Author Archives: Jiajun

Keeping Up to Date

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In our Making New Year’s Resolutions post we shared our resolutions to improve websites and the services we provide to web editors. Mine was to develop a process for keeping up to date with advice from web industry experts.

I’ve already subscribed to a number of blogs and newsletters via email, and I read lots of articles and books but this is often sporadic and fragmented. When I do read something useful I often don’t do anything with that information, so it just sits in my inbox or on my desk.

I aim to come up with a systematic process for collating, reading and, most importantly, using the information I read to help inform our work. In this post I’m going to explain how I’ll tackle this.

Collating articles

I’ve set a rule in my inbox so that emails from blogs and websites I’ve subscribed to go directly to a folder for web articles. This will limit the disruption to my workflow.

I’ve also created a Trello board to help organise my reading. It contains different lists for different web topics that I read about such as content strategy, writing for the web, user research etc.

I’ve then dedicated some time on Friday mornings to go through the web articles folder and skim read articles to determine whether they will be useful. If an article looks relevant I’ll create a card in the relevant list in my Trello board for it and I’ll include the link to the article.

Reading articles

I’ve also blocked out some time every Monday afternoon to read the web articles I’ve collected from the previous week. Since the articles have already been categorised in Trello, I can quickly select articles that are most relevant to the projects I’m working on that week.

Allocating a dedicated time will allow me to focus solely on the article, as it will become another piece of planned work.

Using the information

After reading the article I will then use it in some way to inform our work. So, depending on the nature of the information, I might:

  • write some notes about it (so that I have a bank of information for reference)
  • share with the team via email or team meetings
  • write a blog post about it to share with our wider web community

Or I might end up doing a combination of these things.

Have a go

Why not give it try? Dedicating just half an hour a week to reading articles from industry experts can give you tips to improve your web content, and some context to what we’re doing with Go Mobile.

I’ve listed a couple of sites that I find useful to get you started:

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Team Update: 29 October – 11 November

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It’s that time again – read on to find out what we’ve been up to over the past couple of weeks.

Go Mobile programme

Plans for the next phase of Go Mobile are underway. We’re busy planning, meeting with site editors and carrying out preparation and benchmarking on the next batch of sites.

Linda met with our Alumni colleagues to start planning the Newcastle University Alumni and Giving to Newcastle sites. They’re up next for Go Mobile.

Jane met with editors from the Careers website while Steve and Lisa met with editors for the Science Central site.

The Accommodation Office are keen to get started with the process, we’re working with them to see what updates they can make to their site to help them prepare for the Go Mobile process.

If you’re thinking ahead why not take a look at our blog post on Decluttering your site for Go Mobile.

Design and Technical developments

The tech team have been busy with ongoing developments in T4 including:

  • building a new sitemap for the website
  • work on the Undergraduate and Press Office sites
  • building the central virtual tours in T4

Andy and Catherine also met with the Publications team to discuss photography planning for the next phase of Go Mobile.

Training and support

Jane and Emma C delivered training on planning and writing web content for the next group of editors with sites in Go Mobile.

We’ve received the feedback from our first Web Media Management training sessions. It’s really positive and shows that this is a welcome addition to our programme of training for editors.

We’ve received 56 support requests through the NU Service Helpdesk and have resolved 27 of them.

Industry conferences, workshops and training

Peter and Catherine are attending an advanced JavaScript course on-site.

Jane and Lisa attended the Content Strategy workshop at Nielsen Norman’s Usability Training Week in London. They came away with loads of ideas to develop and implement into Go Mobile – and affirmation that we’re doing great things from fellow content professionals.

Emma C will be attending the Nielsen Norman workshop on analytics and user experience workshop later this week.

Campaigns and web developments

Always thinking ahead, we’re reviewing the Clearing database ready for next August!

Plans for the next few weeks

We’re in the final five weeks of the Undergraduate site development. It’s all hands on deck to make sure we get all the content elements in place and the site signed off.

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Decluttering Your Website: How to Prepare for Go Mobile

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As we embark on phase 2 of Go Mobile, eager editors across the University are asking when their site will be going through the process. We’re thrilled that our editors are keen to get started.

We’re still finalising the schedule for phase 2. In the meantime, there’s plenty you can do to prepare your site for Go Mobile. In fact, the more you do beforehand the easier the process will be.

Delete, delete, delete

One of the most useful tasks you can do to prepare for Go Mobile is to delete any clutter from your site. Delete old versions of documents, images and logos that you’re no longer linking to in your content.

Similarly, delete old news and events items that are no longer relevant. If this information is still needed, rework it. For example, you could write a review of an event that has already taken place.

Check the currency of your content and consider whether it’s still relevant.

