Category: Content management systems

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Empowering Small Business Builders Series: Content Strategy Concepts

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Small business builders, artists, musicians, solopreneurs, take note. Here are some concepts that may help clarify what you need your website to do for you. Content strategy is the plan you make before building your website. You consider search engine optimization (SEO), Usability, and Accessibility. Or at least you should. 😉

SEO means how you place in organic search results, and how you plan to improve your ranking organically through a combination of getting backlinks, making text changes to your web copy, and using paid advertising.

Usability focuses on creating an enjoyable and intuitive user experience for all visitors. Can your audience complete the tasks you’d like them to complete while on your site, such as subscribing to your newsletter, signing up to your course offering, or completing a transaction.

Structured content allows us to write once and publish everywhere. It’s when you mark up your titles, lists, summaries, images and paragraphs so that machines and systems can understand them and display them appropriately.

In the following venn diagram, we see that a combination of good usability and SEO gives high quality content. A combination of good SEO and accessibility will give good structured content and accessible content. A combo of good accessibility and usability gives high quality, accessible content. All three concepts give that sweet spot of structured and accessible, high quality content.

content strategy concepts venn diagram is described in surrounding text.

FAQ

Now, let’s dive into some common questions you might have as you navigate the world of website building.

Question 1: What is web accessibility, and why does it matter for my website?

Web accessibility ensures that your website is usable by everyone, regardless of their abilities. By making your site accessible, you’re not only expanding your audience reach but also embodying inclusivity in action.

Question 2: How can I ensure that the text content on my website is accessible to all users?

One simple way to ensure text accessibility is by using clear and concise language. Break up your content with headings and subheadings, making it easier for visitors to navigate and understand. Remember, simplicity is key!

Question 3: What are the key considerations for making images and graphics accessible?

When adding images and graphics to your website (and also your social media posts), be sure to include descriptive alternative text (alt text). This ensures that visitors using screen readers can fully engage with your visual content.

Question 4: How should I structure headings and subheadings to improve accessibility?

Ah, heading hierarchy—a crucial component of web accessibility! Start with an <h1> tag for your main page title, followed by <h2> tags for major sections, and <h3> tags for sections related to the h2’s above them. This hierarchical structure not only aids in accessibility but also enhances the overall organization of your content. Every content management system has a different look and feel but they all have a way for you to mark your headings in the paragraph dropdown box.

Question 5: What are the best practices for creating accessible links and navigation menus?

When creating links and navigation menus, opt for descriptive link text that clearly conveys the link destination. Additionally, ensure that your navigation menus are structured logically and can be easily accessed via keyboard navigation without the need for a mouse.

Summary

Usability and accessibility are all about making the journey smooth and seamless for every visitor. I hope these answers have shed some light on the path to website content strategy. Remember, you are capable of creating a website that not only looks beautiful but also welcomes visitors of all abilities. Embrace the process, ask questions, and never underestimate your ability to make a positive impact online.

Thank you for joining me on this empowering journey. Until next time, keep shining bright, and remember—the world is waiting to experience the magic of your small business!

If you’re visiting from Awedacity, I have an Awedacity HQ Citizen space called Hub Yolantis in OnCyber if you want to take a metaverse tour.

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Empowering Small Business Builders Series: Making a Usable and Accessible Website

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Today, we’re going to embark on a journey to learn about making a website for your small business. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting your small business journey, I’m here to assure you: you’ve got this! 

My name is Yolantis, your website mentor. Not only am I a fine artist, but I’ve been working on websites as a career since 2000, and I’d like to help you understand the things you’ll need to do when it is time to get YOUR small business online. Maybe you’re an artist, or designer, or musician thinking, hey, I really need a website, or, Hey, I haven’t touched my website in months, maybe I should pay more attention to it.

To be clear, I’m not writing this from the viewpoint of a freelance website builder. I’ve already got a job and I don’t have bandwidth to take on all of your web projects. What I want to do is help you improve your website. I’ll explain how later in my series. I have a curriculum about usability and digital accessibility for people who WANT to run their own website. But first I’ll do a quick intro to website strategy concepts.

So it’s time to set up the website. Let’s talk about the essential technology needs for having your very own website.

