied content, because they did
not pay for it!
WEB vs PRINT content
So, what is the moral of the story?
Why not?
Also…
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Users expect INSTANT GRATIFICATION when reading a webpage as compared to a
book
Printed matter can be 1000, 5000 or 100 000 words in length, but webpages should
not be longer than typically 200 – 400 words each (exceptions …)
Users scan webpages for information scents of what they are hunting for – they
seldom read word for word
You have about THREE SECONDS to impress a first-time user – that is all they are
prepared to spend before making a value judgement on your webpage content
They prefer looking at: Headings, bolded sections, images,
• bullets, words and phrases towards the beginning of sections
Reading your content
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http://youtu.be/odPNNSffscY
Writing good content
Weideman, 11:35
Writing website content
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Prime Property
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Guidelines:
Use short words, short sentences, short paragraphs, short pages
Rather use a bulleted list than a three-sentence (or longer) paragraph
Put the most basic and important stuff first – also remember the Golden Triangle
Use simpler words and expressions, but not slang
Use images carefully – only if it supports your message
Do not introduce more than two new facts/ideas per paragraph/bullet
Avoid culture-specific, religious and political slang, racial comments, jokes, puns, etc
Where relevant, indicate clear calls to action
Although arguably boring, black text on a white background has the highest contrast, is
therefore easy to read, quicker lo load – and it saves expensive ink when printed
How should I write?
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What NOT to share
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Current:
CPUT Advancement and Alumni Webpage
Alumni, join thousands of others and become involved in the activities of your Alma Mater
Donors and prospective donors, join scores of individuals and organizations and become a benefactor of
CPUT
Use the menu options to the left for more detail on Advancement, Donors, Benefactors and Vision and
Mission
Improved:
Badly / Well written Content
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Q1: Rewrite the 2nd selection of Web text above
according to guidelines supplied.
Improve this Content…
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Who is your client’s website audience?
Staff?
Potential buyers?
Highly literates?
Barely able to read?
People in a rush to find info?
Probably MORE THAN ONE of them
So, what is the moral of the story?
Write content to suit
your audience!
Readers who are prepared to read loooong pages of text?
Audience 1/3
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Marry the web text samples
with the intended audience….
a
b
c
Audience:
1 Basic reading skills
2 Medium level reading
3 Advanced reading skills
Audience 2/3
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Q2: Evaluate the Audience Reading Level of the 2x webpages supplied, compare
the results, then answer Q2a and Q2b below.
STEP 1: Load your browser, and go to www.read-able.com
STEP 2: Open a new window and load another copy of read-able, and ensure that you can switch between them
STEP 3: Type the supplied URL into the “Web Address” box of any one of the two read-able boxes:
http://www.cput.ac.za/academic/faculties/engineering/research/fprc Now click on “Calculate Readability”
STEP 4: Type the supplied URL into the “Web Address” box of the other read-able box:
http://synergizeonline.net/synergize-partners/ Now click on “Calculate Readability”
Q2a How does the readability of these 2 webpages compare? Do not worry about the detail of the
6 tests – just compare and interpret the coloured sliders on the graphs, and the “Text Statistics”
(write two sentences).
Q2b Explain why you think the program read-able has indicated the difference you have described in Q2a (write
one paragraph).
Audience 3/3
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Lots of images???
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Avoid culture-specific, religious
and political slang, racial
comments, jokes, puns, etc
Careful…
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Careful…
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Fonts 1
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serif fontssans serif fonts
Studies have proven that
they read faster when
printed using the high
quality typography used
in books and magazines
Computer screens have a low
resolution when compared to
print, so the extra detail
becomes fuzzy. SSF read
faster on-screen
Arial
Arial Black
Verdana
Georgia
Times New Roman
Q3: Look at
the prescribed
book, p108.
Which font
family is used
in the
content? In
the headings?
Fonts 2
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Guidelines:
The company logo is part of its corporate identity, and no part of it (colours, fonts, contents, aspect ratio) may
be changed in any way
Obtain the official doc re the logo from the client, and abide by its guidelines
Be careful to not change the aspect ratio of the logo (and all images
you might be using) – hold down that Shift key!
Download any company logo, copy and
paste it into any graphics program, then
resize it both the correct and the incorrect
ways
Exercise:
Logos / Images
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http://youtu.be/LED_a19hFQc
Writing good content
NET101, 5:28
How to write content for your website
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Guidelines:
Obviousity No 1: you canot affort to hav speling errers on yuor wbepage
Obviousity No 2: Use Word’s spellcheck for every piece of text you intend putting on you webpage
Use gender-neutral references, or he/she
Refrain from using abbreviations which are obvious in your environment only (SEO, PPC, ROI, etc)
Obviousity No 3: Ensure that your Web content agrees with similar printed matter (yearbook, pamphlet,
catalogue, etc)
Q4a. Word’s spell-check has passed this sentence (it refers to two males).
Identify the 8 errors which slipped through, by writing down ONLY the 8
correct words in sequence.
The father took a walk with her sun on the see side, and said to him: you
should bee careful too eat too much fruit - pairs or apples -
right this down when we get bag home.
Grammar 1
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Q4b. Identify the 1 word misspelt below
Grammar 2
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Q4c. Identify the 1 word misspelt below
Grammar 3
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Q4d. The author who created the text below did not make any typing or spelling
errors. However, there are 3 errors on the screen. Find these 3 errors, but do not
list them. Simply explain in you own words what you think this author did to
generate these screen errors.
Grammar 4
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Q5. Refer to the thesis: How does SEs
treat keywords in terms of their location
on a webpage?
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn8BqDofxMU
Writing good content
articlejockey, 9:49
Q6. What is your personal opinion on
the ethics of using this software,
considering REAL CONTENT OF
VALUE vs UNNATURAL EXCESS?
Free article writing software
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Takeaway Actions
Compare the Sullivan & Weideman models
Try to answer Q1 to Q5 posed in the Content presentation
Look up Sullivan, see book for Weideman
Watch ALL videos
What is your opinion of the ArticleJockey software?