Customer Reviews

Content Critical: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through High-Quality Web Content

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Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton are experienced journalists who write unashamedly about text content. They define visitors as 'readers', not 'users', who come to a web site to read and gather content. If that makes Content Critical old fashioned, it is old fashioned for all the right reasons.

It deals with the fundamentals of web site content; its purpose, its design, its creation. Readers of McGovern's weekly newsletter won't be surprised by the content, themes or style of the book. It is direct, business-like, sometimes humorous and always well argued.

Content Critical is the best non-technical book on the subject of web content that I have come across to date. It is comprehensive and well structured. It demonstrates the authors' long fascination with the Internet as a publishing medium as well as their advocacy of information architecture as a professional discipline.

Content Critical has an important message and presents it according to its own rules and guidelines.

Content Critical analyses the benefits and costs of content with a model for comparing the cost of content to its reach and value.

It is easy to forget when we are surrounded by technological marvels that great content is still difficult and expensive to produce. The proliferation of television channels offering cheap to produce content is clear evidence of that.

The central chapters provide checklists and examples for the principles on which the majority of content rests. Topics include:
•Creating content and the importance of editorial (since 'even the best writer needs an editor')
•Information architecture as the foundation upon which a web site is built and developed
•Principles for good navigation design
•Content layout and design.

Content Critical is particularly scathing about headlines and summaries: 'Most headings and summaries on the Internet are poor. Headings often give you very little clue as to what the document is actually about.' Nor does it pull its punches when it comes to common stupidities: 'At all costs avoid "intro" or "splash" pages. They are a total waste of time.'

The final chapters cover building a web site production team and the publishing strategies required if an organisation is to treat content as a high-value asset rather than as a commodity.

Content Critical can be summed up by a recent Gerry McGovern newsletter: 'Time is our scarcest resource. The less time we have the more our attention span contracts. Write simply. Keep headings, summaries, sentences, paragraphs and documents short. Get to the point. Then stop.'

This is an excellent book that teaches about styles and contents. I find it very helpful for deciding how to provide quality information on my client Web sites. What can be improved about this book is a good discussion on RSS, the tool that get your site contents syndicated and distributed on the Web instantaneously. I also recommend "Free Prize Inside" and "101 Ways to Boost Your Web Traffic, 3rd Edition." These two books address the missing points in the book.

This book is primarily about web site design, although that may not be very obvious from the title. I wish many more web site authors and publishers would read this sort of book, though.

The overall premise is that the job of producing and running a web site has a lot in common with traditional paper publishing. Central to this idea, and the inspiration for the title, is that whatever the site, people actually visit it to read words. Not to look at pictures. Not to admire layout or coo at dynamic navigation menus. To find and read content. Everything else is at best irrelevant, at worst a distracting nuisance or even a reason to leave the site completely.

I wholeheartedly agree with this, and generally follow with the recommendations that the author makes about how to encourage and profit from this understanding: keep things simple, short, and fresh; understand your readers; make it easy to find stuff; treat editing and publishing as key business functions and so on.

What I find slightly disappointing is that the book itself doesn't entirely embody these values. The style is repetitive and often long-winded. As a well-edited web site or a conference presentation this would pack a much more powerful punch. I felt I understood the essential message quite early in the book, and finished reading it mostly out of duty.

At last, content problems no longer have to break the hearts of web designers. Content Critical offers many solutions for making better web sites. Content is so often an after thought (Cut and paste) of web site design, this book clearly states why people are visiting your site (To read) and just how important quality content is. You'll find yourself quoting the easy to understand explanations of XML, search engines, content categorization, navigation design and web site design fundamentals.

How to describe this Book ? Of course it's clear and precise but above all it's :
- Pratical
- Useful
- Pertinent

It clearly describes and demonstrates the two key points of Internet :
- Reader is King
- Be the best servant of the King by giving him what he wants and deserves, contents, stories, facts ...

Create, edit, publish, feedback, modify, publish etc .. is the perpetual cercle what the previously called Webmaster will have to do on his website.

This books will let you understand how to write pertinent content for the Web and how to publish it.
Best suited for ex WebMaster and New Chief Publisher or Head Manager who wants to set up a Content Management Policy.

Reader is King

Written by two guys with real-world tech publishing credentials, this book takes a serious look at the role of quality content and what it takes present it on the web. They make a couple good points:
1. Quality content can create competitive advantage
2. Quality content is difficult and expensive to create.

The best point in the book came early in the first chapter: In an information society, we are all involved in publishing -- whether we are writing an article, a marketing pitch or a sales report. McGovern and Norton make a case for an organization taking its publishing role seriously and creating systems for documenting, improving and sharing the information to foster business relationships and gain competitive advantage. And while the book lays out the structure required for managing content organizationally, it falls short of lessons or examples of how to do it.

They highlight the basics - know the reader, create a publishing strategy, follow an editorial process, and build in ways to measure your success. For anyone with a background in publishing it's rehash. The book is best suited for educating business managers who don't have a publishing background, providing them with a brief understanding of the process and the rational to justify budgeting for the staff required to produce quality content. If you're new to content, it may be worth a read.

I can't think of anyone more clearly focused on the issue of good site content than Gerry McGovern, and I found myself nodding in agreement on every page. For me, it was an important book to read, because, as a copywriter myself, I find the line between 'content' and 'copy' is very hard to discern sometimes. I think it's important for online copywriters to understand the work of content creators, and vice versa.

Best of all, you get the sense with Content Critical that McGovern has a deep, deep knowledge of the subject. And he writes in a way that makes his knowledge accessible to others. Absolutely THE book on creating and managing content online.

In this wonderfully straightforward book, Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton show why the success of your business depends, more and more, on getting "the right content to the right person at the right time." Their book cuts through the dot com hyperbole to show why your content is critical to profit. On the Web, therefore, we are all becoming publishers. With common sense, good humor, and sharp focus, McGovern and Norton give practical step-by-step advice on creating and managing content. I think you'll laugh out loud, as you mark passages to quote to your boss and your team.

Writing for the Web is not the same as writing for print because people read differently on the Web.
Every Web writer and designer needs to learn from the standards, rules and insights that this book delivers. It's the first book that understands that the number one thing people do on the Web is reading.

Dear Readers.

Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton have nearly restored my faith in "computer books" and I've bought hundreds of them.

But this bright red-covered CONTENT CRITICAL document I'm holding in my hand isn't exactly like any of the other ones, is it?

The authors write in clear, straightforward, Standard English. Do you have any idea how rare that is? It is so pleasant to read good, useful ideas without the necessity of untangling acronyms and technobable.

This book is the real stuff.

Quick examples of straight talk:
"Search functions on many individual websites are hopelessly inadequate.",
"People are under a lot of pressure today...the average reader doesn't have the time for content that doesn't get to the point."

The authors don't just ask the questions, they follow through. They show you how to fix the glitches, how to organize your content.

That's it.

They speak English and they know how to explain things.

I can't get into greater detail now because I only have a thousand words, and no pictures.

If you are serious about teaching a web class or improving the content of your own pages, this book is well worth the price.

Thanks,

Ken Wade
Associate Professor
Champlain College
Burlington, VT </font>