Giraffe Forum

Gerry,
Great column as always, and it’s definitely ammunition I can use when trying to persuade users to keep their content fresh.

I do have a specific problem, though — as the manager of a hospital intranet we face the challenge of having to provide employees access to complete sets of clinical, administrative and other manuals. In many cases, departments have ditched the paper versions of the manual in favor of an electronic version. How would suggest we handle that? We do not have an enterprise document management system, and in many cases the intranet becomes that by default.

Thanks in advance for any ideas,
Sue Morgan

I concur with John. Careful experience design work is required to make low-value content available to users that need it.

If a user’s task is to find specific or niche content then that press release from 2002, or old product spec becomes “high-value content” for that individual user. They will not perceive that this sort of content will be available from anywhere else but the primary domain of the authoring organisation.

If low-value content is stored on a separate website, then a search results screen on the company website could link to the archive site suggesting users search there. Web based technology can be an inexpensive alternative to bricks and mortar storage services. This is the reason why many in-house web teams receive pressure from the business area to put old content up, or keep all out-of-date content in production on the top-level sections of the site.

If you are working with limited resources, you have to invest where you’ll get the highest ROI. If you know that 10% of content makes up 90% of information needs, use your limited resources to make that 10% easy to access. That will have the greatest benefit. If you have plenty of resources, then make the other 90% of content easy to find and use.

Successful strategy usually requires stating as clearly what you won’t do as what you will do, within the parameters and limitations of your work.

I agree with your latest column about low value content overwhelming the good stuff. However, you do not mention how to go about correcting this situation.

We currently have an intranet that is chock full of stuff, much of which we know is out of date. However, because the intranet is designed to be user driven, not communications driven, there is no mechanism to update or remove old information - users are supposed to keep on top of their information, but are too busy to do so.

What can be done to edit this information down on a regular basis without having someone in charge of it, like an editor?

Thought-provoking post that I think goes to the heart of search marketing optimisation ‘per se’, as well as the ‘content is king’ concept, and better site usability, navigation, architecture etc.

As an experienced online marketer for a couple of decades now, I feel like I’ve grown alongside Gerry McGovern, his ‘content’ and consultancy.

Now working in a search engine marketing company called Fuse Optimisation (www.fuseo.co.uk), and a journalist by profession before I started in online, content really does remain king.

But the expertise that the likes of Fuse and Gerry can bring to organisations wondering how to surface their content to the outside world, to the public etc, is still way under-utilised at present.

Many people don’t fully understand how (or even why) to harness the power of search and well-architected, navigable websites to ensure the copy is found by those searching for it (although to give ground a little, reaching these people with education is also required).

Trying to keep this brief, I would just close by saying public organisations like government and councils need to prove value for money when spending from the public purse.

Dodgy, one-man websites - poorly optimised, badly architected - is pretty much pouring public money down the drain. As a taxpayer, I kind of demand they stop wasting my money. As a search marketing optimisation specialist, I say they should speak to experts like Gerry and Fuse.

Do look at how Fuse surfaces relevant content. Try searching for ‘claim’ on Google. We’ve optimised a website to be up at the top of the rankings - http://www.youclaim.co.uk. That site is all about personal injury claims, it’s one of the best in the world, if not the best at what it does.

If your site isn’t doing that, or heading that way, maybe you ought to think about how you are spending your money online. Contact experts like Gerry or Fuse, and don’t pour good money after bad. Think, think, think is my final cry - please… taxpayers money, especially, shouldn’t be wasted.