everything you needed to know about fair/festival website content and were afraid to ask

Everything you needed to know about Fair/Festival website content and were afraid to ask.

Content: the easiest and least expensive way to increase your website traffic

 Presented by Doug van Wolde  

On Behalf of WeGo.ca Website Developers Inc.

2009 OAAS ConventionComputers & Technology and Your Fair

Friday February 20, 2009

Website Content

• What is it?• Why it’s important• How to test it• Tips to improve it• Questions

Mini Bio• In the Internet industry since 1997• Started my own business in 2001

– I help other businesses develop their online presence with a focus on web marketing

– Manage or administer about 50 web properties– Built 100+ websites– My primary clients are in the Fair and Events industries

• Websites I visit frequently:– Flickr.com, Geni.com, Facebook.com, mdhsreunion.ca,

marketingmag.ca, marketingprofs.com, itworld.ca, emarketer.com, zdnet.com/techupdatetoday, clickz.com

• Hobbies: camping, mountain biking, photography, African Cichlids

• Visited Fairs in 2008 = 12

Web Content and Other Features of Your Website

Elements of a Good Website

What are the Benefits of Good Content?

• Your message is delivered• Make your impression • Create a reason Visitors keep returning • Cuts down on administrative type phone calls• Provides a pipeline of information for the press

and other media• Helps to spread WOM (pages, text and forms

can be linked to e-mail and other blogs)• Drives visitor traffic to your website• Cause Visitors to take action (They will

choose to attend your event)

More than a Fad

• Canada has 21,800,000 Internet Users

• “They have the Internet on computers, now?” Homer Simpson

Basic Business Tools

Whois Behind Your Website?• Web Developer/Content

Manager/Administrator– This is someone hired or employed or

volunteering within your organization that you trust to manage your web affairs

• Web Hosting Service Provider– This is where your content is stored

• Usually off-site in a shared hosting hotel like the one at 151 Front Street in Toronto.

• Domain Registration Provider (Registrar)– This is a company you pay to maintain your

domain name

How will most people find your site on the Web?

• What media will a Visitor use to find your website?

What is web content?

• Pictures• Text• Video• Sound• Any type of electronic document can

be uploaded to your web server and linked from your website.

What is the best type of content?

• Text– Search engines rank your website’s

importance according to the text content it finds valuable

– Good search engines rank the text based on what the robot thinks a human will find valuable

• Your task as content Managers is to find out what Visitors want on your website

Content Is King• What is meant by the term

"content" is written text in plain vanilla HTML or a variant that produces good clean text that can be indexed with ease by a search engine

• Photos and video cannot be indexed by the search tools of today

Bad Content Example

Good Content Example

Why content is important to your fair?

1. Because the web is so important to many people who visit your fair

2. If you have nothing to say, you won’t generate any actions

3. Gain or improve Search Engine Rankings– Especially Google

4. You are competing for attention– Visitors will choose how they spend their

time and money based on what you have to offer.

Page Activity• Ask your Webguy/gal for a report of your page

activity. You will probably find out that most visitors to your website want to know:

Traffic Report• Measured by unique visitors– markhamfair.ca by week

• Throughout the year is 4,000 Visitors per week• The week before the fair is 35,000 Visitors

Search Keyphrases

• bromefair.com first week in February

Content Management Types

Manual process• You create and edit HTML pages in one

application and then use a separate FTP application to get your pages to the web server.– Pros: This works great for those who like to

get technical and offers full control over every aspect of the site.

– Cons: This method requires technical expertise of HTML tags as well as FTP server access and offers no way to simply edit content. This method is suitable for web professionals.

CMS• With a content management system, you

have a one-stop shop to manage all the technical details of building the site, which lets you focus on the content itself.– Pros: The content is finally separated from the

HTML, and updates no longer require knowledge of FTP, HTML, or server information.

– Cons: A CMS is a very involved system for simple sites. It is expensive to buy, implement, and maintain, and it usually requires its own support staff.

Blogging Platforms

• With blogging tools such as Blogger and WordPress, you have the functionality of a stripped-down CMS.– Pros: It's very simple to create and update

content. There is often no cost associated with these tools, and they offer easy-to-use, readily available templates.

– Cons: Many websites built on blogging platforms look alike. Editing is limited to the blog page.

Content coaching • A content coach is a copywriter or

wordsmith in the web publishing business or Search Engine Optimizer – SEO (perhaps even your current Webmaster).– Pros: Ensures content is placed in the

correct location on the site to maximize search engine traffic, also ensures that all the pages stay intact, and you follow web etiquette

– Cons: Delay in publishing while you wait for updates.

Volume and Frequency

• How much text should you add and how often?– Lots and always would be the best answer– Search Engines are continually looking for

new text that might help Visitors

• Google has an entire site devoted to helping Webmasters achieve better search results.(Google Webmaster Tools)

Search Engines• More than 80% of markhamfair.ca’s search traffic

comes from Google

Testing• Collect data from your online forms,

blogs, WOM and telephone complaints• Put yourself in the Visitor’s chair– What would they want to see and how easy

is it to find?– Test searches with popular keywords

• Fall fair Milverton• Concert Lindsay September• Raspberry jam contest Bolton

– (name 10 topics or reasons why someone would come to your website? What do you imagine the visitor is looking for?)

Testing - Results

Customer-Focused • Visitors are on your site to find a solution or

solve a problem. Does your Web site content draw these prospects?

• To draw them in, make sure your Web site engages Visitors by offering customer-focused content – that speaks to their needs – and provides a solution to their problems.

• Talk less about you and your company and more about your customers' needs and concerns. If your content is customer-focused, Visitors will stick around and ask for more.

No Shortcuts• Don’t cheat

– There’s no substitute for good content. Visitors must find your site valuable based on the information it contains.

• There’s no such thing as great results instantly with submission to 300,000 search engines

• Uniqueness of content– Make sure your content is different from the other fairs or

events– Copying text might event get your site banned by search

engines• If you have a budget for content, hire a Copywriter or

Content Coach• If you don’t have a budget, enlist the volunteer help of a

Contributor– A Content Contributor can be anyone in your organization who

is good at writing, recommend the work be approved/reviewed before publishing

Essential Fairs and Exhibitions Type Content

• Prize Book Text– html– PDF

• Other contest information/Demo Derby• Exhibits/Displays/Shows/Attractions• Administration/Parking/Contacts/• FAQ• More?…

Summary• Find out what real people want from your site and provide that

content• What is it?

– Text• Why it’s important

– It’s how Search Engine’s rank your site– How People find you with keywords– This translates into attendance at your event

• How to test it– Web Statistics– Google Reports/rankings– Gather Feedback

• Tips to improve it– Focus on Customer/Visitor– Apply what you learn from the tests– Always be adding new text– Make Content unique– Get a content helper

Questions