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Master your content and build an incredible website

zooboole

Published By zooboole

Content is king, we used to say. But, actually content is more than just a king. Your content is the kingdom, it's your business. It makes it and unmakes it. How you handle it and how you spread it to your users/clients determines how probable you can gain their attention or win a prospect.

In communication, nothing is to be taken lightly. Recently I started to realize how much content is valuable for my websites. What you might think has no serious impact/effect can actually become a slow-killer poison.

I started blogging(writing) while I was still going to English classes. I could not think of the quality of everything I wrote. I took my language skills for granted and I could publish anything without considering how I actually built up my words and my sentences. This has cost me a lot. I lost a lot of visitors. I have never been able to reach some set of them. I was taken lightly as well by many.

When people hear of Lancecourse(formerly phpocean), their idea is like: "Oh this joking website. It's for a boy who is just starting". But, behind that is hidden my real passion and determination to transmit a savoir-faire.

But, nobody would understand that unless I make them to.

Given that, I decided to dig and understand what could be the course and how to fix it. I realized two main problems: first, my English level. Secondly, *how much do I know about my content, topic, or my message?

Those two points determine how well you can communicate. Although the first case can be considered a global issue, each one can quickly be fixed. Nonetheless, it requires particular attention. A lot has to be avoided, such as typos, grammatical mistakes, bad sentence formation, etc. At Any time those can send an opposite message to your readers.

The second case requires you to understand the message you are sending. You must know it thoroughly. Words might be abstract, but, they actually take a shape in the mind of the one who understands them very well.

Mastering your message will help you see each little part of it as a building block that must go to a specific position to put in place the whole structure. With that, it becomes easier to organize and lay out an adequate context that can engage more your users.

To achieve that, there are a few things I've decided to consider:

  • Take some time and plan my message before starting

  • Mind the quality of my language

  • Take my typography to the next level

  • Be patient while writing

  • Cross-check many times

  • Never publish the day I write to give myself a chance to read many times

  • Use tools like Ginger, Grammarly, and Hemingway app

How does that help in building a website?

Well, all I said concerns the quality of your content and why it's important. Content on the other hand is fully part of your design. In fact, like Mig Reyes said it, Design is still about words and the iA confirms it by showing us that Web design is 95% typography.

There is no way you can structure and format your copy without having a clear idea of what it is. You need to know exactly what you've got as content. What's your message? What's the audience? what's the medium used to reach your audience and how are you making that? These are most questions you must answer very well while you put in place your content.

Recently I decided to re-write my portfolio site: zooboole.me.

The idea was simple: make a simple website that looks like there is no technical work behind it. Focus on the message. I placed myself at the angle of someone coming to know me just a bit. Briefly know what I do and what I have done thus far in a very simple, short, and plain way.

The main idea behind it is to make the reader think that my website is not seriously built and to wonder, as a website designer how come I don't have one? And the answer should be that I am taking my time to build for my clients, and therefore I have no time for my website. No matter how this may sound to you, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to do, how, and why.

I realized that to accomplish that I have to focus most on my copy and the typography. After all, it's only through words I can say all this effectively.

Then I took one day to write the whole content down -for all pages. Established their relationships and my call to action. It took me two days to decide on the fonts to use. Later on, I went for Glegoo and Source Sans Pro. I used Glegoo serif on the body text and Source Sans Pro, sans-serif on the titles. I wanted serif text for the body text in order to make it look casual and friendly. My layout idea is to keep it clean enough with a lot of space. The color rule is white and black. It gives that feeling of ancient and timeless. I even had to apply the same law to my picture.

After that, I took another night to put the whole thing together. The result is encouraging. More is to be done and we can do it in a better way.

I learned through this little experience the value of mastering my content. That made me apprehend my content easily and therefore structure it based on a taste of my choice.

Maybe this was easy because my content wasn't that much. Yes, I agree with that. But, at the same time, I am certain that no matter the size of your content this can still be done. You would just need to dedicate some time to it.

I hope this guides you a bit on your next project. I would not have reached here without the considerable help of Hack Design. Please, share this with your friends to support us.

Cover image credit to http://blog.sumall.com