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Search Engine Journal
Information architecture and search engine optimization share many of the same goals.
One of those shared goals is findability. Can people find the content they’re looking for, whether they’re outside your website or already using it?
Here's what happens to your SEO efforts when your IA sucks, some common SEO IA mistakes, and how to make your IA and SEO work together. These tips all come from Ryan Jones, associate director of SEO for SapientRazorfish and the mastermind of SEO satire site WTFSEO, who spoke at Pubcon SFIMA in Fort Lauderdale.
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I'd Rather Be Writing
Adobe FrameMaker has a new release (called Adobe FrameMaker 2017) that has a ton of improvements toward simplicity and usability. Some of the new features include new responsive HTML5 layouts, auto-complete search, more intuitive menus for authors, and more. Tools like FrameMaker that allow you to focus on content (instead of worrying about creating your own search, site design, pdf output, navigation menu, and more) provide a huge win for both technical writers and companies. The company's documentation tends to be what matters most to both users and product owners.
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Business 2 Community
Jeff Korhan writes: "In this episode, I'm going to share my writing process that has evolved over the years by borrowing secrets from great writers, including novelists, non-fiction authors, editors, screenwriters, copywriters, bloggers and more.
Like any other activity, writing must follow a process. It's the only way to consistently achieve results."
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Wylie Communications
After 50 years on writers’ bookshelves, Elements of Style — aka "Strunk and White" — still offers perhaps the best collection of techniques for compressing copy:
- Use the active voice.
- Put statements in positive form.
- Avoid a succession of loose sentences.
- Express coordinate ideas in similar form.
- Keep related words together.
- In summaries, keep to one tense.
And, most famously: Omit needless words.
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STC
STC would like your feedback! If you haven't renewed your STC membership, we want to hear from you to understand how we can improve the services we provide our current members. We are asking for your help in completing a short survey about your STC membership and whether there is a reason you have not yet renewed with us. The survey has five questions and should only take a couple of minutes to complete. As a special thanks for participating, we are offering you the chance to enter to win a free registration to a live webinar of your choosing (a $59 value). If you renew today, you will also receive 10 percent off the cost your membership. Click here to renew, and to see our membership categories and rates.
STC
If you are focusing on a future in technical communication, the Society for Technical Communication can provide you with the tools and resources you need to support your developing career. Join today and save 10 percent off the regular price of your membership. Let STC support your career development through professional education, networking, certification, and more! Make sure you have the professional resources you need to bolster your career in 2017! To see all our membership categories and rates, click here.
STC
Bernard Aschwanden and Liz Herman's course, "How to Develop an Online Course: Turning Your Expertise into Content for Self-Publishing or Corporate Support," runs from March 14 through April 18, 2017 (Tuesdays) from 10:30-11:30 a.m. EDT (GMT 4). This course will allow attendees to offer expertise in an area of interest to other communicators and their organizations; add value to their organizations and reduce training costs by developing an online course; and develop meaningful content to present to others.
STC
Wouldn’t you like to expand your company’s visibility and customer base? The Summit Expo Hall is considered the premier event to unveil and demonstrate new and exciting products, services, and technologies. We bring the customers to you with unopposed exhibit hours and networking events. Space is limited and is selling out quickly. Click here for more information.
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STC
Sean Stevenson's course, "Doing Business with the Government: Preparing Effective Proposals," runs from March 29 through May 3, 2017 (Wednesdays) from Noon-1 p.m. EDT (GMT-4). This course will allow attendees to walk into a proposal at any stage and know what to do. The class tackles a sample Request for Proposal (RFP), with attendees generating products for all the proposal development phases: kickoff, pink team, red team, and delivery. Along the way, we explore how you can use your skills as a technical communicator and where you need to grow. Attendees will also learn the different phases of proposal writing, and how writing proposals fits into the broader business development life-cycle; discuss the fundamentals of government acquisition, and how to influence the government to choose your proposal.
STC
The 2017 Summit closing general session will feature a live taping of a brand new UX web show called Fix My App! Summit attendees will watch as users attempt to use a startup's new app for the first time during a usability test. It's easy to know how to use a product after using it a few times, but using it for the first time is when the complications are revealed. After the usability test is complete, a team of user experience experts will collaborate to solve the major problems and advise the app's creators on best UX practices for their app and why the UX problems occurred in the first place.
There are only 4 weeks left to get the lowest Summit registration rate. Register by 31 March before the full price goes into effect. Don't forget to reserve your room at the Gaylord National Resort by April 7 to get the reduced STC room rate.
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STC
We want every STC member to have a say in the future of the Society, which is why we encourage you to vote in the STC election, which is now open. You have the opportunity to vote for the STC's next vice president, treasurer, directors, and nominating committee members, and you'll have a hand in STC's future in doing so. If you haven't already, we urge you to check out the STC Election Page, which provides further information about the election, along with the final slate of candidates and their bios.
You should have received an email on February 27 from our election administrator, Intelliscan, with your individual ballot link and instructions on how to vote. If you didn't receive your election email, please email james.cameron@stc.org before the election closes on March 10 to ensure you get your ballot.
The Content Wrangler
A passion for learning is the most important qualification for an effective technical writer. You can become an ace technical writer by fine-tuning the way you learn. How you go about learning will make the difference between good results and great results.
Focus on increasing your mastery in: learning technology, writing and working with others.
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Econsultancy
In his seminal blog post, "Why content marketing is not a sustainable strategy," Mark Schaefer defined the term "content shock" as the time when "increasing volumes of content intersect our limited human capacity to consume it."
That is, the time will (or indeed already has) come when the total amount of human attention is not sufficient to consume the content that is created.
What this means for brands is that, after content shock, the content that you spend your valuable time producing may never actually be read by anyone and could be a total waste of time and effort.
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Forbes
Poor web content is the silent killer of online sales leads and revenue generation — silent because the companies publishing poor content do not realize it is substandard.
So the very first order of business in helping your staff or freelance copywriter write for the web is to make sure you have someone in a position of leadership who knows how to evaluate web content and communicate publishing standards to the writer. In most organizations, this person is the editor. We will return to the editing function later in this article, but for now, let's quickly review the criteria of good web writing.
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