Is your content being read?: March 25, 2002 issue of New Thinking

March 25, 2002 New Thinking:
Is your content being read?

Website content management

Home I About I Services I Clients I Contact

New Thinking Home

Subject Classification
Reader Feedback
Subscribing
Unsubscribing
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996

Books by
Gerry McGovern

Content Critical

Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content

The Web Content
Style Guide

The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers

March 25, 2002

Is your content being read?

By Gerry McGovern

The world is producing content at an extraordinary rate. However, people's capacity to read content remains basically the same. What percentage of the content that you publish on your website is actually being read? What are you going to do with the content which is never read?

Eighty percent of the content on one of the largest and best-known websites is never read. Not occasionally. Not rarely. No, eighty percent of this global brand's content is never, ever read.

In a study of academic papers published in 1997, Michael Lesk reported that 48 percent of social science papers and an incredible 93 percent of humanities papers published in 1984 were not cited in the ensuing 10-year period.

The fact that your content wasn’t quoted in another document doesn’t necessarily mean that it wasn’t read. However, it does indicate that even if it was read, it didn’t have much of an impact. And if your content doesn't have much of an impact, what good is it?

The Web has the potential to change all this. That's why many publishers are really scared of the Web. An unnamed scientific publisher was recently quoted as saying that they feared the day when pay-per-view became common on the Web. They already knew that much of what they published was never read. However, people and organizations were still buying 'just to have it.'

What to do? Well, you can start by not publishing content that nobody has any interest in reading. Every year, for every page that is printed, there are 30,000 'pages' saved on computers. Where's the quality control? Where are the editors? Who controls what gets published on your public website or intranet? If you treat your website like a dumping ground for content then people will see your website as a dump.

What sort of content review processes have you got? There are three basic ways you can review content:

Expiration date
Review at publication
Periodic review

Setting an expiration date is useful for content that is time sensitive, such as information about events. After the date is reached, the content management software can automatically remove the content from the website. Unfortunately, for most content it's not that simple.

Review at publication involves comparing the document you are about to publish with content that is already on the website. A way to do this is to check the classification you are using for the document and see what's already there. If an older piece of content is too similar to the content you are about to publish, remove it.

Periodic review involves reviewing all content on the website on a periodic basis. There are two ways to do this. Firstly, when an author gets a document published you could set a timer notification whereby after, say six months, the author gets an email asking them to check if their content is still relevant. Secondly, you could arrange a review of all content on the website on, for example, an annual basis.

If eighty percent of your content is never read, think of how much more efficient and manageable your website will be without it. Think of how much easier it will be for people to navigate and search for content. Less is more.

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Don't call people users
Previous issue: The myth of interactivity on the Internet
New Thinking homepage

New Thinking Newsletter
Subscribe to this free weekly newsletter covering the role and function of content on the Web.
More info | Privacy policy
Read the current issue

Email Address:

 Subscribe  Unsubscribe

Content management seminar feedback
"Gerry's presentation was very well received by the more than 400 higher education delegates. I've chaired this meeting since 1994 and very few speakers have generated the same level of enthusiasm. Wit and wisdom is always an unbeatable combination."
Bob Johnson, American Marketing Association

“Excellent presenter ... thought-provoking and relevant. I hope we can persuade him to visit us again one day.”
Malcolm Davison
The British Association of Communicators in Business

"Hearing Gerry McGovern speaking, one can feel that he truly masters the subject of content management. He was voted ‘best speaker of the conference’ by delegates."
Toon Lowette
European Association of Directory Publishers

Find out more about Gerry McGovern's seminars

If eighty percent of your content is never read, think of how much more efficient and manageable your website will be without it.

Content Critical is recommended reading at the following universities

Augustana College, United States
Drury University, United States
Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
Indiana University, United States
Monash University, Australia
University of Applied Sciences, Germany
University of Regina, Canada
University of Teesside, UK
Manchester Metropolitan University

Find out more about Content Critical