Last time I looked at the primary concerns of site management. Whilst content is always your primary concern, secondary concerns, the technical issues that cut across the purpose of your site, are also important. They include:
- Search engine optimisation (seo)
- Accessibility
- Copyright
- Privacy
They can all be a bit of a pain, if only because they can get in the way of your main purpose. You need to get them into proportion and so I’ll deal with them briefly here and in more detail in later posts.
- Seo is important but no search engine ever subscribed to a website. Your potential or actual subscribers must come first. Getting hung up on using keywords and shuffling them around the page is usually counter-productive. Other sites will link to yours if you produce good content. That’s your first priority; have content to link to! There are several ways you can increase traffic and I’ll cover them later.
- Accessibility is important because some of your users may use screen readers. There are some basic things you need to do to make your site usable for everyone and a few essential things to remember for screen readers. If your site specifically targets people who need more or different help, there is plenty more you can do.
- If your content belongs to you then the only thing you need to worry about is whether other people have permission to copy your material. If you publish anything online people will copy it. If you’re not selling it don’t worry about it too much, just ask people to acknowledge your work. If people enjoy your work, they will return for more. I shall cover copyright issues in a later post. If you use other peoples’ material always acknowledge it and offer details of its provenance. Images in particular can be tricky so make sure you have permission use them and always acknowledge their owner.
- People want to know what you’ll do and not do with the information about themselves they enter into your site. So, tell them what you will do with it and what you won’t do with it. Again in time I’ll go into this in more detail.
I’m going to major on writing copy for the next few posts. If you want more information about any of these let me know in the comments and I’ll bring them forward.