Our content strategy
Our Content Strategy explains how we make and share helpful content. It explains how we create it, check it, and put it online.
We want everyone to be able to use our websites and online services easily. That is why we have an Accessibility Strategy for Content to help make our content work well for people with different needs. We also have helpful tips for making documents easier to read and use on our Creating accessible documents page.
Making things as simple and clear as possible
We want to make things simple and clear so people can find what they need and get things done easily.
We plan our web pages so they show up well in search results. We do this by using clear page titles, helpful headings, and putting important words near the top of the page. This helps people find what they are looking for quickly.
We tell people exactly what they can do or find on each page. We suggest using the website’s search box to find things.
We try to write in a way that sounds active and friendly. This makes the information easier to understand.
If a page has lots of different things on it, we split it into sections. That way, each part is easier to explain and find.
We link to other pages instead of repeating the same information.
If we do not offer something, we don’t talk about it. That way, people can find the right organisation more easily when they search online.
User needs and customer journey
User needs
‘User needs’ are the needs that users have of the council. These are the users of somerset.gov.uk. Every part of our website design and architecture, and every piece of published content, should meet a valid user need. People visit our website to help them fulfil a certain task, like paying for Council Tax or checking waste collection days.
Writing good user needs means we can create content to help them do the things they need to. We try to follow the GOV.UK guide to help us with user needs.
Customer journey
A customer customer journey is the path a visitor takes when they use a website. It starts when they first find our site and ends when they do something like pay for a service or apply for something. By mapping out this journey, we can see how people move through our site, spot any problems, and make the experience better for users.
How people read webpages
People read web content differently from how they read on paper.
Readers tend to scan web information looking for what they need. They do not read every word. Instead, they read and recognise specific words they are looking for or particular words that stand out for them. Research shows that people only actually read between 20 and 30 per cent of a webpage.
People using websites usually read in an ‘F-shape pattern’. They scan across the top of the webpage, then down the left side and across to find what they need. And the sideways scan gets slightly shorter every time.
This means that content should be written so people can easily scan it – with a clear title at the top, a meaningful description and important words and phrases in the first paragraph.
Reading age
Reading age is a measure of how easy or hard content is to read. The higher the reading age, the more difficult it will be to understand.
GOV.UK recommends a reading age of 9 years old. On Somerset Council websites we aim for a reading age of 9 to 12 years. But for more technical pages, like planning the reading age may be slightly higher.
There are many readability tests available – for example, the Flesch-Kincaid readability test.
Many website users have a low reading age. This may be due to the level of their literacy skills, or because English is not their first language. We cannot know, and should not assume, what our audience will know, understand or be familiar with.
We understand that different webpages have different audiences, but we do not always know who they are or what their abilities and background knowledge are. A page about support for businesses might have a different audience to one about choosing a school, but we cannot assume what those differences might be.
It is important to make sure content is easier to read and understand for everyone by writing simply and concisely. This makes it easier for all users to understand, not just those with a low reading age.