How a website outline can help you create a better site

Transcript: Hi. This is Mart from Blue Lightning TV. For those of you who wished you had your own stunning, professional-looking website or have one that doesn't really thrill you, I'm going to show you where and how you can create one for free at Wix.com. Wix has an amazing tool that fills it for you automatically it's called their 'artificial design intelligence'. In addition Wix allows you to edit any of your website's sections with its intuitive drag-and-drop editor, and other built-in features using Wix makes building an awesome-looking website simple easy and fun. Go to their website at Wix.com. You can create a website for free, or upgrade to a premium version. But with the free version, you get pretty much everything you need to begin. Click start now, if you're new to Wix you'll need to sign up. Type in your email then type in a password The first page asks what kind of website you want to create. for this example I'll build a website for an online consulting company, so I'll click business you can build your website two different ways one is with the Wix editor which is a great drag-and-drop editor, or we can... See more →

Key quotes:

• "Information architecture (IA) is the science of structuring content as it is applied to news websites or blogs, online stores, booking apps, downloadable software, etc."
• "The goal of information architecture is to classify the content in a clear and understandable way and arrange it according to relations between the content pieces, allowing users to find what they need with less effort."
• "Peter Morville, the co-author of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, explains the role of an information architect as a person who bridges users and content by designing search and navigation, embodying the abstract ideas into prototypes, units, and disciplines to turn the concepts into something understandable."
• "As soon as you have decided on design pattern, you can apply it along with the results of card sorting in site mapping."
• "An information architect should stick to them to build a product: Applying these principles, you are likely to structure existing content and leave a space for growth."

Transcript: Hi my name is siti and welcome back to the channel where we make educational technology easy for you in today's video I'm going to answer that question can you create a website for free that is easy to create and that I can share out to the world yes it's possible and in today's video we're going to do adjust that so let's dive in with another flipped classroom tutorial in today's video I'm going to walk you through Google Sites and we're going to look at the entire process of creating a website I'm going to look at the headers the pages and all the little details that you need to understand in order for us to create a website together now I highly encourage that you pause the video when needed and together we're going to start creating our websites now before you even get started there's a couple of things you need to consider first of all who is going to be your audience why are you creating this website you need to think of their age the demographics and also how they are going to be accessing this website now Google Sites is amazing and... See more →

Key quotes:

• "In this article we’ll tell you how we approach our copywriting projects so you know what to expect from working with us."
• "If you want to make your website visible for search engines, your pages need to rank for your target keywords."
• "In other words, we research the web pages that show up in the top 10–30 results of Google search for your target commercial keywords."
• "We look at their structures, content and keywords, and use this knowledge in our work."
• "This means we create a list of items that your target customer would expect to see on your web page."
• "The best way to approach website content is to look at it as a list of customer expectations, or items that are important to your audience."

Transcript: - Hello, everyone, andwelcome to a new series on my YouTube channel. This series is going to bedocumenting the process of me redesigning, rebuilding my website from the very start to thevery end when it launches. I did originally think aboutdoing this all in one video just as like an overviewof how I built it, at the end, when eventuallythat happens, but I feel like I'm going to be able to show you more of my process along the way if I'm doing this video in chunks for like each part of the process. You're gonna be able to see more in-depth how I work, and, yeah,just get more of that behind-the-scenes, andhopefully more learning as well, so. I hope that sounds good to you. In today's video, the first in the series, we're gonna dive inwith the planning phase. Planning the site map, planning what pages I need to design. This is a really importantpart of the process. It's maybe not the funnestpart of the process cause it's not when you're,like, arranging pixels on the page and doing cool designs. It's a lot of the thinkingand the planning that goes into it, beforehand. Before you get to those stages,... See more →

Key quotes:

• "We’ve compiled the top 20 do’s and don’ts to show you how to write website content that enhances the appearance, readability, and SEO effectiveness of your new site."
• "Follow these tips when you’re composing and compiling your website content and you’ll be able to reap the rewards of quality content writing when your new site is live! Make sure to write content that meets your site visitors at their level."
• "Just to make sure you remember one of the most important points for quality content writing, we’re going to repeat ourselves — DON’T PLAGIARIZE! Then make sure the content on that page is written to helpfully point them in the right direction and convince them the product is worth buying."
• "Most site visitors only take a few seconds before leaving a page, so you want to make sure they see what they’re looking for without feeling like they have to read everything."

Transcript: Today I'm in a bit of a different setup from my usual because I want to take you through the first stage of the web design process which is wire framing the purpose of wire framing is to work in a really minimal way to start organizing the information and figuring out the flow of a page before you start worrying about things like the fonts and the colors and making everything pixel perfect with wire framing you allow yourself to work really quickly and generate lots of ideas and my web design skills have definitely improved a lot since I started following a proper wire framing process so today I want to teach you how I do it I always start my wire framing using just a pen and a piece of paper you could start on the computer and a lot of people do doing just like grey boxes and using the default font but the second you find yourself trying to like align things properly or get a box to be the exact right size that's when you're focused on those little details and you lose the flow and you're not just generating quick ideas so sticking... See more →

Key quotes:

• "Examples of the tasks that will support your conversion: Detect bottlenecks that indicate the lack of strategy alignment: Have you managed to convey your core message to your audience and helped them easily see, use, and navigate through that message without leaving your website."
• "Examples of the tasks aimed to improve your usability: Detect your usability bottlenecks: If your audience doesn’t get the information it comes to your website for, you need to create a content strategy."
• "Examples of tasks that will improve your content: Detect your content bottlenecks: SEO determines how quickly and easily your customer will be able to find your website."
• "To build a customer journey you need a persona and a use case — a problem to solve or a task to complete."
• "Review competitors’ user flows and how they use content to guide customers to the goal."
• "For exploring users, find ways to lead them to completion with inviting copy and CTAs."

Key quotes:

• "A web content strategy is essential for creating a site that helps you meet your business goals."
• "The following outlines key elements of a content strategy and provides actionable steps for you to implement."
• "The Content Marketing Institute offers a great template: Abound’s content mission statement is: Action step: Outline your goals and fill out the content mission statement template."
• "The questions you ask will slightly differ depending on if you’re targeting organizations or individual consumers, but here are a few ideas to get you started: Now that you’re in tune with your audience, how will you craft messaging to inspire action? Action step: Create a brief guide outlining your messaging standards."
• "If it helps, think of information architecture as an outline or site map illustrating your content and navigation."
• "Action step: List out all your possible pages, how they will link, and what they will be called Your information architecture serves as your guide for content and copywriting."