Colleen Jones’s book, Clout: the ART and SCIENCE of INFLUENTIAL WEB CONTENT, faces this problem from the outset. Right there on the cover it straddles the fence of condescension. Its subtitle invokes the renaissance and dares to use the word “influential”: Influence being the characteristic sought by all who write content for the web but never mentioned explicitly for fear of being judged manipulative.

In that way, Jones’s title teaches us the first lesson the book has to offer: Sometimes it’s better to be explicit than pretend to be something you’re not.

Inside the book, the lessons continue and it’s quickly evident that these are lessons for the less informed content creators. The reader is eased into the concept of content strategy. For the uninformed it’s an introduction while the informed are given some ready-formed arguments to help sell the idea of content strategy to those who need to buy it.

Jones’s book is a primer for content strategy, focussing more on creating content with a taste for the planning and analytics that go along with other parts of the strategy. She describes in appropriate detail why creating the right sort of content is difficult and how it’s a job that is never really finished.

Important for any introductory book, and successfully achieved by Jones, is informing the reader that there is still so much to learn before becoming an expert. Throughout Clout, she refers to the other leaders in content strategy like Ann Rockley, Kristina Halvorson and Erin Kissane, and she prescribes further reading into areas of marketing, planning, heuristics and analytics.

In Australia we’re particularly bad at explicit instruction. The title garnered some judgement amongst colleagues and judgemental looks on public transport. Our attitude is often “what could a book tell me about what I do?” The answer is: “A lot. Now, shut up and read.”

Clout puts the concept of content strategy into perspective for those who do it on a daily basis and those who are new to the idea. For those of us who work in the field, it serves as a reminder of what it is we’re trying to achieve and who to talk about it to those who have no idea.

The frame of both sites will be pretty similar. We were thinking of different colour schemes [...] as a way of demarcating the two sites.

We haven’t got an exact style in mind, but something relaxed and modern without going over the top – Web 1.5 if you like.

— source: email to Zepol (emphasis added for this post)

The rest of the brief detailed the content separation between Soupgiant and Big Red Tin. We wanted the design to come from the designer to fit the content, not from a committee to fit some other agenda.

In the context of this site’s design, the exact interpretation of Web 1.5 was left to Christa’s devices. As should the exact interpretation of any design brief.

To me, web 1.5 means something like: dump all the cliches of Web 2.0 design, at the same time keep the good bits

“A good bit” may be a feature that is used frequently, such as oversized footers, because it adds something for users of the site. Cliches are those design tricks that add nothing but appear on every second web site, such as elements with faded backgrounds and rounded corners.

It strikes me, as a developer, it must be said that the definition of design is something similar: dump all the cliches and keep all the good bits

Failing to do so risks rendering you a regurgitator, not a designer.

There are search engines, like Google, and Search Engine Optimisation experts who will give you advice on how to possibly get to the top of search engine results pages. The truth is that there is no magic wand to wave to get you to the top of Google’s listings.

Google explains its search algorithms and techniques used for pushing results to the tops of their pages. It’s clear, that there are so many different factors that go into their algorithms there is only one way to really get noticed: Earn It.

When first setting out to build the site, ask the following questions:

• Why do I need a website for my business?
• What are my goals for the website?
• Who is going to use the website?
• What are people going to do once they’re there?

You might just be building a website to tell people about your business. Is that enough? Should a website just replace an ad in the yellow pages? If so then you might need to invest in online advertising to get people to your site. The content is what will ultimately bring people to your website and if all you have is a photo of some of your products and an address and phone number, you will be overlooked.

Website content is a lot more than just an “About Us” page. You need to work out ways and reasons for other people to link to your site. A large part of how search engines measure the importance of your site is how many other sites link to yours and in what context.

What you need to concentrate on first, though, is building the content to make sure your business gets the most out of the website. Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Live Search all have content guidelines to help you start thinking about what you should include and exclude.

Building a website for your business is one of the best ways to learn more about how your business works and where it’s going. In the coming weeks we’ll start answering the questions raised in this post and then we’ll move on to other ways to put your website in the best position possible.