If content is out of date and no longer relevant to your site purpose it’s best to delete it. For more information about how out of date information can harm your website read Jane’s blog post: Why Deleting Old Stuff on Your Website is Good.

Check the accuracy of your content

It might seem like a dull task but ensuring that your content is accurate is crucial to the credibility of your site.

Users will be less likely to trust what you say if your content is littered with spelling and grammar mistakes, or if a link leads to nothing but a dead end. As pointed out by Kara Pernice from the Neilsen Norman Group, a link is a promise.

Tools like Siteimprove can help to find broken links and misspellings on your site.

Improve readability

The easier content is to understand the more accessible your message will be to your target audience.

Online readers are more task-focused and tend to scan content rather than read it all. Smaller screens increase this behaviour. So it’s essential to optimise your content for a smaller screen so that users can understand your content on any device they view it on. Part of this involves deleting unnecessary words.

For advice on optimising content for mobile take a look at our top five tips for writing for the web. An effective tool for identifying the readability of your writing is the Hemingway Editor.

Source new assets

As you’ll find out when you attend our Website Media Management training, images need to be larger in the new template. This is so that they retain their quality across all devices.

The majority of images that currently exist on your site won’t be big enough to work in the new template. Sourcing the original images will therefore give you a head start for when your site goes through Go Mobile. Check our Go Mobile Demo site for an idea of the new image sizes.

Go Mobile is an opportunity to check that your imagery is effectively supporting your messages. For guidance on sourcing imagery read Jane’s blog post on improving your website images and videos. For advice about editing images read Emma’s post: Editing Images for Use on Your Website.

Insights into Go Mobile

Find extra tips from editors who have already been through the Go Mobile process in our series of guest posts. Fiona Simmons from the Institute of Social Renewal talks about her experience of Go Mobile. Ivan Lazarov from the Press Office shares his reflections on the Go Mobile training.

Summary

So that’s a whistle stop tour of how you can prepare your site for Go Mobile. The most helpful thing you can do is to review your content. Make sure it will be readable on a mobile phone and delete old content and assets that are no longer relevant to your messages. Go forth and declutter!

Get in touch

Let us know in the comments if you have any questions about preparing your site for Go Mobile.

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Improving Page Titles and Headlines

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Linda recently posted about how meaningful titles and descriptions engage site visitors. Her post covered the importance of micro content in enticing people to read your content – particularly since content is displayed differently depending on the device used.

In this post I’m going to focus on how you can improve page titles and headlines to help people find your page and encourage them to read it.

Page titles should be clear and descriptive

Page titles help convey your primary message; its important they are clear and descriptive. This is so that your reader can quickly see what your page is about.

As argued by Jakob Nielsen, online headlines are different to printed headlines because they are used in different ways.

“In print a headline is tightly associated with photos, decks, subheads, and the full body of the article, all of which can be interpreted in a single glance.”

Jakob Nielsen, NNg

The contextual information that accompanies a printed headline means that it can afford to be cleverer and less descriptive. However, as pointed out by Nielsen, online headlines can appear out of context. For example they could appear in search results, news feeds, social media or navigation.

“Headline text has to stand on its own and make sense when the rest of the content is not available”

Jakob Nielsen, NNg

Since your page title could be displayed in a number of different places, and on a number of different screen sizes which may reduce the amount of information displayed, it’s essential they make sense out of context.

It’s also best if headlines don’t contain jargon or wordplay. For example, take a look at this example headline:

‘Cutting-edge Research’

This is vague and could be about any topic and relate to any organisation. It’s meaningless on its own as it provides no indication of what the content will be about.

Now take a look at this title:

‘Newcastle Student Unearths Rare Roman Jewellery’

This title is much more descriptive and gives a clear idea of what the article will be about. The reader can then quickly decide whether the content will be useful or of interest to them.

You only have precious seconds to grab your reader’s attention and if you waste those seconds forcing them to fathom out what your title means, they’ll lose patience and leave without reading your content.

Begin with key words

To help with search engine optimisation (SEO) your page titles should contain keywords.

For example, it’s unlikely that a vague title like ‘Students’ Union’ will appear high in search results. It will be competing with other universities who will be using the same general phrase. If we tweak the title to ‘Newcastle University Students’ Union’ this will help with SEO because the title is more specific. People will be more likely to find your page if your title contains words used by your readers.

It’s better if keywords appear at the beginning of your titles if possible, as this will help with scan reading.

“Moving keywords to the front of titles increases the likelihood that they get noticed“

Hoa Loranger, NNg

Eye tracking research conducted by the Nielsen Norman group shows that people read differently online in an F shaped pattern, and tend to see the first two words in a sentence.

Keep page titles short

Keeping page titles concise will also help with scan reading. Our recommendation for page titles is 50 characters (including spaces). This might not sound like many words to play with, but remember that your page title could be viewed on a small screen. If it’s too long it will run over several lines; making it much harder to read and understand.

