Today I have been discussing web sites with a friend and It has become clear to me that it is content that is key. Having a very attention-getting set of graphics and dynamic moving pictures looks very modern (and young), but I saw a page that had marvelous graphics with colored text that just invited clicking for more information, only to find that it was not a real “click” spot and nothing came up. The few pages had almost no “content” except the graphics–almost no text describing anything about which one might wish to find more information.
And yet the pages you see here are almost totally text, and that is boring, I am told. I suppose it boils down to whether you are seeking information or entertainment. Granted some variation adds interest and breaks up long paragraphs. Much can be done with simple text changes–fonts, colors, bold, italics and so on. I can add graphics and photos and may eventually get there, but I hope it will fit with the mission of the pages.
Another item of interest is what is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). There is apparently quite a science to arranging words so tools like Google can find and rank your page higher than others it might list as search results. When it reports 14 million “hits” that tells the one searching that the words have not narrowed things much. I am told that virtually no one goes beyond the second page of hits so lif your site doesn’t come up in the top 20, it is unlikely that many searchers will find you! I don’t know the games to be played, but I have already seen evidence that lots of text can be a significant positive in searching. Things have changed dramatically from a decade ago. When I started my candthe8051.com page, it was months before any search engine found me. Now I discover that I am right there within a week of starting the page.
Analyzing the traffic to a site has changed too. A decade ago I attached a “hit counter” and I (and everyone else) was able to see how many times people had come to my home page (it ran about 300 a month after a while and was up to 14,000 over the decade before I moved the page to this account). But now I am getting into Google Analytics and find that I can get much more information about new people vs. returning visitors and even geographic information (I haven’t a clue what to do with the information when it has built up to a significant level, but the data will be there).
As I ponder all this, I feel like Snoopy in the Charles Schulz cartoon, being dragged to the vet’s office–I don’t want to have to struggle to learn all this, but the force is inexorable.