Content or Presentation - Which is More Important?
By Anna Harle
Do you keep your site dynamic? Is it the presentation that is dynamic,
or is it the content? Is it the content that converts, or is it the
presentation?
Every experienced (and even most inexperienced) webmasters know that
content is king. And, most webmasters also realize that presentation
is very important, as well. However, when it comes down to the question
of which is MORE important, most webmasters probably haven't really
thought that through. I mean- everyone knows you need both, so what's
the big deal, right? Wrong!
Even though content is king, presentation is crucial, as well as an
unquestionable necessity for a successful site.
So, then, why exactly do people always say "Content is King"? Because
it's an alliteration - and alliterations sound good, even if they're
not always totally true. And, because it's also true that visitors
won't continue to come back to a Web site that remains static. While
people may be easily entertained by the same stuff again and again
when young, adults on the other hand, need a more varied menu of items.
If you build the site, they may very well come, however, if you don't
change it, you can be sure they won't be back. For those who remember
the not-so-distant-past, where all a webmaster had to do was put up
a simple Web page with some basic information about the company, along
with the phone number and business hours, and the site got a little
local media coverage and was easy to list in the search engines without
getting lost in the shuffle. Now, however, this is no longer the case.
Most visitors want to see regular updates, and if one site isn't providing
them with what they want, a simple click of the mouse takes them immediately
to another site, which might better fulfill their needs.
As far as content goes, it is easily created or bought on a regular
basis. Making the minor, but necessary, changes to the HTML, and then
uploading the files is no big deal, as any webmaster knows.
Now, consider the other side of the equation-- presentation. Think
about going to a good restaurant. You order a steak and you find a
sprig of parsley on the side. While parsley is supposed to help cleanse
the breath after a meal, most people don't eat it -- and most restaurants
know this. So, why do they still serve that sprig of parsley? For
a better presentation -- to make the steak look more appetizing--
of course! And it works! It dresses up the plate and makes everything
look better.
Web sites need to be handled in the same manner -- sans the parsley.
Oh, and the steak isn't needed either, unless it's a Web site for
a restaurant- and then a picture of the steak will suffice.
Presentation allows your visitor to be enticed into your site, and
they will appreciate your content even more. However, no matter how
appealing the presentation on a site, if the content consists of large
slowly loading graphics, and/or confusing navigation, and/or tasteless
and gaudy colors, no visitors will hang around for very long.
There is no single "right approach" to presentation, on a Web site.
It all depends on the audience. Many sites try to use all the latest
effects for Web pages, such as Shockwave and Java, but for most sites,
all that fancy stuff is quite unnecessary and perhaps even detrimental.
Using all the newfangled techniques available today for Web sites,
may result in a Web page that takes too long to download to a visitor's
computer, and if that visitor is still on a slower, dial-up connection
(and many are!), they'll go find a competitor's site, instead.
These fancy new Web site items are appropriate, if a webmaster knows
that all visitors to that site are using a fast, always-on connection
(cable modem, DSL, etc.), or if the site in question is advertising
something that requires the use of this new technology. Otherwise,
it's not wise (yet!) to use this (cool) new technology -- except sparingly
-- no matter how good it might look with the proper Internet connection.
Patience is a virtue -- at some point in the future everyone will
have super quick access to the Internet, and at that time, file size
will no longer matter. But, until that time comes, there will be a
constant battle to reduce the size of files, (text documents, pictures,
sounds and so on), to the smallest possible, without sacrificing quality.
Using images is still the most common way of sprucing up the presentation
of a site on the Web. With that in mind, here are some quick tips
to shrink the download time.
It's fairly common knowledge (even to the Internet impaired) that
small graphics load faster than big ones. However, anyone surfing
the Web will notice that many Web designers seem to have forgotten
this -- at least some of the time.
It's important to use GIFs and JPEGs appropriately. While both of
these graphics formats are used to compress images over the Internet,
they both have good points and bad points. GIFs are best used for
simple images, such as buttons and small icons, etc. -- even company
logos. They have the ability to show up to 256 colors in a single
image, but can be made smaller by reducing the number of colors. Another
major plus is that they have the ability to be interlaced (browsers
will show a low resolution version while the high resolution image
is loading,) and they support transparency, allowing part of the background
to show through. JPEGs, on the other hand, display thousands of colors,
but a big minus is that they do not currently support interlacing
or transparency. Though both of those attributes may soon be implemented,
it doesn't help the Web designer who needs those characteristics now.
Another minus for the JPEG is that they use what is referred to as
a "lossy" form of compression, which means that they throw away information
to reduce their size. Thus, saving a JPEG of a JPEG is like making
a copy of a copy -- you lose something (in quality) each time.
Since most of the wait time, for an image to appear on a Web page-
is due to the file transfer time to the visitor's hard drive, reusing
images is a good idea, as once the image is on the hard drive, it
displays fairly quickly. Besides cutting down the wait time, it's
human nature to feel comfortable with things that are familiar, so
by occasionally reusing images, the visitor's wait time is lessened
and a feeling of comfort is created. The first way to start making
visitors feel comfortable at the site is by creating a company logo
and using it on every page.
While this article doesn't go deeply into each of these ideas presented,
it gives a foundation for starting.
Always remember to balance interesting and changing content with a
quality presentation. That will ensure that a Web site is well on
its way to becoming a well-traveled (and well-liked) site. And visitors
won't be rushing over to the competition!
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