Headline Analyzer tool

In Corporate Web Development we use a free online tool called Headline Analyzer to help write headlines for blog posts.

As shown from the screenshot below you simply type your headline into the headline field and click the ‘Analyse Now’ button. You’ll then be given a score for your headline and tips on how to improve it.

Screenshot of Headline Analyzer tool

Admittedly this tool is more useful for writing headlines for blogs than webpages. However, what I find helpful is the chance to see how my page title will look in search results. This helps me decide whether it will make sense out of context:

Screenshot of a headline displayed in search results using the Headline Analyzer tool

Have a go and see what you think!

Summary

What you call your page is crucial in helping people find it. If you use keywords that your readers will be using and if a title is descriptive of your content this will help with SEO. Furthermore, the more descriptive a page title is, the more likely people will select and read your content. This is because they will be able to quickly see whether the content is relevant to them and will help answer their questions.

References

Jakob Nielsen, Microcontent: How to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines, Nielsen Norman Group (NNg), 6 September 1998

Hoa Loranger, Headings Are Pick-Up Lines: 5 Tips for Writing Headlines That Convert, Nielsen Norman Group (NNg), 9 August 2015

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Top 5 Tips: Content Calendars

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It’s essential to continually plan your content to ensure it’s up to date and answering your users’ questions. Content calendars (or editorial calendars as they’re sometimes referred to) can help with this.

You can use a content calendar to map out content that will be needed at different points in the year and the deadlines for publishing content.

Read on to find out our top 5 tips for content calendars:

1. Map out key events or activities throughout the year

The best starting point when creating a content calendar is to map out key events and activities throughout the year. This could include recruitment campaigns, events and funding opportunities. You’ll then be able to identify tasks you’ll need to complete associated with each activity. This will include when you’ll need to produce or update content and source new assets.

Adding activities that take place on an annual basis will also help to identify when the busiest times for content production will be.

To help map out these activities, use our calendar template (PDF: 28.9KB, University login required).

2. Be selective with the information you include in your calendar

There’s a variety of details you could add to your calendar. Some details you might record include:

  • what content is needed (depending on the activities you need to support)
  • where on your site your new content will appear
  • the people responsible for writing and editing content
  • deadlines for writing, editing and publishing content
  • other teams that may need to be involved – will you need to contact the Corporate Web Development team (CWD) to create a new page on your site?

However, remember that the more information you include the more complex your calendar will become.

“Focus your calendar on the top priorities, and consider eliminating the bottom priorities to make your calendar easy to use and maintain“

Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach, Brain Traffic

It’s therefore important to be selective with the information you include so that your calendar is easy to understand.

3. Choose a calendar tool that works for your team

There are a variety of tools you can use to make your content calendar –  software like Outlook or Excel, or online tools like Trello. Deciding on the best tool to use depends on the amount and complexity of the information you want to record in your calendar.

For example, the CWD team first used Excel for our editorial calendar for this blog as it allowed us to record and filter a number of things. These included post categories, tags and whether a post would include an image or be a feature post. It also allowed us to easily assign authors and editors to posts. Although excel worked well, we now use Trello for our content calendar as it includes additional features, such as email notifications when tasks are due.

Learn more about Trello by reading Emma C’s post on Online Task Management with Trello.

Whatever tool you use for your content calendar ensure it works for you and all of your team.

4. Plan in plenty of time to produce content

Make sure you plan enough time to produce and update your content, or gather new assets.

Remember you may need to wait on other colleagues to provide information or request support from other teams, such as CWD or the Press Office.

Although it’s important to plan as much as possible, there will always be last minute content requests.

“An editorial calendar should be a flexible, ever-changing live document – one that’s updated according to the comings and goings of your business”

Chris McMahon, Sticky Content

Chris McMahon recommends scheduling in time to deal with unplanned content.

5. Share your calendar

Richard Prowse from the Digital team at the University of Bath recommends sharing your calendar:

“this will demonstrate to those not involved in the editorial process that you have a considered and measurable plan for content.”

Richard Prowse, University of Bath

Sharing your calendar with customers is also useful when negotiating deadlines. The calendar will make them aware that if they are late in providing information it could delay when content is published.

The content calendar illustrates the other work you have scheduled in, and might also help to minimise those last minute content requests.

References and further reading

Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach, Content Strategy for the Web, Brain Traffic, 2012

Chris McMahon, Create an effective editorial calendar, Sticky Content, 24 October 2014

Chris McMahon, Fill your editorial calendar in 5 steps, Sticky Content, 31 October 2014

Richard Prowse, How to create an editorial calendar, Bath University, 6 July 2014

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