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#205 2008-09-16 12:38:51
Re: TxP.com home page
zero wrote:
If site creation and content publishing done right with maximum efficiency is your cup of tea, Textpattern is for you.
If you want to make that argument, then we could just as easily say we left out the developers who want to extend Txp, and we can’t add a third interest in the string (e.g.,… If site creation and content publishing and yadda yadda done… ) or it sounds clumsy (it already sounds a bit clumsy with two, especially repeating the word “publishing” in the total pitch).
I think if we cover the audience bases in a single bound, we get the best ring tone.
Maybe…
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Textpattern is a versatile, elegant and easy-to-use content management system. It is the catalyst between imagination and reality in web publishing. If sites done right with maximum efficiency is your cup of tea, Textpattern is for you.
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By making it fundamental like that, there’s no separation of audience. What are you using Txp for? To have a website, regardless of any other secondary objective. I think by saying “maximum efficiency” it’s implied that it will be easy (according to the pitch) whether you want to design, extend, or simply write. No need to spell out what is already implied, IMHO.
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#206 2008-09-16 12:48:16
Re: TxP.com home page
I thought it was better yesterday. Something like:
Textpattern is a versatile, elegant and easy-to-use content management system. It is the catalyst between imagination and reality in web publishing. Textpattern is for people who want sites done right with maximum efficiency.
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#207 2008-09-16 12:59:06
Re: TxP.com home page
Or…
Textpattern is for those who want great sites with the least amount of effort.
It’s just coming down to semantics now. The only thing left is deciding which rolls of the tongue better, and that is likely going to be a show of hands vote, unless our star copy writer shows up to dazzle us.
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#208 2008-09-16 13:19:29
Re: TxP.com home page
zero wrote:
perhaps we’ve been ignoring the importance of this other audience
And perhaps whittling it down to something too generic without (relevant) ‘standout’ words in both meta tags and copy ignores the importance of yet another audience member: the search engine. A generic — yet factual and politically correct — statement becomes one-in-a-pool-of-many-systems all using similar words.
When all CMS’ are equal in the manner in which they present their public ‘textual’ face to search engines, what matters in terms of people finding TXP is popularity/quantity of inbound links; and we know how that reflects on the little guy!
/me flicks through phone book for “specialists in copy writing for Textpattern”
EDIT: P.S. there are some excellent thoughts from Kevin Potts in the lower half of that link up there.
Last edited by Bloke (2008-09-16 13:24:03)
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#209 2008-09-16 13:26:03
Re: TxP.com home page
Bloke wrote:
And perhaps whittling it down to something too generic without (relevant) ‘standout’ words in both meta tags and copy ignores the importance of yet another audience member: the search engine.
Good point, but unless Google has changed things, they put emphasis on headers before body copy. Being this is just the pitch and not true copy I don’t think simplicity is hurting anything in this case. The home page has headers, and keywords under those headers will be where to make it count.
I could go downstairs and ask the SEO folks, but I think it’s safe to say.
Ed. Looking at Kevin’s list of terms, we seem to be OK here having “content management system” and even better “web publishing.” Not bad being the pitch is as short as it is.
Last edited by Destry (2008-09-16 13:33:11)
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#210 2008-09-16 13:33:06
Re: TxP.com home page
Destry wrote:
unless Google has changed things, they put emphasis on headers before body copy.
Okerly dokerly.
As you were!
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#211 2008-09-16 14:05:03
Re: TxP.com home page
Something was telling me you were being too nice, Bloke, so I dug around and though I couldn’t find anything from the horses mouth, I did find this friendly bit of text from here under the “Body Text” section…
…it’s going to be a long time before there is anything more important on your webpage than the actual words in your body text. It’s easy to get caught up in metrics like “keyword density” when writing copy for your page, but the best advice I can give is just to write naturally. Do your keyword research beforehand, decide what your subject is going to be and then forget about your keyword targets and just write about your subject. You’ll find that doing this will automatically seed your keywords thoughout the piece without sounding forced and you’ll become a much better writer as a result.
I stand corrected on what has weight, though he does say headers are important too. Still, I think were OK with a short, concise pitch and let the rest of the copy carry the SEO load.
Last edited by Destry (2008-09-16 14:06:31)
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#212 2008-09-16 14:42:30
Re: TxP.com home page
Excellent article, well found. I agree with your header/copy analysis.
The article certainly sums up what I believe are the key factors in SE placement. Although I’ve not perfected my copy yet, similar principles have thus far done (#1) me (#9) no (#5) harm (#28) in placement terms, even given the limited audience my site attracts (i.e. other weirdos!)
Good to see that our very own net-carver is the top hit for txp plugins; well done, sir, you’re a true champion for the cause! [though when the core site updates are over and the dust settles, I’d like to think Textpattern Resources — or whatever it will be called — gives him a run for his money :-) Either way, TXP wins so it’s all good]
Last edited by Bloke (2008-09-16 14:43:18)
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#213 2008-09-16 16:14:04
Re: TxP.com home page
But remember that it’s also said that homepages aren’t too relevant, seo-valuable for positioning (as least, compared to inner pages). Yeah, I should have to look where I’ve read this, but it stands pretty clear most homepages don’t have as valuable content as the inner page. And search engines already know this. Homepage content is usually “poor”: it’s not fixed, it changes frequently (on most sites), it doesn’t have a permanent link.
