Content Insights Blog

During recent interviews for Phase 2 of our Content & Credibility Study, we have been asking people what web content they find credible and why. As part of that process, I have observed many people’s opinions of search results listings and what makes a result click-worthy. It’s made me think about the importance of a certain content element – the meta description. During our testing, I’ve seen just how important this information is in the decision-making process as users scan search results.

What Is a Meta Description?

The all-important search results listing, or “snippet” in Google speak, is made up of roughly 155 characters of descriptive text that tells users what content is on a page and how it meets their search query. The information displayed in the results listing is created to best match the user’s search terms and can be pulled from a variety of sources, including the meta description. (Other sources could be the Open Directory Project or content from the page itself.) Here's an example of a search result for Content Science. The meta description is displayed under the URL and file format information.   Read More >

Years ago, I attended a lecture at UNC-Chapel Hill where the featured speaker was Noble Prize winner, James D. Watson. He told the story of how a textbook and a chance encounter led him to a historic scientific discovery.  

I remember the date of his discovery well. It was February 27, 1953 and he was very close to solving a long-standing scientific riddle. An error in his nucleic acid textbook had him running in circles to place hydrogen atoms in the right order. Then, by sheer luck, a visiting professor from Caltech pointed out to Watson the textbook he was reading was wrong, and a day later Watson discovered the structure of DNA is a double helix.  Read More >

Recently, I reviewed the article “Highway to Health” about Ford's experimentation with addressing the very different needs of their older and younger customers. So, I was eager to read the New York Times article “As Young Lose Interest in Cars, G.M. Turns to MTV for Help” that discusses similar concerns at General Motors (G.M.) for Chevrolet. Here's the essence of the article and what it means for content.

What I Liked

The article startled me with statistics like these:  Read More >

I recently had the distinct pleasure of becoming a MINI Cooper owner. 



(That's me looking happy.)

The delightful experience of picking out and getting to know my MINI got me thinking about content architecture in a new way. Architecture connects content strategy and content management. Because architecture isn't visible and might seem dry, it sometimes gets short shrift. Getting the MINI reminded me why architecture deserves more of our attention.  Read More >

This very short post appeared on my personal blog. I've had a few requests for it, and Erin Kissane kindly quoted it in The Elements of Content Strategy. (If you haven't read that book, give yourself a treat and do so right away.)

I recently read the book Neuro Web Design. Useful? Yes. Clear explanation of psychology in persuasive websites? Yes. All you need to know about persuasive websites? No. And that's okay—even good.  Read More >