HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8. Content
So far, we've focused almost exclusively on the markup of the page and relatively little on the content. Markup
may be where the code is, but content is why readers come to a site in the first place. Chances are there are
some significant improvements you can make in your content too that will pay immediate dividends.
Correct Spelling
Check all text with a spell checker.
In the new milennium, the inteligent playright endeavers to
avoid the embarassment that arises from superceding good
judgement with exceedingly dificult to spell words of foriegn
derivasion at every occurence.
In the new millennium, the intelligent playwright endeavors to
avoid the embarrassment that arises from superseding good
judgment with exceedingly difficult to spell words of foreign
derivation at every occurrence.
Motivation
Proper spelling makes a site appear more professional. It enhances the trust readers have in your site. Sites
that can't spell look bad and drive away readers. This is especially critical for any site attempting to close a sale
with a visitor. Web surfers have learned to associate poor spelling (and grammar) with hackers and impostors.
They are far less likely to hand over a credit card number to a site that's full of spelling errors.
Proper spelling also improves search engine placement. You get no Google juice for a term you've misspelled
(unless everyone else is misspelling it, too).
Potential Trade-offs
None.
Mechanics
Most decent HTML editors, such as BBEdit and Dreamweaver, have built-in spell checkers. By all means, use
them. Unlike the spell checkers built into products such as Microsoft Word, they're smart enough to realize that
kbd is misspelled but <kbd> isn't. Make sure all people editing any page on your site have their spell checker
turned on and running so that it draws a little squiggly red line under every misspelled word as soon as it's
typed. Do not give writers the opportunity to forget to spell-check their content before submitting it.
Of course, for the content that already exists on your site, you'll need something a little more automated. It's
well worth spending a day or two on a complete and thorough proofread of a site. If you don't have a solid day,
work on one page at a time, but by all means, devote some effort and energy to this.
The trick is to generate a good custom dictionary that matches your site and all its unique terms, brand names,
proper names, and other words the default dictionary does not contain. Although you can certainly check each
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