Building a website starts with laying the groundwork, and that means having the right tools and technology at your disposal. Let’s break it down, step by step.

Domain Name

You’ll need a domain name if you want to establish a professional online presence. Think of it as your digital address—a unique identifier that visitors will use to find your website. It’s a purchase that can be standalone or bundled with hosting. You usually buy a domain name for one year, two years, or five years. Choose a name that reflects your brand and resonates with your audience, and isn’t already taken. If you are going to name your business after you get a domain, you can go to a domain name provider to see if it is taken. If you already have a business name but it’s not available as a domain name, the domain provider usually gives you alternatives that will work just as well.

Website Editor

Once you’ve secured your domain name, it’s time to choose a website editor, also known as a content management system (CMS). Whether it’s Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, Hubspot or one of hundreds of other builders out there, there are plenty of user-friendly options to explore. These platforms offer intuitive interfaces and customizable templates, which make website creation easier than starting from scratch. 

Again, if you are a solopreneur trying to do everything yourself, maybe because there isn’t enough income to justify the cost of a website agency, you’ll want to use a service that has website templates available. That way you can make your own edits whenever you need to. If you are at a stage in building your own business where you’re overwhelmed and don’t have the time for website creation or maintenance because you’re busy building your business, please do reach out to a local website & marketing agency. You’ll pay for the privilege, but they should take care of all of that for you.

Now, here’s a crucial consideration: hosting and security. Ensure that your chosen website host includes a security certificate with your package, or be prepared to purchase one separately. A security certificate encrypts data transmitted between your website and its visitors, providing peace of mind for both you and your audience. Not only that, if your certificate is expired or something went wrong with it, nobody can get to your website.

Sometimes hosting comes with the editor, as in the case of Squarespace, Wix, and Hubspot. But if you’re not going with one of those all-in-one service plans, you could choose any hosting company and purchase a WordPress hosting plan and they will install the newest version for you. Or you could look around at popular hosting companies and find out if they have a built-in, proprietary website builder tool. Lots of them do now. When it comes to the cost of website hosting, cheaper isn’t always the way to go. Do your research to find out how responsive their customer service is. Fast and effective customer service ranks higher than a more affordable plan rate.

Website Strategy Concepts

With your domain name registered, CMS and hosting provider selected, and security measures in place, you’re ready to dive into website building. But remember, accessibility and usability are essential components of a successful website, and they go hand in hand with the technology you’ve put in place, so we plan our content next.

Now, let’s talk about two concepts that often seem daunting: accessibility and usability. Accessibility refers to making your website usable for everyone, including those with disabilities. Usability, on the other hand, focuses on creating an enjoyable and intuitive user experience for all visitors. These two concepts go hand in hand. When we prioritize accessibility, we naturally enhance usability, creating a welcoming digital space for all.

Take a look at this Venn diagram of website strategy concepts. The three main circles are Technology, Marketing & SEO, and Usability. They all work together to help your business be successful. In my diagram, the overlapping areas indicate issues you may face if one of these main things are missing. If you have great technology and Marketing but you have a usability problem, then you may end up with accessibility issues. If you have great marketing and usability but your technology has a glitch you may experience long load times or sporadic downtimes, for instance. If your usability and technology are good but the marketing plan isn’t effective, you may end up being low on search results for your keywords or you may even be blocked by Google from showing up in search results.

And if you find that sweet spot then your website is secure and stable, usable and accessible, and discoverable. 

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Tables

If a content management system already has a WYSIWYG editor like the CK editor, then you will see an ‘add table’ icon. For proper accessibility, you should choose a header row, or header column, or both, depending on your data.

If you are running a WordPress site, you’ll notice the absence of a table button. It’s not functionality you can get in an out-of-the-box installation of WordPress, but there are plugins available.

YearTitleDepartment
2020Social DistancingPandemic
2019Crowded ConcertsCarefree Abandon

I used the TablePress plugin to build the above table.

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Making HTML Lists

Here are some tips on making HTML lists in your content management system. In a word processing program, you can easily highlight two or more paragraphs and turn them into a bulleted list with a button that looks like a bulleted list. The same is true in a content management system (CMS). Most CMS’s have an editor toolbar with the familiar set of buttons. An ‘ordered list’ uses numbers. An unordered list uses the dots we call ‘bullets’:

  • Captain Picard
  • Commander Riker
  • Deanna Troi

Take a look at the code view for this list. The “ul” tag is short for “unordered list.” There is an open list tag and a close list tag at the end – the one with the slash “/ul”. 

