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Saturday, September 19, 2009
What information should your website include?
There is no one size fits all solution for new businesses when it comes to deciding what content you need to put on your website. Each business is unique and the website needs to be designed to meet the unique needs of your target audience. Thus it is important that you know why you are creating the website and target information content to the primary purpose of the site.
I was recently involved in a series of research studies the looked specifically at the type of content small businesses needed to put on their sites, from a user's perspective. Not surprisingly the studies demonstrated that they type of content varied based on the primary business the company and what the purpose of the site was (Walczak & Gregg 2010, Hasley & Gregg 2008).
Companies that are selling things online must provide accurate, believable product information that includes all "important" product characteristics. For example: ingredients is an important product characteristic for specialty food sites and book reviews are very important for author and other book selling sites. Of course price is important if you are selling things but studies show that including a price can actually be detrimental for higher end service sites (e.g. law firms and medical procedures).
Companies that are using their websites for recruiting or to attract investors also need to have accurate believable information but they need to include additional corporate information that is not required for sales only sites.
Regardless of what you are using your website for you need to realize that content is king, so make sure all of the information on your site is accurate, believable and up to date.
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I was recently involved in a series of research studies the looked specifically at the type of content small businesses needed to put on their sites, from a user's perspective. Not surprisingly the studies demonstrated that they type of content varied based on the primary business the company and what the purpose of the site was (Walczak & Gregg 2010, Hasley & Gregg 2008).
Companies that are selling things online must provide accurate, believable product information that includes all "important" product characteristics. For example: ingredients is an important product characteristic for specialty food sites and book reviews are very important for author and other book selling sites. Of course price is important if you are selling things but studies show that including a price can actually be detrimental for higher end service sites (e.g. law firms and medical procedures).
Companies that are using their websites for recruiting or to attract investors also need to have accurate believable information but they need to include additional corporate information that is not required for sales only sites.
Regardless of what you are using your website for you need to realize that content is king, so make sure all of the information on your site is accurate, believable and up to date.
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- S. Walczak and D. Gregg, "Factors Influencing Corporate Online Identity: A New Paradigm," forthcoming Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 2009/2010.
- J.P. Hasley and D. Gregg "Understanding and Managing Web Site Information Content: The WICS Method," Working Paper, July 2008.
Labels: design, research, website tips
