06 / Content
Eight things a page has to state before anything else
This is the list we audit against, and the list we write to. A page that answers all eight in plain sentences is usable by a person, a search engine and an assistant. A page that answers none of them cannot be rescued by markup.
- Who — the legal entity, its other names, where it is, its registration number, who is accountable
- What — the service or product, in one sentence a stranger could repeat
- For whom — the buyer, by situation rather than by industry label
- What it can do — scope, in a list, with the price model beside it
- What it cannot do — what is out of scope, what is designed but not built, what is not offered at all
- What is different — stated as a verifiable fact about the work, not as an adjective
- What the evidence is — the measurement, the customer case, the award, with its source linked
- When it was last updated — a visible date that is true, generated from the change rather than typed
BEFORE
hero: "solutions for your business"
services: inside a slider image
price: in a PDF
founded: 2019 on one page, 2018 on another
updated: nowhere
a machine has to guess
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AFTER
hero: what it does, for whom, first sentence
services: a table: included, excluded, price
price: amount and conditions, in the text
founded: one source, shown everywhere
updated: shown, and true
a machine does not have to guess
The writing rules that follow from this are short. Say the fact once and link to it elsewhere rather than restating it. Put anything with more than two attributes in a table. Distinguish designed, built and available every time, because an assistant that reads “we offer” will tell your prospect you offer it. Answer each heading’s question in the first paragraph under it. And never write a sentence whose only content is that the company is good; a machine cannot use it, and a person has read it before.