<ul>
  <li>Captain Picard</li>
  <li>Commander Riker</li>
  <li>Deanna Troi</li>
</ul>

This is the semantic way to create a list. When this content is posted onto a website, any screen reading software can announce that it’s a list with three items. When working on the web, remember that your content should be semantic. That allows screen reading software to discern the hierarchy of your content and announce it to users.

But there are other ways to create the look of a list without the tags being semantic. Sometimes with copy/paste from other programs you’ll end up with dot characters, or images of fancy bullets. In the case of numbered lists, I’ve seen hard-coded non-breaking spaces imitating the look of tabs after numbers, but the content isn’t a true list. When screen reading software encounters content like this, it just reads the content without announcing the list. For three short items, perhaps that’s not a big deal. However, business lists or outlines can go on for many pages and hierarchy can get confusing.

If you’d like lists that have images of little arrows or colorful dots that are not a part of the standard set of bullets, you should still use the “ul” and “li” tags that the bulleted list button gives you and assign the image bullets with CSS. Unfortunately, that means you’ll need to know how to write CSS. If you don’t know how, then let the browser display the bullets how it wants.

  • Starship Enterprise
    • Captain Kirk
  • Starship Enterprise Next Generation
    • Captain Picard

In the above nested list, I didn’t have a choice in WordPress about whether the indented item would be an open circle or a normal bullet mark. Please note, that when formatting nested lists in a CMS, first make all list items one big list and then use the indent buttons to push list items to the right. That should assign parent/child relationships correctly.

I’ve seen lists come across my desk that might have forty items but each item is a separate list with open and close ‘ul’ tags. That’s not very usable for assistive technology. This way, each item is announced as a list of one item. It might be tempting to hit enter or return after your list item to try to get more space under the bullet. But what that does is break the list apart into multiple lists. Instead, it’s CSS to the rescue. You can define line-height AND space after list items with CSS. But usually, the very simple WYSIWYGs in CMS’s don’t offer that out of the box. Again, you’d need to know how to write the CSS to adjust vertical spacing of list items so you can maintain the correct semantics of the list.

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File Management

When working on the web, coders or content managers often see the request to ‘post this pdf on our page…’. A wise one will ask, ‘Is this a file replacement or is it new? Shall I delete the outdated file or keep it for archives?’ File management can be a bear for content managers.

Think of a bucket that is mounted so high you cannot see inside it, or it has a lid that won’t let you see inside the bucket. Let’s pretend the bucket is your file upload directory in your content management system (CMS). Some CMS’s make you first upload into a media library and then get the link to the file from there so you can link it on your page. But other CMS’s have a file uploader right on the edit page pane. Every time you upload a .docx or .pdf or .xlsx document into a page it also goes into the bucket.

You can show or hide the file from the page, but it still lives in the bucket, out of your sight.

via GIPHY

Out of Sight But Not Out of the Engines

Search engines can find those files! Even if you have un-linked the file from the page, it still lives in the bucket of files that search engines can index and keep in their short term memory, called cache.

That is why I do the tedious thing, the hard thing, and take the longer road. It’s boring and tedious to go cherrypick files for deletion, but if you’d like to save yourself some headaches further down the road, keep your directories clean in the present.

Depending on your workflow, you may need to ask your internet host to delete files for you, or your coder, or your IT team. Sometimes it is not obvious how to get a printout of what is in that bucket, and sometimes you just plain can’t get a listing of all the files in your upload directory. So each time you replace a file, make sure the old one is either deleted or overwritten.

Website Emergency!

This came up for me at work this quarter. A user had done a search and found an obsolete file on Google. It posed a fraud risk for the financial division, and they asked to have it removed asap. In my workflow, only the person who originally uploaded a file can delete it fully from the server. Since the file was over six years old and it was unknown who uploaded it, I needed to place a trouble ticket with my host to have it removed.

Next time you get a request to ‘please post this pdf on our page…,’ know that this is only half of the request! Your next question is ‘shall I delete the old file?’ And that is document management.