As an analogy: in a gold mine, the gold is not on the surface, but on the depth of the mountain.
Probably, in SEO terms and for SEO purposes, the most valuable thing on a homepage is not the content (the copy) itself but the links to inner (deeper, really findable) content. Probably, search crawlers look for inner links on homepage more than indexing the homepage content itself.
But then, the mantra is: “write/design/develop for your visitors, not for robots”. So, for the homepage, a good, balanced copy with proper linking will probably satisfy search engines.
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#214 2008-09-16 16:31:48
Re: TxP.com home page
I’m more concerned about the main audience for the homepage content, because Destry and zero have been dialoging about it (and I’ve talked about it on some of my latest previous post, but being that I talk too much in a very baroque style it may have been difficult to understand me).
It will prabably be hard to come with a phrase (being it a descriptive, or factoids, or catch-phrase, blurb, whatever) that fits/aims the three main audiences: webdesigners, developers, and end-users (usually, our clients).
The elevator pitch should be something generic, that could catch anyone looking for an open source CMS solution.
I liked the one suggested by Destry.
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Textpattern is a versatile, elegant and easy-to-use content management system. It is the catalyst between imagination and reality in web publishing. If sites done right with maximum efficiency is your cup of tea, Textpattern is for you. Ah, and it’s open source.
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But let’s not stop in that little chunk of content that just says the very basics about Textpattern (but at the same time, hopefully, it’s attractive for all audience).
The visitor already read it, and keeps scrolling down on the home page.
- Features
- Showcase
- Support
They are ok, they also say the basics, and almost the same that every other open source CMS circa 2008 could offer to them: a list of features, a list of well done web-standards websites, and a forum/FAQs/docs/ecosystem.
Again, we are in year 2008, audience is smarter, (markets are getting smarter): so, they are expecting to find some basic features/ecosystem around an open source project/CMS solution. Visitors are potential Textpattern users who are evaluating CMSs out there.
So, aren’t we losing some homepage real state on things that visitors already expect to find? (things that also are linked on the main navigation on top).
My suggestion is: a new row of three boxes, directly aimed to the three main audiences:
- For the end-user
- For the web designer
- For the developer
Each box could have a mini-elevator pitch for its aimed audience and a basic list of features which will attract each audience.
Example:
- the For the end-user box will talk about Textile, the languages, just write, how easy is to publish/edit content, image/file management, built-in search, multi-authors, import content from other CMS, clean URLs, SEO, etc.
- the For the web designer box will talk about: txp tags, the empty canvas, the clean/valid HTML/CSS, the separation of content and presentation, the 2-minutes installation process, the plugins, etc.
- the For the developer box will talk about: the plug-in ecosystem, the extendability of TxP code, jQuery, the dev list, etc.
This new three boxes could replace the current ones (as I already said the don’t seem to add nothing that isn’t already expected by visitors) or be added as a new line of boxes (above or below, I would prefer above).
Destry wrote:
Speaking as a dedicated user of Txp since summer 2004, I almost never go to the .com website except to visit the FAQs from time-to-time, and the occasional download (when I’m not using SVN). Even the weblog is off my radar for lack of compelling info (no offense meant, but my time is limited these days and my RSS runneth over, though I do have the RSS live-bookmarked). So IMHO, we do not need weblog scratch and forum blather polluting the home page. I’m sure most other heavy users don’t loiter on the home page either. The home page, rather, should be crafted with new people in mind, and with obvious links to the routine stuff if they want it.
What I said above, it’s related to this statement. We don’t want weblogs/forum posts cluttering the homepage, but we may also not want to waste homepage real-state space on almost-obvious things.
I’ll say it again, I like the black/white images, but love Blokes idea of something a bit more Sin City, where the images use hints of yellow, gold, sepia, or whatever here and there. Not too much, just hints. That would really be sharp as far as imagery goes.
I like this idea too. A black and white copy/design with content emphasized using gold/yellow/sepia colors.
I think the “Reasons not to try” Txp is fun idea, but I personally would not use it here; it’s a bit too campy, and being too campy seems (to me) contrary to what this whole redesign is all about — looking more serious to the rest of the world. (Don’t take the word “serious” too literally, but I think you know what I’m trying to say.)
Yeah, this could be on an inner page, directly linked from the home page. And I would link both: the “Reasons to try” (serious), and the “Reasons not to try” (fun).
Last edited by maniqui (2008-09-16 16:33:37)
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#215 2008-09-16 17:08:42
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#216 2008-09-16 18:09:56
Re: TxP.com home page
zero wrote:
I’ve rearranged Reason to Try. What do you think?
Nice separation into the target audiences. Good stuff.
btw, with permission and a suitable showcase site, should we add Neko’s testimonial to the “Designers say…” rotation list:
“someone on a newsgroup mentioned TXP. I said “WTF? Never heard of it”, I came here, installed it, worked ever since and loved every minute of it.”
IMO, that kinda sums up how I think a fair few people might find TXP (I certainly did it that way). And it might give the impression to first-time visitors that “even though I’ve not heard of it, neither had this guy and now he loves it. Maybe it is for me…”
Yes? No?
The smd plugin menagerie — for when you need one more gribble of power from Textpattern. Bleeding-edge code available on GitHub.
Txp Builders – finely-crafted code, design and Txp
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